The good life tv comedy programme could this be done today

mardatha

Zara, - I'm a lot further north/higher than you, and near me are two places that used to be huge country estates, with the big house, the sawmill, the gamekeeper's cottage/gardener's cottage etc. Both of these estates have walled gardens ( or the remains of )... and both of them used to grow pineapples & melons in Victorian days. And quite a few old country houses here have very old vines, my pal along the road bought a cottage with a 200 yr old vine in the garden. Apparently the Victorians used a south facing wall as plant central heating. If they did it, we can do. It just means a bit more time and woman/hours !

cootambear

ixwood wrote: »

Organic does produce less. There was an organic farmer on Country File and he said he produces half the amount, but the price he gets is double and he doesn't have to spend loads on chemicals.

Good luck to him. If people want to pay double for organics that is their choice. But I dont want a moral crusade against those who choose non organic as promoting unsustainability.

zarazara

mardatha wrote: »

Zara, - I'm a lot further north/higher than you, and near me are two places that used to be huge country estates, with the big house, the sawmill, the gamekeeper's cottage/gardener's cottage etc. Both of these estates have walled gardens ( or the remains of )... and both of them used to grow pineapples & melons in Victorian days. And quite a few old country houses here have very old vines, my pal along the road bought a cottage with a 200 yr old vine in the garden. Apparently the Victorians used a south facing wall as plant central heating. If they did it, we can do. It just means a bit more time and woman/hours !

Ooooooooooooooo Mardatha! I have a south facing wall on a shed and am going to plant an apricot there in the autumn.
I am now forming plans for a "hot bed" ..........melons,pineapples,grapes,peaches.................
a neighbour here [Shropshire] grows peaches and nectrines and Apricots in greenhouses. They are wonderful. Unfortunately I cant have greenhouses [ tiny garden] and wouldnt get PP on the field. Still,might try a fig or something along another wall. .......... lots to think about.

cootambear

ixwood wrote: »

In the sort of oil based society breakdown that you envisage, do you really think you'll be able to sit quietly at home and collect your pension every month? If the government's still around, it won't have any money, and if it does it'll be worthless.

You'll be out in the fields working the land too. Unless you've got a hefty stash of gold sovereigns buried somewhere.

Well whats so bad about oil? Anyway, I seem to remember that the doom mongers were predicting that oil would run out in the late 70`s. What happen was that technology has developed to find new resources, and drilling techniques have imporoved to tap oil thought innaccessible. Again as I have pointed out earlier, those who extrapolate limits from resources today in to the future, always fail to include the worlds most important resource - us.
There are of course other supplies of energy eg nuclear, and others will be developed.

As for my pension, yes if we follow the governments and the greens anti growth and austerity future, we`ll all be scrabbling for tatties in a muddy field in our old age.

mardatha

LOL Coot - that will be full circle for then, cos I was doing just that in my childhood, for pocket money !
ZZ there will be a way of putting up a lean-to kind of thing on a shed maybe ? But I think they used stone walls because stone retains the heat. Anyway it's on my list of things to look into..

annie123

zarazara wrote: »

This is why I am enlarging my veg patch. Yes its hard physical work and in all weathers, but I enjoy it a lot. And i'm going to grow more fruit too. Just wish I could grow melons,tomatoes and opineapples outdoors too.

I grew melons on a hotbed at a college course many many moons ago.
Lots of manure required and anything else you can throw in, basically growing on a large compost heap.
Goggle 'hotbed growing' lots on it.
now I'm not working I'd love a big garden but have to make do with my 10' x 25' and only 4 years left to wait for an allotment!

Really wish I'd paid more attention to my course, wasted on me as a 16 year old. One of the things I thought I wanted to do. I did, I was just too young for all the boring theory that went with it. Put me off for many years

Davesnave

cootambear wrote: »

Well whats so bad about oil?
The price, mainly. Supply & demand will see to it that whatever's left becomes ever more expensive. Millions in Asia and elsewhere want a slice of the action we've enjoyed. Try denying them that!
Anyway, I seem to remember that the doom mongers were There are of course other supplies of energy eg nuclear, and others will be developed.
Yes, but oil is what produces the chemical fertilizers you're so fond of. Oil is what distributes the food. Dearer oil = more expensive food. Dearer oil reduces the cost gap between chemically produced & organically farmed food.
As for my pension, yes if we follow the governments and the greens anti growth and austerity future, we`ll all be scrabbling for tatties in a muddy field in our old age.
Your pension is already spent. Like the man said, 'There's no more money.' We have been partying on borrowed cash, living beyond our means & now it's pay-back time. We are uncompetitive because too many are lazy. Would you want to spend your kids' pensions too?

I'm not an organic food purist, but I like to produce what I can without resort to a large chemical input. I drive a car and use fossil fuels, but I notice how attitudes to fuel use are changing, and how recent price hikes - 30% or so in a year - are affecting the big food retailers, even Mr T. My oil fired Aga will be getting the chop soon.

There has been no significant food inflation for a while, but it will come, along with with a further redistribution of family budgets, especially if the false interest rates currently enjoyed break loose again in a year or two.

If you want to scrabble for potatoes, I have a field. That's my pension. Gold is hard to digest. Photo-voltaic cells on the roof are a better long term investment, methinks.

Davesnave

zarazara wrote: »

Ooooooooooooooo Mardatha! I have a south facing wall on a shed and am going to plant an apricot there in the autumn.
I am now forming plans for a "hot bed" ..........melons,pineapples,grapes,peaches.................
a neighbour here [Shropshire] grows peaches and nectrines and Apricots in greenhouses. They are wonderful. Unfortunately I cant have greenhouses [ tiny garden] and wouldnt get PP on the field. Still,might try a fig or something along another wall. .......... lots to think about.

I think there was a fair bit of heat input from fires built into greenhouse walls for the more exotic fruits. Totally uneconomic, even in the 19th Century! Certainly, the RHS has peaches & nectarines on outdoor walls a few miles from me....and they're looking good this year.

As regards your field, wouldn't a polytunnel be OK as it is a 'temporary structure?' There are ways of building them which don't require PP because they're not 'fixed' to the ground in a planning sense. (though of course they have to be from a practical POV!) See First Tunnels literature.

Even if a polytunnel is out, you could surely make a frame. You have obviously realised that you can get around the PP scenario/change of use thing by having an 'allotment' on your field!

Soubrette

cootambear wrote: »

Who set this limit on population? Sorry I cant provide a reference, but I believe 1 commentator in 1,000 ad said that the world would collapse if population reached 5 million globally. Anyway, we have gone past 30 million to over 65 million, and the sky hasnt fallen in.

Unless you believe that resources are infinite them it's hard to imagine that population can be infinite too

Personally I would like to see more organic foods - I believe it is more less 'efficient' but does create more jobs and I don't believe that is a bad thing.

Sou

zarazara

re oil running out 1970's, I remember people saying we'd be growing tomatoes in our cars as no one would afford the petrol.