I appear to have stalled on the garden front. A combination of changing my work situation right when I should have been harvesting, and inexperience meaning I planted everything at once so I ended up with more Kohl-Rabi than anyone will ever need, and left half a dozen things too long so they got caught by the frost and pulped, meant that despite a good start, we didn’t finish so well this year. We’ll probably have a lot more on the compost bin than in the carefully stored jam jars.
And the brambles made a comeback.
We live and learn, and hopefully I’ll still remember all of this by next spring.
A major problem is that we live across the village from the garden, and there’s still no shelter apart from our rather ramshackle shed which is breeding leaks. It’s hard to get the boys enthusiastic to go to the garden if they have to run about in the mud all the time just to keep warm. It’s also a pain that when it turns cold or starts raining/snowing/blizzarding, I’ll have to drop everything and ride home in foul weather.
What we need is a decent garden house so we can spend a day at the garden whatever the weather is doing. A privvy would be good as well.
Which means I need to think about what, for me is a pretty daunting construction project. But if we’re going to get any further in sustainable living, I’ve got to face up to this sooner or later, and as I progress on the carpentry course I’ll be running out of excuses not to have a go.
First step is to go and find out what we are actually allowed to build here, which means going to yet another office…
Feel free to give me a kick up the blog if I keep procrastinating on this one.
7 comments
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November 11, 2012 at 9:22 pm
Jos Helmer
Andy, check this one : http://humanurehandbook.com/
rgds
Jos Helmer
November 11, 2012 at 9:24 pm
Andy in Germany
Jos: I have a copy of that most excellent book, but thanks for the tip. I defy anyone to try reading the chapter on microbes without wanting to wash their hands…
November 11, 2012 at 10:35 pm
Pia
I really like this website:
http://www.instructables.com
Search for “shed” and you’ll find several ideas
Pia
November 12, 2012 at 11:20 am
Tony
Sounds like our garden 🙂 Good skills mate!
Build a thunder box earth waste composter. What fun!
November 18, 2012 at 10:54 am
Andy in Germany
Pia: Thanks for the tip. I knew about instructables, but for some reason didn’t think of looking there for Shed ideas…
Tony: Glad I’m not the only one. I’m beginning to wonder if pure fruit and veg gardening is my thing…
November 24, 2012 at 10:18 pm
disgruntled
you never know what food waste *is* until you start growing your own. It always feels so dispiriting to have lavished attention on some crop and then finding you have to chuck half of it away… at least if it’s composted it’s not entirely wasted.
December 2, 2012 at 7:07 pm
Andy in Germany
Oops, sorry it took so long to reply Sally. Thanks for the comment: it’s nice to know I’m not the only one who has this problem.