Newspaper seed pots vs. plastic plant pots

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Solar showers - They really do work well when they are set up

BUT

what can go wrong while your setting everything up....

This is a very realistic and funny look at setting up a solar shower.  It takes longer than you imagine and it has its trouble shooting but it does work really well.  

Watch it and if you have had any experience with this black hose, was we have had, you will have yourself a good laugh and not feel so bad about your attempts.

We ran our own solar bath for 3 years using just garden hose heated up in the sun.  By 8am it was ready to use because the sun was so effective in the southern hemisphere, where we lived then.  We moved on from that to a donkey boiler using a fire underneath a big drum which worked fairy well for timing as its not always convenient to have a bath/shower at 8am.  You really need one before you leave for work in the morning or when you come home.  By that time the water in the hose is too cold.  Otherwise its too hot but mixing in a bath is ok.

So the donkey boiler was a challenge and leaves one very smokey from making the fire and waiting for it to heat the water which took about an hour if we were lucky.  We filled the drum with a hose from our raintank. Then we used to bring it inside to the "bath-room" via buckets.  The water was a bit discoloured from the drum as time passed by but living out in the stix and working the land and raising livestock means your really want a hot bath fairly often!.

Living off the grid has it challenges but I would say in the end that solar is the best.  Wind power is also good for some things but not the way they are doing it with windfarms.  The old way of each person/farm having their own windmill was a good one.

If we had had the resources and people to brainstorm with and the way to store hot water, I still think the days of our midday solar baths were some of the best.  No-one for acres around and a bath out in the sun.  our little kids used to enjoy it a lot too.

You have no idea how hot that water gets in the sun!   And when it runs out you sure need the cool water to cool the bath water enough to be able to get in.

Looking at Polytunnels

Poly tunnels are both useful and necessary in colder climates to extend the growing season.

Hopefully we will be able to get one next year to improve our harvest a little.

Here is a link to one I saw advertised.  No doubt it will not be hardy enough to survive our strong year round winds but it may suit you?

8ft 2.5m Polytunnel Garden Greenhouse Outdoor Pollytunnel Grow your own Kit - Feel Good UK

.................................Only the summer days: Evening Gathering

.................................Only the summer days: Evening Gathering: A post all about our wild rose petal adventure.  We went picking rose petals and made rose petal syrup and nettle soup (Separately of course!)

Length of growing season and temperatures

The challenging factors that our vegetables faced in this location, proved to be largely,   .... to much for them.

I see that the runner beans leaves have turned brown almost overnight due to temperature drops here and they have only just started producing those brilliant orange flowers.  Not a single bean :(

After starting out in Spring, we managed to grow these herbs/vege's:

• some onions (from waste cuttings) and we have a number of awesome seed heads for next spring, 
• some chives, (Edible flowers and chopped leaves for pastas)
• a few strawberries, 
• a quantity of borage (Flowers for drinks and salads)
• potatoes (Still need to harvest) and we grew them in tyre towers
• lavender
• fennel
• peppermint (a variety of other mints from our local nursery all prove to be unpleasant and disappointing).
• briar rose
• suspect chamomile from the local nursery
• corriander (saved seeds for next year)
• celery (From root cutting/waste)
• sage 
• nasturtiums
• Rosemary from cuttings :)

The remainder of our seedlings never made it to maturity due to slugs and snails.  Dont use poisons or squash them so did not deal with this issue.  I did relocate a few to the other side of the garden though ina kind, gentle way.

To get back to the growing conditions, we have high winds here throughout spring and summer and it never gets very warm.  Summer is short.

Without a polytunnel, I don't see much hope for us producing much.

We used a quantity of horse manure and I saw a huge improvement from last year as the soil here is very poor.  We mostly grew in containers.

Some herb containers we kept on the front porch and they did quite well sheltered form the wind and in the sun.  It did mean we needed to water them which I was not very good about.

The wild brambles are still not ready, which is really late as autumn in affecting the tree leaves already.

Scottish Thistle

There is a book I have been reading called Healing Threads by Mary Beith.


In there she mentions the old uses for thistle - a sweet for children and a tea for melancholy.

So we set about researching it and looking at the varieties we have growing near us.

There are several kinds of thistle that grow world wide.  Looking at the flowerhead, leaves and stem give you a good idea of which one you have.  The Scottish Thistle has a very different flower head.

There is little to no info on the culinary / medicinal value of Scottish Thistle.

We did find this site though that echo's the info by Mary Beith.


http://scienceray.com/biology/botany/thistle-do-nicely/

Extract:  Once upon a time, tea was brewed from the mighty thistle. It was said that it was a good cure for depression and everyone knows that in time past depression was surely a good part of the Scottish psyche. If the thought of thistle tea puts you off then I can only imagine at how you would feel about the children eating the bulbous head of the thistle – rumour has it that it tastes chewy and sweet.


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Personally I think its very useful culturally to investigate the thistle further and we will be doing this over a period of time.


Certainly with herbs its essential to correctly identify the plant as many look similar with toxic results.