Selfsufficientish.com

If you have a few like minded friends why not organise a digging and weeding party? I did this with my first garden years ago. The idea is to roughly mark out the plot in squares say 1 by 1 metre of yard then get each person to choose a square and work on that small section. We hid treasure in one s...

Well I've plenty of time to ponder on this as the ground is wet at the moment, the mulch, if I use it, will come into its own in the drier summer months. I am not thinking of digging that ground where raspberries, red currant, black currant and gooseberrys grow as I only planted them last year and i...

Just behind my house several big old black poplar trees have been felled. The guys doing it have left behind a large pile of wood chippings. I collected several barrowloads this morning with the intention of using it for a mulch around my raspberrys and other soft fruit bushes. The chippings are fre...

Raspberrys have a very shallow root systems so need to develop that when first replanted. Of course you will get fruit if you don't prune, but in the longer run you will get stronger plants and a bigger yield if you are patient for the first year and prune down to about 6 inches as soon as they are ...

Note for the future
When fermenting wine or mead using honey I have always added some sugar as well; it seems to get the process off to a more succesful start and as bonus it reduces the cost of the end product

if you are planning to take plants and trees with you when you move, make sure you clear and agree it with the buyer of your property; otherwise there could be legal problems.

Roger Ramjet

Short circuit the bureacracy by advertising in your local paper or shop window for anyone willing to let you use part of their garden as a vegetable or fruit growing. Their are a lot of elderly homeowners with large gardens who are unable to maintain them any more. In return for a cutting their gras...

I put nearly anything and everything that will rot on my compost heap, after a few months it has all merged into a lovely black cake like mass. I also put on vacuum cleaner dust, egg shells and newspaper as well, but not bones. If you are at all worried about excess acid, just sprinkle a little lime...

Haven't you guys noticed that when we had all that really cold weather in December that there was almost no wind; hence no power from the turbines. Wind turbines are an expensive waste of money. I have never seen one economic argument that convinces me that any more should be erected. Apart from any...

On the plus side, if you are troubled with field mice that can cause damage to many crops, a cat can be your helpful friend.
Roger Ramjet

Bonnie,
I think if money changes hands it creates problems. In my experience a barter system sometimes works,
viz 'Let me cultivate your land and I will give you produce from it, or if a garden I will mow the lawn and keep the borders tidy'.

To buy land can be horrendously expensive

Roger Ramjet

How about some lateral thinking here instead of whingeing about your local council who are always an easy target? There are many elderly folk living perhaps alone or as a couple who have large gardens. In return for tidying up their garden they may well be willing to let you turn over part of the pl...

Many years back when I was courting my first wife in East London; her mother told me that a family was processing and selling grated horse radish in Rathbone Street Market. Over three generations eventually all of them went blind, due to the toxic nature of horse radish..... be warned; do not get it...

I have always traditionally used either corks or plastic stoppers for storing my wine in bottles. But my experience goes back many years before screw top bottles came into widespread use. I have a number of used commercial wine bottles with original screw caps and am wondering whether to use them on...

I agree with the advice above about not boiling the rhubarb; I did that once years ago and I could never get the wine to clear. My prefered method is to freeze the fruit then place in a plastic bucket, thaw and crush with a potato masher or wooden mallet. After that I add sugar and pour boiling wate...