Selfsufficientish.com

I'm confident they will. It's Civil Service, and, although it has it's faults, they're very flexible about working hours and the like. I am a meat eater and it would be allowed but I don't really want to keep chickens, though I agree the savings would be pretty awesome. I have access to carloads of ...

It's been the aim for a while, but I've finally got the go-ahead to drop some working hours to focus on growing for two or three years. If I can make a significant dent (25%, perhaps) in our food bill, we'll be no worse off. Got some mortgage stuff and things to pay in the next 12 months, but Mrs. V...

The other material is that gritty black stuff that's used on the top of skateboards...

those blue containers that have the clippy lids They're food prep tubs, Viper. I bought a load off Ebay a good few years back. If there's a big food prep company anywhere near you might be able to get some free/cheap - they don't seem to re-use them. Take care though - these places seem to be parti...

Thanks :) Best of luck with getting your second allotment wound down - I found that the hardest part in the end! I don't believe I would have been any better off for having two rather than one. I think it would just meant I was spread more thinly. Perhaps when I drop my working hours to focus on the...

Reading back through this conversation, if anybody is holding on to a laptop that ran Windows 98, ME or XP and wants rid I'd be happy to send you some beer/fruit bush money and have it picked up without a hard disk installed; Mrs. Viper has blown up the one she uses exclusively for writing and playi...

Green Aura wrote: ↑Tue Sep 01, 2020 8:43 am Think of it as a gift for someone else, rather than a failure. It might help someone without any gardening knowledge to get into growing their own.

Yes, I hope so :)

It went badly. I bit off more than I could chew. I managed to clear about half the plot, get potatoes going, get loads of squash in and removed about three builder's bags of weeds. However, it was at the expense of doing enough work on the allotment in my back garden, which began to suffer. So I had...

Ah yes, you can eat healthily, unless you're poor.

I've put quite a lot of thought into this, actually. In some ways, yes, and in some ways, no. On the "yes" side; ~ We are waiting for a plaster, joiner, builder and the woodburner people to come and do work - they're all heavily in demand at the moment. ~ We've had a carpet fitted ~ I'm pr...

Green Aura wrote: ↑Tue Aug 18, 2020 1:27 pm My tomatoes are nearly finished! We grow shortseason ones though - autumn is well on its way up here.
Courgettes nearly done too.

My tomatoes still aren't ready. I'm worried the season will end before they fruit properly :S

Courgettes, chard still, on to the second set of raspberries. Tomatoes are lagging behind, as are peppers

Read more than I've read for years over lockdown and I'm keen to keep it up if I can. We are having more evenings where we're just sat reading, rather than TV or DIY, which are our usual evening pursuits. Chewed through some Aldous Huxley, got some James Hogg next. I haven't really bought books for ...

Pleased to report a good selection of butterflies this year in the West Midlands. As you say though, my brussels are doing pretty well...