KonMari 2016 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

[Deleted User]

Charis wrote: »

. They don't seem to die suddenly here, they simply fade away. Sometimes you only find out when the 'for sale' sign goes up and the skip arrives in the front garden.

:eek: omg :eek:

what we need is co-ownership ie our own freehold houses with a small garden but communal rooms for dining and crafting or for companionship and small allotments, all owned by the home owners. Trouble is that all the places for older people have management companies and are leasehold but owned by other people, all out to make a big fat profit out of us. I once googled a management company and it was seven young men who had obviously bought into a cash cow

We do need company charis, we could do things like go to the theatre but hire a mini bus between us, rather than run individual cars. It is finding that happy balance, where help is at hand but not until we ask for it

GQ, do you think the old-type alms houses might be an answer?

Floss

GQ does your brewery waste come fresh from their brew day? And is it ok put straight onto the beds? DH brews (small scale) and chucks his spent grain & hops into a dalek on our plot, we'd not thought of using it straight away...

GreyQueen

Floss wrote: »

GQ does your brewery waste come fresh from their brew day? And is it ok put straight onto the beds? DH brews (small scale) and chucks his spent grain & hops into a dalek on our plot, we'd not thought of using it straight away...

It comes from a small organic brew pub in this city. Their yard man brings it at random intervals and makes a communal pile which we self-serve from - sometimes it comes and is taken away in hours. We get about 3 buckets of hops to about a dozen black dustbins of spent grains.

Sometimes it's so fresh it's steaming and actually hot. This lot had been there about 3 days by my estimation; the top level had dried and crusted a bit but the white filaments of fungii haven't really started to grow yet.

What we do on our site, and we've been doing this for years, is dump it on the surface of the soil, about a barrowful per square yard and let it sit in its little heaps for several days or up to a week to cool off, then fork it through the soil until the result looks like a pudding. I think the idea of letting it cool off is to stop the heat upsetting the soil organisms, the stuff can be hot to the touch at first and, if the air is cold enough, will steam.

I've then sown seed spuds straight into it with great success and lots of other plants seem pretty happy with it.

I've never composted it and don't know anyone on our site who bothers to do so, either, but we do fork it through rather than let it sit on the top as a layer. The worms love it and soon come up into the layer with the grains and most of the distinct grains will have disappeared in a few months, it rots down that quickly.

I garden on a very light soil, silty, over pure sand, and it's incredibly free-draining if left unimproved (a geologist who knows the site reckons what is now a slope was once a river bed - the present-day river is several hundred meters away). HTH.

pandamonium

kittie wrote: »

:eek: omg :eek:

what we need is co-ownership ie our own freehold houses with a small garden but communal rooms for dining and crafting or for companionship and small allotments, all owned by the home owners. Trouble is that all the places for older people have management companies and are leasehold but owned by other people, all out to make a big fat profit out of us. I once googled a management company and it was seven young men who had obviously bought into a cash cow

We do need company charis, we could do things like go to the theatre but hire a mini bus between us, rather than run individual cars. It is finding that happy balance, where help is at hand but not until we ask for it

GQ, do you think the old-type alms houses might be an answer?

There was a program on the tv recently where a lot of ladies lived together as part of a cooperative. They all seemed to get along and it looked a great idea. Think it was on itv. Totally escapes me what the programme was called.

ETA http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/life/641254/old-girls-allowed-first-kind-housing-development
This is it. Thank you google.

Floss

GQ thanks for that, I will share with DH

GreyQueen

Floss wrote: »

GQ thanks for that, I will share with DH

My pleasure. FWIW, I did once ask the sainted B0b Fl0werdew about this and he recommended composting it first. It was at a talk he was giving, me an' Bob aren't besties, just to make that clear.:p

I don't always follow expert advice, I tend to experiment IRL and see what happens. Spuds grown on freshly-grained soil are about 50% bigger (tops and tubers) than identical variety spuds growing on non-grained soil right beside them. The difference is staggering and has to be seen to be believed.

I did a fair bit of graining earlier this year and then had a hiatus due to lack of cleared soil (plus being ill) and then lack of grains. They arrive on weekdays and I'm at work and others get first dibs on them - by this point in the calendar, the run on the grain pile has slowed down a fair bit and us weekend gardeners can get a look-in.

Anyway, good luck, tell the hubs you need lots - make more beer. :beer:

Slinky

We've been out in the garden again, have finished the bed under the sunroom window, which now has a weed proof membrane, 5 new plants and gravel all round. Unlike GQ, our soil is horrendous. Clay that bakes like bricks. There's little pleasure to be had trying to get a spade in the ground for most of the year. After we had our extension built 9 years ago we had the garden landscaped with the idea that it be very low maintenance. For some reason best known to the people who did it, they decided not to do this bed with membrane and it's long been a source of annoyance, so I'm glad we got this sorted. I managed to Kondo some more lungwort to my neighbour, and we moved a plant that was fighting for light with another which had outgrown it.


Have decided another plant has got way out of hand and may be replaced. I can see that deep inside it there are some newish shoots, so we'll try cutting it back and see if it looks OK, if not we'll find something less vigorous to go in the spot. It's shading some rock roses, I've cut some of it back today, hopefully the light will help the other plants.


Identified 3 old broken hand tools which can go to the tip next visit.


Hung a mirror & barometer in the hall having done the decorating last weekend, the radiator shelf has had 2 coats of gloss, just needs to harden up before being replaced.


ETA forgot to mention we got rid of 3 pairs of specs at the opticians yesterday to go to charity.

oceanspirit

Still v busy in RL and will be for a few more months yet however have managed to go through some more of the reading pile and get rid of what is no longer needed.

Washed an old cardigan ready to go in ragbag.

Continued to not buy any more clothes etc and only buy toiletries and food as needed. Continuing to use up old food stocks where possible although menu planning difficult atm due to not knowing from day to day whether we will be at home together, separately or away.

Pleased with progress overall despite there being a lot going on.

camelot1001

GQ - I bet your worms are very happy, hic!

greent

'Shopped' from loft for DS3 today - 2 items identified from the box to go into fabric recycling and about 15 items gone into his wardrobe and 2 sets of books for his shelves - meaning I now don't need to go tshirt shopping for him:T:money: - and a KM win as there's now 1 less box in the internal loft and DS3 is pleased with his 'new' clothes

Another fleebay sale tonight - all parcelled up ready - will drop it off in morning after school run
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