Dog poo/poop composting the easy way
I’m switching my worm composter from dog poo to food scraps. I was pleased with it at first, but the worms just couldn’t keep up with the amount of poo that the Min Pins generate. Perhaps I needed more worms or a bigger unit? To be quite honest with you the sight of the worms digesting dog poop is not a pretty one. I know that some people toss dog poo onto their compost heap but this is not a great idea as it contains many harmful pathogens. Not quite as bad as cat poo but still bad enough to halt simple healthy composting in its...
read moreMicro herbs can make every recipe look and probably taste wonderful
“Have you heard of micro herbs?” My friend Jo shook her head. She eats out far more than me so I was amazed that she hadn’t come across them. Between you and I Jo usually knows/has heard of everything that I ‘discover’ so I was thrilled. Finally I had something really valuable to share. I had my first taste of micro herbs at The Three Horseshoes on Mother’s day. A small teased ball of baby herbs was served as a garnish on the corned duck. Very pretty and dainty but I didn’t expect them to taste of anything until I sampled...
read moreRecycle your shredded shrubs into deep chicken litter
Since I started keeping chickens I’ve always used gravel in the 30’ x 6’ run. Gravel provides drainage – when it rains the chicken poo is washed away. If it doesn’t rain you can turn over the gravel and, if you are energetic, worms appear. Special treats for the chickens. Six bags just cover the run. Applied four times yearly, you are looking at quite a sizable bill. At least £36 for just one a spread. If you don’t buy something to raise and aerate the ground the chickens are standing in foul mud. Diseases increase. And what...
read more1500 posts and still running strong
This is my 1500th post! A bit of a milestone for me. When Danny installed the WordPress software on my web site and said, “Over to you…” I had no idea that I’d eventually find myself here. Looking back I don’t really know what I thought I was doing. Initially it was an exercise to build up my writing skills. Being a painter and decorator at the time was fascinating, people wise, but the work was not even in the shanty towns of brain expanding territory. That’s after I’d discovered how to negotiate a high ladder and tentatively...
read moreThe fascination of gardening. Constant learning curves.
For the second time this year my tomato seedlings in the greenhouse and Solar tunnel have been hit by sharp frosts. I thought the first fifty had succumbed to damping off. This happened last year when I watered them with rain water from the butts. These had had the same treatment. Since then I’ve discovered that this is a bad idea as they can easily keel over with the nasties lurking in a butt. Tomato, pepper and cucumber seedlings are very delicate for the first few weeks after germination – they need tap water or filtered water from a...
read moreIncan irrigation and hotbeds could transform our polytunnel and greenhouse woes
There was a fascinating article in Permaculture magazine (no. 66 Winter 2010) using an Inca technique to self water a greenhouse. Basically, water is harvested from the roof of the tunnel or greenhouse into a central semi lined gulley. This seeps in between small stones beneath raised beds and waters the plants from below. The soil on the top remains dry – so is no longer a nirvana for slugs and also counteracts the nasty problem of moulds. The gulley has a wooden slatted walkway above that forms the pathway through the tunnel. I got very...
read moreBash Street Kids
My first car was a blue mini van. Low slung and basic, it carried my wooden toys to Covent Garden market and was my horse and carriage when I went to visit my mum, in Oxford. In fact it was when I was driving back to London from one of these visits that I heard on the radio that John Lennon had died. The van had a small recurring fault – the carburettor would stick and we’d slowly grind to a halt. The AA man that appeared on the scene when this initially happened, showed me a handy trick – he knocked the belligerent part smartly with...
read moreMaggi Liquid Seasoning/Maggi Arome
A few years ago I travelled to France for the day and stocked up on ingredients that are cheaper and better in France. One ingredient I picked up was a chubby bottle of Maggi Arome. This was a purely sentimental purchase – I remembered the bottle was in my mother’s kitchen when I was a child. I loved the shape of it then and as an adult the retro shape held a similar appeal. Danny started to use it a few months ago, with stunning results. “We are going to have to go to France to replace this.” He announced as he sploshed it into a...
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