really old style living?

mardatha

You're all making me feel bad. My garden front and back, is pretty big and most of it is grass. Because the RV likes cutting grass.............
But I have more veg this summer than I had last one, so I'm moving in the right direction.

zarazara

[
But I have more veg this summer than I had last one, so I'm moving in the right direction.[/QUOTE]
Every little helps!:j

ceridwen

parsonswife8 wrote: »

I have just been reading this online. Very interesting and so good for the kids to learn to live like this..

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/Green/3108456/Todmorden-lays-a-claim-to-be-Britains-greenest-town.html

I've been following their progress with total admiration since they started:T.

I think they have a built-in advantage to some other places - Todmorden is a very good size place for this - not a tiny hamlet and not a city. Villages and towns are the best size for this sort of thing - small enough to get a good "community spirit" going. Our largest cities are the worst - but even within them much good work can be done.

All power to Todmorden is all I can say:D

ceridwen

mardatha wrote: »

I'd like to pick your brains now, on planting & growing. I'm reading about sq foot gardening and also about permaculture. Which way would work best ? Which have you tried ? And do you think either of them are really necessary anyway ? Would the good old fashioned grandads way do fine ? Bearing in mind that our aim in here is to be self sufficient (maybe possibly one day) LOL!

Our own JenniO is the best person on MSE that I'm aware of to consult re square foot gardening - shes a nice lady and would be happy to help on specific queries I'm sure. Someone like RAS would probably be one of our best MSE'ers to consult with permaculture questions. Davesnave would probably have useful hints on this as well.

ceridwen

If anyone is scared to grow food out in the front garden in case of people helping themselves - then one solution would be to grow stuff that wasnt so obviously edible. Nasturtiums come straight to mind - quick and easy to get going - the leaves, flowers and seeds are all edible (I just havent tried the seeds yet - but I often use the leaves and flowers in salads). Herbs of course - rosemary, basil, etc. I would imagine its possible to grow potatoes with many people not knowing what they were - and they look good too actually:D

parsonswife8

ceridwen wrote: »

I've been following their progress with total admiration since they started:T.

I think they have a built-in advantage to some other places - Todmorden is a very good size place for this - not a tiny hamlet and not a city. Villages and towns are the best size for this sort of thing - small enough to get a good "community spirit" going. Our largest cities are the worst - but even within them much good work can be done.

All power to Todmorden is all I can say:D

I do apologise for not having seen your post about Todmorden before I posted the link to the article in the Sun.:o
It has been a difficult morning, involving pigeons.:eek:
We are in a town and I would love to see the same sort of thing here, but there are a lot of residents who commute to and from London for most of their lives, I'm afraid, my own son and his wife, being two of them.:(

RAS

mardatha wrote: »

RAS, I am very interested in solar powered phone chargers. Where would you buy one ?

I bought one of the little ones at the bottom of this page

http://www.clasohlson.co.uk/Siteseeker/Search_o.aspx?q=solar+charger

It was on offer so a bit less and I was going where there was no leccie.

It has half a dozen different connectors including my Nokia one.

One full charge recharged my flagging phone and boosted another one when I was on Bardsey after the best part of a day in the sun.

It really is compact - about the size of a slim mobile phone. Does need charging the first time from a USB port - the cable and connector are included.

I now use it pretty much all the time, not least as I can slip the full charger into my bag and charge the phone on the move instead of plugging it in to recharge and forgetting the Bl**dy phone.

I also have a solar battery charger which I got a CAT which was supposed to charge some phones as well but has never worked as a phone charger. Fine for charging batteries as I do not use a lot, just takes time particularly in the winter.

Does not seem to be on sale any longer but CAT do have this lot.

http://store.cat.org.uk/index.php?cPath=21_26_125

The kits I looked at last year do not seem to be in the catalogue - it may be that people really need to see the product and read the detailed information before buying.

notjustlaura

NualaBuala wrote: »

I remember thinking it was very odd that they grew veggies in the front garden in The Good Life but now I think it's a great idea, just not one I've got around to trying.

There's a man not far from here who grows leeks in his front garden. He says he found, after much trial and error, that this is where they do best.

RAS

mardatha wrote: »

I'd like to pick your brains now, on planting & growing. I'm reading about sq foot gardening and also about permaculture. Which way would work best ? Which have you tried ? And do you think either of them are really necessary anyway ? Would the good old fashioned grandads way do fine ? Bearing in mind that our aim in here is to be self sufficient (maybe possibly one day) LOL!

mardatha

Actually I think a bit of both is best. Particularly if your health can be a bit pushed.

There's rather a lot of versions of permaculture from full blown forest gardens like the Agro-forestry Research trust site http://www.agroforestry.co.uk/forgndg.html to alley cropping - very similiar to the sort of orchards grown in the Clyde valley http://www.clydevalleyorchards.co.uk/past-present/history/ and smaller scale mixed permanent plantings.

It takes time to get the ground prepared, the plants in and growing but once that is done, the area needs very little work other than a good weeding once or twice a year and a mulch. The big problem is harvesting.

Given that in the UK we grow 67 percent of our veggies and waste about 30 percent of what is grown, we could be pretty self sufficient as an island in those that grow here.

We import all bar 5 percent of our purchased fruit. So getting fruit and soft fruit in may make more sense, even if it takes a couple of years to get a decent harvest.

One the other hand if you want perishable vegetables like leafies, the shorter the route from ground to plate the better. These are ideally suited to a couple of square foot beds close to the house, made so that you never have to stretch too far (twice your arm-reach).

NualaBuala

notjustlaura wrote: »

There's a man not far from here who grows leeks in his front garden. He says he found, after much trial and error, that this is where they do best.

Sounds sensible to me. Just hope he doesn't have his pinched the way Tom and Barbara's were!