Has spring yet sprung?

Whoo hooo! I finally found the battery charger for my camera. How cool. So heres a pic of my allotment:

Its not much to look at but I do love it. As you can see we are cultivating a great crop of black plastic ;)

The garlic is growing well, and I can't wait until the time finally comes to eat it. We are growing the garlic lovers collection from the garlic farm. I've planted out broad and runner beans and have courgettes and sweet corn coming along apace at home, reay for May.

I've also been thinking about yoga. I think I need some. It's the only thing that streches me out and stops me seizing up after a day at work, and it think does that same thing for me after a day's digging.

It's really beginning to feel like spring now, I'm off to search the net for climate info, and see if there's anything that can tell me when the last frosts are likey to be.

How To Get Started With Raw Foods

A farm for the future?

Wow. I've just watched a farm for the future, which I was alerted to by the excellent the gardeners world blog. This a great film about farming and peak oil (i.e. it's running out), and looks at both the problems and the possible solutions. Radio 4's Food Programme recently had a great show looking at Cuba and how they coped with their 'special period', and London and whether it can be made more self sufficient. It does strike me that we have massive areas in our cities that could be used productively, although as the owner of a spoilt pet rabbit I do not think we should keep them to eat! A newspaper article recently alerted me to incredible edible Todmorden, the town is basically attempting to make itself self sufficient in vegetables by 2018. this seems like a great idea. I wish councils would plant more fruit and nut trees for example instead of those that are, well not edible.

How To Get Started With Raw Foods

Who gives a fig?

Well. Last year I ordered a fig tree (why, Brunswick, as you ask) and 3 random trees. My 3 random fruit trees (2 vines and a kiwi tree) turned up and the fig never did and eventually I forgot about it. So when my mum rang to see if I had sent a 'big plant' to her house I denied all knowledge. Two days later she rings me and tells me that it's a fig tree. Suddenly everything clicks into place. I'm guessing i must have ordered it at the wrong time of year last year and they've just sent it out (it looks a bit healthy for having been in the post for a year). Now deciding where to site it. I'm thinking of pot growing it as apparently they are very vigorous, and also that makes it easier to move it somewhere safe in the winter. I've recently picked up Carol Klein's Grow your own Fruit, which is a lovely book. I've not read her grow your own veg but I like this and hopefully can use it help make Mr FatGirl build the fruit cage he's promised me.

I think I've killed my worms. again. I think is over feeding and over sogginess. But before i clean out the can-o-worms and start again I'll leave it a month as I've thought I'd killed them all before and I hadn't.

Yesterday's Independent on Sunday had a good article on water scarcity (sadly on-line lacking the insane graphics that print in the paper. It seems that while everyone talks about CO2 no-one wants to talk about water. I know it rains a lot but be waste massive amounts. I live on the south coast where hosepipe bans are a yearly occurrence, yet still we think we can just, well, er, chuck it down the toilet. I've briefly chatted about this issue before. I'm like anyone but why aren't new houses built with say grey water diverters or rainwater harvesting as a matter of course. They should be. It should be obvious.

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All gone wrong again

Well the whole faux green house thing didn't go well. After blowing over three times in the winds this week it ended up at the bottom of the garden in bits this morning. So I have abandoned the seedlings and sown some simple stuff by a sunny windowsill.

I have also ordered a selection of vegetable plug plants. I think this will hopefully take some of the leg work out and give me a good chance. I also think with that that I can hopefully plant up the whole plot (dun, dun, dun!). Last year we only cultivated half of it (black plasticking the rest), and was expecting to do the same this year. The selection of plugs I have ordered is brassica heavy so I've stared some sweetcorn, and courgettes inside and sown in situ some broad and runner beans. I'll get some winter squashes and more roots too.

The bokashi is amazing. Dug my first pickled batch in under a good spit of soil this weekend. Lets see how it rots down. I think (again) I've killed the worms. There is a fluffy mold growing in bin, I'm sure that's not a good sign, and i can only see dead worms. Oh dear.

How To Get Started With Raw Foods