Becoming self sufficient from scratch-my diary

wildlifeservices

rowsew wrote: »

Hello

I've been reading all the posts with much interest. I've always been interested in gardening - especially where food is concerned! We moved to back to my homelands in Dorset nearly 3 years ago, and we are lucky enough to have a garden big enough for the tinies (2 pre-schoolers), 2 cats, and Hurrah - now 5 chickens. After a false start (I've had major back problems after having the children, and ended up having surgery last year :mad: which slowed everything down) I feel like this may finally be the year we are more successful at providing a good quantity of home grown food. Last year was a wash out apart from salad leaves, cherry tomatoes - before the blight - and courgettes - but even that small contribution made a difference to the food bills and the diet.

This year I am growing my potatoes in those lovely Morrisons shopping bags (much cheaper than the gardeners 'potato gro-bags' - small ones are 28p and the large ones 38p - I figure 2 maincrop or 3 salad type seed potatoes to each bag. I have started off lettuce, peas, tomatoes, parsley, courgettes, pumpkins so far in the mini-greenhouse, and have planted out my beetroot seedlings and onion sets just yesterday. Also last years strawberry runners went into a big pot with a new apple tree (Russet - yummy) at the weekend so I am hoping for a fruit bonanza. The cherry tree we planted 3 years ago looks like it might actually fruit this year, but I am praying that the wind will not blow off all the blossom...... We live near the sea and the winds are a killer sometimes!

The chickens are busy rotavating the garden without permission, little do they know that Chickenopolis awaits in the next week - and they will be stuck in their run without a fence to fly over! As we are moving our shed this week, I will also be investigating the contents of our 2 composting bins, which have to be moved too - hopefully there's something good in there.

If you have a local Horticultural society, I suggest you see what sort of things they do - ours has a co-op kind of shop, lots of cheap plants to buy - if your veg seeds don't take - and loads of people with gardening experience whose brains you can pick. Local allotment associations can be good too, even if you can't get an allotment.

Anyway, a long and rambling post, sorry, but best wishes to everyone here, and happy growing.

If you can't get an allotment, try joining Landshare through the River Cottage website. River Cottage also has loads of useful information about growing veg, rearing animals and foraging for food, and their Handbooks are excellent!!

(Text removed by MSE Forum Team)

frugal_fifer

CleanerConscience wrote: »

I use my old loo rolls in the same way as a peat pot. You just need some sort of tray underneath to stop your compost from falling out the bottom. They're great for things like french beans. When the seedlings are ready for planting out just plant the whole loo roll which means you don't disturb the roots. It rots down fine and you can dig it all in when you dig in the bean roots.

I told my neighbour to do this yesterday as well as using her old clear juice bottles to make cloches - she raided her bins straight away.
It is the simple things sometimes that are the most satisfying.:T

hot_saver

Hi everyone...........a very interesting subject and very hot at the moment.

I started growing veg last year - not huge success - but still great enthusiasm! want to do better this year!

Does anyone know where I could get a poly tunnel from - really cheaply - as just taken pay cut from work!!! ...........

also, anyone got any advise for a true novice who would like to have a go at making wine/beer. ie any really fool proof recipes that dont need expensive equipment...
much appreciated

Happy Easter!

Lotus-eater

Best fool proof drink to make, OK it's not beer or wine, but it is alcoholic, is sloegin.

hot_saver

sloegin eh? thanks ...I will look it up!

I hope that I will get a good crop of various veggies this year - also hoping to make the most of the hedgerows......

anyone got any elderflower/berry recipes that work 1st time??
I saw River cottage last year on tv and hugh made some elderflower fizz, but I think he needed special bottles to keep in in - does anyone know if ordinary wine ( or even plastic cola) bottles would do the job??

olliecampbell

hot_saver wrote: »

sloegin eh? thanks ...I will look it up!

I hope that I will get a good crop of various veggies this year - also hoping to make the most of the hedgerows......

anyone got any elderflower/berry recipes that work 1st time??
I saw River cottage last year on tv and hugh made some elderflower fizz, but I think he needed special bottles to keep in in - does anyone know if ordinary wine ( or even plastic cola) bottles would do the job??

Flavoured Gin is very very easy to make:
1 empty 1l bottle
1l of the cheapest, and I mean cheapest, Gin you can find.
500g of fruit and 500g of sugar.

Mix, and then leave to brew for a month or two. The longer the better.

A friend of mine made Elderflower in a couple of buckets I think and then decanted it to old coke bottles...

Gigervamp

hot_saver wrote: »

anyone got any elderflower/berry recipes that work 1st time??
I saw River cottage last year on tv and hugh made some elderflower fizz, but I think he needed special bottles to keep in in - does anyone know if ordinary wine ( or even plastic cola) bottles would do the job??

We made his elderflower champagne recipe last year and the ingredients were out. I'll have a look through my notes, because we also made another batch using a mix of hughs recipe and MIL's recipe. Our second batch was good. Very alcoholic! After only 2 glasses I was sloshed!

DON'T whatever you do, use glass bottles. They have a tendency to explode and you don't want flying shards of glass.
We re-used 2 litre coke bottles, and despite letting the gas out everyday, one bottle still exploded, ripping the front off the wooden chest they were stored in. Luckily, being plastic bottles there was no other damage.

Anyway, if I forget to get my notes, give me a prod!

bonsibabe

can i ask a really daft question - what is a cloche??

we go through loads of plastic bottles each week between the kids and diluting juice and pop for me and OH that I would love to recycle them in some way. we are using some this weekend as watercatchers in the back garden. I have an old crate and we will be using 2l bottles - basically cut the top off and place it back in the bottle upside down (like a funnel). then when it rains, the water will funnel down into the bottle - going to use the water on the garden so that we don't have to get the hoses out!!

thanks!! xx

rowsew

CleanerConscience wrote: »

I use my old loo rolls in the same way as a peat pot. You just need some sort of tray underneath to stop your compost from falling out the bottom. They're great for things like french beans. When the seedlings are ready for planting out just plant the whole loo roll which means you don't disturb the roots. It rots down fine and you can dig it all in when you dig in the bean roots.

I do this with our loo roll inners, kitchen roll and kitchen foil tubes too. They're great for sweet peas, normal peas (as my three year old calls them!), any kind of bean, and sweetcorn. Mostly works best for plants with long roots, although I have cut loo rolls in half to make them into 2 short ones, and used them for lots of other kinds of seeds too. Plus, more use, less waste for the bin man, so it works out well for everyone. They also add fibrous matter to the soil when they break down, adding to the water retention properties. I sit mine in the plastic food trays that our council for reasons unknown refuse to recycle - the kind mushrooms come in are good - anything similar really.

And to bonsibabe - a cloche is a miniature greenhouse - if you use the bottom half of a plastic bottle, and turn it upside down, it will protect a small plant very nicely. Just make sure you've watered it first!

TheBees

Oh Dear .... A few days ago I planted out some dwarf beans in terracotta pots in the garden. They were about 5 inches high with several leaves. To protect them I wrapped some bubble wrap around the cane tripod but having a look at them today I noticed they're looking a bit unhealthy. (pale leaves and a bit droopy.) Trouble is since they went out it's been horrible cold, wet weather and maybe it was too much of a shock for them? I have several more still growing indoors if the ones outside die but I hope someone can suggest what I should do?

My indoor lettuce seeds are just poking through but outside the ones I planted in the growbag have not appeared. (have covered them in a plastic seed tray cover). No sign of the spring onions either.:mad:

I must go outside when it stops raining and have a poke around in our compost bin. It's really full but hard to see what's happening at the bottom.

ROWSEW - WHERE IN DORSET ARE YOU? WE'RE IN DEVON NEAR THE DORSET COAST BORDER ABOUT 5 MILES FROM LYME REGIS? JUST BEING NOSY!



One final question - which side of the garden should I have the vegetable patch on - side a) which gets the sun from around 8am til 2.30pm or side b) which gets it from midday until 5ish?

Hope the weather dries up soon so we can all get outside