Selfsufficientish.com

Currently myself and partner live in a mid terrace house with both and open fire/back boiler & oil heating system. I have recently looked into various ways of reducing the general things we use and the topic of water came up. The biggest culprit turned out to be the toilet as such we looked into...

Have recently turned the front yard into a veg garden, while doing so I though I would devote a small square in the center to herbs for attracting a few bugs along with being handy for the kitchen. As I live in Northern Ireland I went with perennials and have the following planted. Sage, Rosemary, C...

I have recently pulled up most of the concrete front yard for a veg garden. While the main section has been dug out and replaced completely, I still have one small strip Approx 60cm by 300cm that needs to be dug. Currently with work and other things in life I know I will not have the time to do this...

Had a nosey at a few mthods of growing vertically the other day and narrowed down to a likely three that I can do with space and ability I have. Now comes the tricky bit of finding the most efficient. Firstly is a hydroponic system of pipes, pretty self explanitory in that water is dripped drown fro...

Thanks for the replies, seems I may have to keep the wood for the fireplace, keeping it burning through a large part of the day and just use the oil sparingly for water only.

I currently have an oil based system for my heating in the house. Basic system of an oil tank, a burner that heats the CH and water. Also a back burner on the fire and the Electric immersion heater. Recently I aqquired a storage unit for work use, however it is far bigger than I will ever really nee...

Thanks for the tips, I've managed to borrow something that appears to be a hand rotavator (odd looking device but it has a motor therfore saves on backbreaking). Plus I have about 300 or so litres of almost ready compost along with living very close to the shoreline means a few lagre sacks worth of ...

Well finally finished removing everything yesterday. Took quite some time as every spare day I had was a monsoon day the last couple of weeks, and shifting 3 odd tonne of concrete and baselayer by hand is less than fun. So here is what I'm left with now. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v395/Feygan...

Not sure on exactly how practical it would be but an idea occured to me today regarding allotments. The council is always using the "we don't have enough space" argument as an excuse for allotments, however we all drive around lumps of pretty much unused space everyday. Roundabouts are wha...

Unless the JR is a working dog brought up around farm animals to know they are out of bounds, or it gets it's legs walked off at the back of a car every day then you can bet on something like this happening again in future. Simple fact all terriers are designed to kill animals often larger than them...

If the animal has left a clear roadway to your fence then trace this back 10 yeards or so and lay out a sandtrap to begin with. This will tell you what animal is causing the holes by your fence. If it's a badger your in sticky country as the law is all over the place on how you can deal with them so...

Decided this year to have a go with a mass of cherry type toms indoors in pots. I've lots of places they can go and hopefully it will give me plenty of fresh toms for instant eating as well as a glut to make some sauce or such. At the moment I've around 50-60 seedling all sown in one large tray read...

Sat today thinking about how I can better use the space I have for growing and after some geeneral time wasting online I saw some nifty methods of vertical gardening. This led me down the path of some design ideas for growing things all over the front and back of the house. A brief summary would be ...

Thanks for the reply hadn't considered seaweed before although I am aware of deep mulching so i'm guessing it will serve the same function?

Also is the type of seaweed important or can I use pretty much anything with similar results?

Hoping I can get a few pointers on a smnall plot for my front garden/yard. Currently all I have is a concrete slab so it's coming up with raised beds going in it's place. I've crunched some numbers and the best use of the space I can manage is two beds with a walkway for access. Bed 1 = 2100mmx2300m...