Selfsufficientish.com

Cheeky.

Do your worst you simply cannot kill tomato seeds. Oh crivens, yes! We've had them sprout in places we couldn't imagine. Having said that, we usually leave them - any additional tomato plants always welcome. It's that other nightshade, the spud, that drives me wild sprouting where they're not wante...

Having used it for a season though there should be some living organisms, shouldn't there? I don't know how much it matters. As long as your soil is full of the good stuff I'm sure you can get away with your compost. I'm not sure it would last for ever more. There'll ba a lot less comes out than wen...

Tomatoes and chillies.

I have, however, made several pots of low carb jam from cheap seasonal fruit.

Would overwintering outside kill the blight spores? I'm not very knowledgeable about blight. We've never had it! Not even in sunny Manchester. I think we're too far north here. I'm more concerned about what else you'd kill, microwaving it. All the beneficial bacteria etc wouldn't survive either pres...

Not here it hasn't.

Good stuff. I've been making my own toiletries for years. I find, over the years, they've got simpler. These days I use oil (coconut/olive), aloe vera and essential oils for pretty much everything!

I don't see a problem getting kits, especially if you're new to doing something and want to give it a try. My daughter bought me one a few years back - growing coffee on spent coffee grounds. It was good fun. Unfortunately we haven't had as much success without the kit!

Well, if you can't get out in the garden, winding up the Town Council seems like a fun alternative.

It doesn't sound like you're winding things down Flo, just finding new things to do - better things by the sound of it.

I think the Curcubit family have such varied growing conditions, Weedo, it's quite difficult to fit. The big umbrellas, like courgettes, take up a lot of space all round but cucumbers and melons climb and other squash trail. You can happily plant a squash, or pumpkin in your compost heap, as long as...

Not entirely, Bernard. Some crops, for example brassicas, are susceptible to diseases if grown in the same area each year. In the case of brassicas that would be clubroot. If you get that you can't grow brassicas in thast area again for years. Also, rotating crops enables you to add different nutrie...

I suppose it might house a reasonable-sized Shetland pony.

Crikey, I'm not sure if my system is the same as 10 years ago. I use a fairly simple four year rotation. However, what we can grow up in our cold, rainy area is very different to your hot, dry one, so how much use it'll be is anyone's guess. :lol: At its simplest a Spring manuring > spuds (this coul...

We're just waterlogged and cold. :shaking: In the winter we move our potted fruit trees out of the wind. At the end of April we moved them to their summer home and a couple of the pear trees have since got severe wind burn on their leaves. It's looking like we'll get our third, or is it fourth, summ...

Sounds like a good plan, Flo. We're still in the process of converting my ex-therapy room into a greenhouse-ish affair. It is SW facing and has long windows - nearly 3m wide in total and gets full sun from about 10-11am to sunset. It used to be obscured by the lean-to bin/wood store roof, but when t...