Its tough, it will get better and guess what its freezing brrrrr!

lovelife_3

Gigervamp wrote: »

Mardatha, I made a raised bed using bamboo edging. Have a look at this picture to see what I mean. It was on special offer if you bought four rolls of it. I just dug down a little way to bury the bottom bit, and secured the ends with thick wire.

Aw love your picture gigervamp, obviously the cat and the chickens get on:) I would love to keep chickens and am seriously considering it for next year.

mardatha

LOL! saves me asking what that furry thing was ! Going back on topic, I think the way for us is to grow as much as we possibly can (hence the whine about raised beds lol!) and also, very important I think, is to change to a more old fashioned diet. A bit like the wartime one. Because foreign imported food will become scarcer and much more expensive - just look at all the shortages due to weather already. Then China is buying up everything they can lay their hands on. What's left for us will go up in price. So if you can train your kids (and husbands !) to eat what you can grow here in the UK, then things will get easier in the long run.
I think. LOL!

taplady

kidcat wrote: »

Not sure if its still the same, but our local Morrisons staff use their discount card instore but dont get the discount till they are paid when it is added to their pay each month. Which can be a pain if its not your own shopping.

we have 2 cards - one for him and one for us - I've already used mine and my 10% came straight off my shopping:j but DS hasn't used his yet.
He's really happy now because he's had his first ever payday:)

lovelife_3

Totally agree Mardatha, although my first years attempts have had somewhat mixed results!!! at least i know what works for me now:) just eaten a big juicy red strawberry from thr garden, in the rain with me dressing gown on, simple pleasures lol

kezlou

I hear what your saying mardatha, prices are going up in the local international stores.
We also have a varied diet, but in the winter especially we eat tons of stews, curries and soup. Anything thats stodgy and warm.

But i have to admit i don't think i could stomach sprouts, makes me shudder just thinking about them urghhhhh I also love spicy foods so don't think i could go entirely without spice:o

I may try and sow some beetroot and see if that grows late in the year.

lovelife - thats what ds2 did yesterday, put his wellies went outside and grabbed a red and yellow tomatoes and scoffed the lot.

mardatha

This year was better than last year for me, and next year will be bloody PERFECT :rotfl: I hope !! But I seem to be over and finished long before everybody else.. next year the plan is to get some salad early pots and then some maincrop as well. Tomatoes dont grow outside here, they are on south facing windowsills and do well. The dreaded Kale :eek: did very well and I will do more of that next year, nuke it and use it for stock where I cant taste the stuff. Its good for vitC (and thats all its good for )
But we cant easily grow wheat for flour, or pasta, or meat....so the food bill will def go up.:(
The fight to keep chickens goes on. I am regrouping my forces and plotting....;)

Red_Doe

This year was my first of growing veg in this place (only moved here just over a year ago) and it`s been hit and miss...courgettes were rubbish, don`t know what happened but suspect all the rain! Leeks and dwarf French beans and perpetual spinach did great, as did chives and parsley. But the rabbits got all the lettuce and even the cabbage, snails the size of golf balls got the rest and the winds coming in off the Atlantic took what was left!
My solution for next year is, dig a quarter of the croft over for tatties and root veg and fence against rabbits, but that`s winter jobs.
My hens are currently under threat from a local fox. I`m trying to find another crofter who has a shotgun to take care of that.
My solution for the bunnies is twofold..I got an air rifle and snares.
I`m about a hundred miles away from my nearest supermarket, there`s only two tiny village shops relatively nearby (five and ten miles away may as well be fifty with no personal or public transport) so what I grow and rear is important.

kezlou

It was like that here, the slugs, snail, my cats :mad: ate most of the veg, couldn't believe it. Swear i'd seen two cats eat so many chillies :eek:
But the raspberries,salad leaves, potatoes, toms (still ripening), peas all did well. Everything a no show, got four tiny courgettes so its all good.

I can't have chickens, not enough for them . But, and yes i know feeling guilty right now, i found 36 eggs (battery) for £2 in the local shop so were living off them. They cheap, money's tight has to be done.

Next year i'm going grow more veg, start some squashes off early and see what happens.

mardatha

RD, they say here that foxes dont like security lights flashing on in their faces...maybe you could try that ?
My neighbour on a farm uses wee chicken wire cages round all her nice plants, maybe you could make a cage round/over the veg next year ? But root crops are much easier yy

mardatha

I live really in the middle of nowhere, all miles and miles of open moors and hills around me in every direction. Yet I never get wabbits in the garden , and I have never seen a fox here. Odd !