Selfsufficientish.com

With all the damp weather I've heard many complaints about slugs this year. I know I am tempting fate, but strangely I haven't found it like this, in fact it seems to be getting less of a problem. Now as I don't use slug pellets or anything like that any more I was reflecting on why that might be. W...

Now rhubarb tea is used as an insecticide against white fly.

Interesting line of inquiry. Although there are a number of veg that are relatively pest free, but does that make them insecticidal? incidentally parsnips in this country suffer from leaf miners.

Mustardseedmama with all those peaches perhaps you would like to give some away??? Between 4.00pm and 7.00pm yesterday, the squirrels eat the approx. 100 peaches that were on our tree, only about golf ball size, rock hard, but had started to ripen. They left us one to taste!! Two years ago we though...

Hope it brings as much happiness and enjoyment as ours does! But first you will probably have quite a bit of digging to do, or rather forking to remove all the couch grass, bindweed and any other pernicious weeds you have inherited. But the good news is that the soil is moist, the weather reasonable...

We made fruit leather with our peaches last year, lasts for ever if you can stop eating it.

I use stakes because of the shape of my polytunnels but strings from above if you have something high enough to suspend them from are far better, simply twist the tomato stem round them as they grow.

Not only has there been an increase in the chemicals in our foods but over the last 200 years a large increase in the amount of sugar and meat in most peoples diets together with a reduction in the amount of grains, vegetables and fermented foods. I would like to see proper independent appraisals of...

Woodchip is not the only mulch you can use, you can mulch with compost, rotted manure or grass clippings, which avoid the possibility of robbing the soil of nitrogen, acidifying the soil or of encouraging slugs. Mulching is much better than bare soil, so long as you use the appropriate mulch for a p...

The area you need for 2 pigs is surely going to be more than you need for a polytunnel, so why not construct a polytunnel on top of their shelter (ok an enlarged shelter). Raised up off the ground with the pigs under, the pigs will provide valuable heat on winter nights. You'd need to think about wh...

Our fees are £130/year including membership and water for a plot approx 80m x 15m, although officially measured at 26 poles. This is in inner London. There are no toilets, water from standpipes about every 6 plots.

Zech, sorry to hear about your trouble, either take up SuzieGee's offer or start completely a fresh, try using mineral water and equal quantities of flour and water. Rye flour is the best, but wholemeal is good but white will do. Put in a jar with a loose lid (enough to let gas escape). Leave it som...

You say they are roof tiles, so I guess they are fairly small compared with paving slabs, in which case you cannot lay on a sand bed with guaranteed success. You need either to lay on a concrete slab (as Boboff suggested) or a well tamped hardcore base, each at least 4" thick. In both cases, bu...

.......... Eventually, little bubbles will form throughout the mixture and your sourdough will be live...... Okra I hope you don't mind but perhaps your description skips over something that may have caused Chants Cottage to not succeed. Although your sourdough will be alive and on its way, it prob...

Couldn't agree more Gregorach. I guess there was another influential book, back in the late seventies / early eighties, about the no-dig method because I converted to it back then. It took me a long time to work out the best method (at least for me) for treating the paths between the beds. I think I...