Preparedness for when

GreyQueen

I've read about this privileged enclave before, on ZH. Their brass neck is astonishing. I truly think that the elites have gone full Marie-Antoinette on us.

It will actually be personally dangerous to have your lawns visibly watered when there are people around you relying on bowser water and living in hardship. You would think that enlightened self-interest would show them that, even if there is a moral vacuum where concern for the environment you share with your fellow human beings and the rest of life, is AWOL.

My personal water use is 1 cu m per month at home. At the allotment, I don't use the stand-pipe water at all, I use the two large barrels I have as waterbutts on the shed. They're food-grade barrels bought 2nd hand and fitted with a spigot and have never proved insufficient to my gardening needs.

Unless I'm trying to get seedlings going in very dry weather, I don't water the plot at all. Did zero watering in 2014. If I do use waterbutt water for something else, such as washing the soil off the root veg or cleaning flowerpots, I make sure I sling it somewhere useful, such as under the fruit bush.

moneyistooshorttomention

It's the seeds blowing in the wind syndrome as well that is a pain here - mind you that might be (at least partly) down to the level of wind in this part of Britain. Envious if its possible to stop neighbouring weeds encroaching just from keeping border control. I can distinctly see next doors flowers growing in my garden quite some feet away from the Berlin Wall in between me and nursie's rival (aka my nfh) (hereinafter to be known as Wicked Witch of the West....).

GreyQueen

Sadly, the derelict plots are downwind of me, too, so whatever they have, I get. Which is why I have so many docks, I never allow them to seed on my own plot but they do up-wind. Still, realised last week that I have won the Great Creeping Thistle War.

They were coming from the other side, on the wind, and I have sorted them.

moneyistooshorttomention

Whew...don't think I'd have the patience personally to do quite as much work for my food...:)

Still working on the theory that, once I've got the garden properly sorted in the first place, then it shouldn't take much doing to keep on top of it. That - and a high ratio of perennial plants.

BTW - I'm currently asking around with a question - and you might well know the answer. I've got a load of new topsoil and can see that LOADS of tiny white threadlike stringy bits a few inches long are in it. They have orange teardrop bits at one end. I presume these are grass roots? from ordinary grass and not a problem type of grass anyway? - ie not a problem?

Guess if I just turn the soil around a good bit then it will kill them off - if they aren't dead yet?

GreyQueen

The could well be grasses starting to grow from seeds, or something else. If there is a lot of them all the same, balance of probabilites is that they're grass seeds which have germinated, but I wouldn't swear to it.

Re the amount of effort for gardening for food, it isn't consistant througout the year. I am gardening 300 sq meters, also. In the sutum-winter months, you can pretty much leave it to mind its own business, at this time of year it's full on. But I am eating off the plot already (broad beans, strawbs, chard), the onions are coming along very well, and there are a few potato tops which are starting to go over and I shall have them up first.

Spuds are an excellent crop, lots of calories returned for not many expended in cutlivation.

I like gardening a lot (you may have gathered) but it isn't everyone's cuppa. I tend to like growing edibles with a smattering of flowers, I wouldn't put in this amount of effort for ornamental gardening, am too much of a peasant for that.:rotfl:

moneyistooshorttomention

True - your ground is bigger than my ground:rotfl:

Mine is around 700 square feet of usable growing space currently and I'll see how that goes before deciding whether to add another section elsewhere in the garden. Think that amount should produce quite a respectable amount for a one-person household.

Right - I'm thinking "balance of probabilities" as you say re it being grass seed germinating. I've been told the topsoil came from former farmland.

[Deleted User]

Made the first batch of jam of the year yesterday from just over 2lbs of homegrown gooseberries, I'm going to make a batch of blackberry and apple jelly from frozen blackberries next week to free up some freezer space as we begin to harvest in larger amounts, the french beans are beginning to produce more and more. I'm going to try to preserve much more in jars than I normally do and dry as much as I can in the dehydrator just so that we're not quite so reliant on the electricity supply for stored foodstuffs. Can't do without it entirely, as Frugalsod said so sensibly yesterday we're using technology to keep old skills going so I might as well use what we've got while we've still got it! I'm also going to make some mixed berry cordial from some more of our frozen fruit (last year really was a bumper harvest) it's silly to be sitting on kilos of frozen stuff when this years harvest is already visible on the fruit bushes and the fruit varieties in the greengrocers are so good and so cheap. I'll freeze some cordial in plastic bottles too as that's in my experience by far the best way to keep it for longer periods, it doesn't ferment and pop the bottles in the cupboard that way.

Doveling

Nuatha - And very well said as to the rest of your post. I'd sharpen those nails as well
as paint them

Not really nails - more retractable claws :rotfl: Rarely used
I've always got more from people with sugar than vinegar.
Been lucky enough to work in some great places but sacked somebody on the spot for gross misconduct once. It did not make me feel good.:(

Have read the links about water and global warming. Thanks folks, very interesting. And beyond belief re: watering lawns!

What do people think of the alternative view that we may actually be moving into a new Ice Age? I can't understand this at all.

Used some home grown salad leaves last night. Small tubs of herbs coming on well. Am researching productive cottage gardens and what goes well with what. I need flowers to feed my soul.:)

Frugalsod

Doveling wrote: »

Have read the links about water and global warming. Thanks folks, very interesting. And beyond belief re: watering lawns!

What do people think of the alternative view that we may actually be moving into a new Ice Age? I can't understand this at all.

It is based on the impact that the melting of the Greenland icesheets will have on the Atlantic conveyor which is the flow of water around the world that takes heat from the tropics and carries it in the flow of water towards Europe.

If this flow is interrupted then it will bring much colder weather to Europe as the heat from the Atlantic conveyor will not reach Europe. So very cold winters like the one in North America will become the norm for a while at least.

What happens is that the melted glaciers release fresh water in to the sea south of Greenland and this cold fresh water reduces the salinity of the water and allows the Atlantic conveyor to weaken and then sink. The heat that it would normally bring is then not taken to Europe and so we get colder winters. We could get frozen rivers again. This "ice age" would only be temporary as the greenhouse gas levels would not allow the freezing of the sea ice in the north pole which reflects back a lot of sunshine and heat back into space.

elona

Frugalsod

Wish I could thank that twice!