Selfsufficientish.com

Hi john. ive looked thru your ideas & i cant really see how they can work in the developing world.[mabe i just dont understand ] At first i thought he,s a bit bonkers! But who am i to critisise,at least your trying to do something posetive [or think you are] It might be better not to go on the attack,when others dont see your point of view. you dont appear to be harming anybody & your veg looks impressive,so good luck to you!!A

Hi Hilldreamer 90,thank you,only time will tell. May you and yours live long and happy. John. J.R.P.

Hi ALL ,for those who have a polytunnel and want to recycle rain water,which does not fall on their crops because they are covered by the polytunnel.
May I share another new idea of mine with you which I believe as not been tried before AS IF I HAD a polytunnle which I believe is a good idea to use.
MY IDEA IS, I would make up a system to catch all the rain water which would normally run off the polytunnel, which I then would make go into a water butt done in a simple way.
First I would buy some cheap plastic guttering or long lengths of plastic pipe which I would saw down the middle to give me two halfs each time,these I would support by putting 2-4 say 10ft bean canes or less at the furthest end corners,and I would sink them in about 1 foot,then I would laydown alongside my polytunnel all my lengths of guttering until it came out enough to flow into 2 water butts,one on each side of where I would walk in,putting 4 canes to support where the ends of each gutter over lapped each other,so that no water leaked,held in place by what ever you had like tape or string. This I would do on both sides right next to the cover so my guttering was sloping down towards my water butts resting on bean canes spaced out in 4s at each overlap joint.
I would then put a length of guttering along the back of the futhest end sloping from one side to another a bit,resting on the top of my 2 side gutterings where the 4 canes are on each corner,but a bit shorter so that any rain water will drip down into the side ones,held in place by what ever you are using.
Next is how I would get my rain water into my guttering which is away from the side of my polytunnel. I would use any sheet of plastic for example,bin liners cut in 4 - 6 inch wide long strips or green bags or even shopping bages would work over lapping each other too..
NOW COMES THE BEST BIT,I would get a real of sticky tape of some sort which will stick to the polytunnel cover material,I would then lay all my lengths of plastic in line with my guttering so that some of it can be stuck to the polytunnel cover and some lays in the guttering not stuck. JOB DONE.
What I would have then is a polytunnel with a attached flap like system that lays inside my guttering which slopes down into my two water butts supported by bean canes,I would then lay some more bean canes down on top of the flaps inside the guttering to help hold it in place. This way would also work if my polytunnel was on a slope too.
It's up to you now whether you try it or not,I have over 8,000 small water buts I use so I'm ok. May you and yours live long and happy. Happy New Year 2007. John. J.R.P.

Hi ALL, if you went to see or exhibited something growing at the CHELSEA FLOWER SHOW this year or in the past, would you like to see the way I grow things exhibited there, as I've been sent an invite TO APPLY to next years show, because my projects are to do with saving lives, reusing waste, and growing things, which all come under the heading 'Gardening with Climate Change'. Of cause I wont the answer to be Yes, and the reason why, but if you don't then say so, and the reason why, as they say it's good to talk if it helps to solve a problem. May you and yours and what you grow live long and happy. John. J.R.P.

Hi ALL, for those of you who are interested in my reuse of waste projects ideas, I will be showing my container gardening ideas off to others on Saturday the 9th June, at the MOTTINGHAM FESTIVAL, held on the Mottingham Sports Ground ( Foxes Fields ) Grove Park Road SE9, from 1 - 5pm. I will be set up next to the Tombola and refreshment stand.
If you are interested in having a good time why not come and see me and others, I'm sure it wont be a waste of your time. John. J.R.P.

Hi ALL, what a great day we had yesterday the 9th, when I exhibited my two projects off to lots of people who had come to our Mottingham Fete SE9. It was worm with a cool breeze but no rain even though we had a few rain clouds pass over what was going on. I managed to get into my 4 door car with a lift up window and boot one brokendown pallet section into the back of my car, along with 70 crops in their containers on their carrying beams, plus extra bags of containers too, and 10-8ft bean cane plus a 8ft-4ft folded up full size drawing of my own allotment plot I did to show others what my plot looked like from above. I've been taking lots of photos of what I've been doing lately which I will be adding to my website soon, which will be mostly of my Community project this time which you may also like to try. I will be starting another project at our local chuch soon, which will also be about growing things in containers vertically with the help of Age Concern, hopefully going all the way along a 25ft length of metal fencing they have alongside a walkway at the side of the church, which the old folk can use to grow things. We are also having a open day at the Mottingham Community Learning Centre-Shop on Friday the 15th from 12am until 7pm, which will also help to promote the way we grow things, and it will also help to promote what the Learning Shop as to offer to the local community too. I will give you another update soon, in the mean time.
May you and yours and what you grow live long and happy. John. J.R.P.

HI ALL, on Friday the 15-6-2007 was our open day, which was at our Mottingham Community Learning Centre-Shop, Cranley Parade, Beaconsfield Road, London SE9, for people to come and see what's on offer. I had lots of interest shown in our Reuse of waste plastic containers idea to grow things in, which we have going all the way around the edge of our back yard area. With this in mind I'm now in the process of putting lots of new photos onto my website www.recycling.moonfruit.com to cover my 2nd new project, which we have up and running now, with another one starting just around the corner at our local Church St. Andrews sometime next week, which I will also be adding some photos of once we have start it The Sad News is after us having a good day with lots of people calling in to see us, we were then told that the Bromley Council said that they will be shutting the Community Learning Centre-Shop down because of the lack of funds at the end of the month, so we have now started a petition up, which we are asking people to sign to help stop this from happening in the future. In the mean time may you and yours and what you grow live long and happy. John. J.R.P.

Hi John
When I try to follow the link to your site I just get a page that says I need to download the latest macromedia flash player. My computer here at work won't let me download that and I can't seem to get past it. Can you put a link to a page that doesn't require me to download anything?

Cheers
Zoe

Hi Thomzo, thank you for showing your interest in the way I do things, I'm sorry for the long delay in replying, but I will have to ask others how I can do it for you to visit my website, in the mean time, May you and yours and what you grow live long and happy. John. J.R.P.

Hi ALL, My NEW website 2nd Community project photos are now all on it for you to look at, after Veg to eat 1-2, I hope you find them of interest.
May you and yours and what you grow live long and happy. John. J.R.P.

Hi ALL, today the 1-7-2007 I give you notice that I have removed the topic on my website www.recycling.moonfruit.com about CUTTING CRIME, as its got nothing to do with trying to help the poor people in our world, and Re-using and Recycling some of our waste, and Gardening, which I designed my website for. With this in mind could you please spread the word, as I need all the help I can get to help others. THANK YOU VERY MUCH IF YOU CAN DO THIS FOR ME.
May you and yours and what you grow live long and happy. John. J.R.P.

Hi ALL,this message is for all those people who know people who have allotment plots or do farming where it has flooded, or for any body else who cares about others, whilst I'm sure most of the people do already know what ever they have growing now they must not eat it, why because of it being contaminated, and the contamination is now covering a wide area of land, to the point that all the crop growing farmers who have been effected, are now saying the land is going to be no good to use anymore, for many years in the future.
With this in mind I know how I can help them, done by you simply helping me to spread the word, that they can still grow things in containers, which they lay out on top of the contaminated land, using my very simple to make transportable growing system to grow something in, designed to helps them in a flood situation like I've been offering to the rest of the world for many years now. In the West of the country people have been flooded, it would make me feel good, and I'm sure it would make you feel good too, to know that someone is going use my idea after you trying to help me to spread the word.
This way they can still carry on growing things to eat or to make a living, instead of just giving up because they can no longer use the land that's been contaminated by what ever for many years to come. There must be thousands of containers of all shapes and sizes the people have had to use to hold water, simply fill them now with cheap compost and grow something to eat, instead of sending them mostly to the landfill sites, along with all the rest of the rubbish the floods have created I say.
I know that there are already lots of people out there who know my system works, I do believe now is the time for all of them to tell others, so we can help those who do need all the help they can get right now in the UK where it has been flooded..
For those who do not know what I'm talking about please visit my website www.recycling.moonfruit.com.
May you and yours and what you grow live long and happy, and thank you for taking the time to read my important message. John. J.R.P.

Re: Container grown potatoes
« Reply #11 on: Today at 22:24:34 »

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BUGS 9 TIMES LIMIT,as reported in a leading news paper dated the 26-7-2007.
BRITAIN'S flood water contains dangerous bacteria at a level NINE TIMES the limit for a safe beach, TESTS REVEALED. A test sample taken in WALHAM, near CLOUCESTER, at the height of the floods was ANALYSED BY SCIENTISTS.
They FOUND 4,700 COLIFORM CFUs (colony forming units) per 100ml.
The EU LIMIT for a safe BLUE FLAG beach is 500 COLIFORM CFUs per 100ml of WATER.
LEVELS OF potentially DEADLY E.COLI were also WORRYINGLY HIGH. And water trapped inside flooded homes is likely to be even more dangerous as toilets overflow and raw sewage surges back out from pipes.
E.COLI LEVELS in water like this are probably IN THE MILLIONS of CFUs, HEALTH EXPERTS WARNED.
SCIENTISTS ALSO WARNED THAT THE RISK OF INFECTION WILL INCREASE AS THE FLOOD WATER RECEDES AND THE CONTAMINATION BECOMES MORE CONCENTRATED. Of course if you have not been flooded this wont apply to you. John. J.R.P.

Hi All, for those who are interested in the way I do things, and for those who would like to see something different, please visit my website as I've just put some new photos on to it of my third reuse of waste project, which is now up and running at our local Community Church called St Edwards, in Mottingham, London, SE9. which is helping me to spread the word in the local Community. May you and yours and what you grow live long and happy. John. J.R.P.

Hi ALL, I'm sorry to say I have no photos coming up on my website at the moment for some reason, which I hope my site maker team will sort out for me as soon as possible. John. J.R.P.