Becoming Domestic

Its a new long term project that has just emerged for this family but since Bealers has been Head of Veg Gardening and really enjoying it (having never planted or grown anything before he’s now growing chillis, tomatoes, cucumbers, courgettes, peas, pumpkins, all manner of herbs and salad items, raspberries, strawberries and LOADS of potatoes!), since all the recent talk of predicted economic doom and gloom, soaring fuel prices/import costs as well as the UK’s ageing population, increased violence have lead us to believe that there may be some really tough times ahead for those not well equipped to look after their own. We have started to think seriously about becoming more self sufficient as a family and less reliant on others for food and energy requirements.

At present we’re not doing much more than a bit of idle internet research and have found a load of good sites (added to the blogroll here) but have also started to collect books on the subject of self sufficiency, allotment gardening and keeping chickens and livestock.

Bealers is now happily enrolled on a 10 week Beginners Carpentry evening course at the local college from September and I’m really keen to do the NVQ in hairdressing (but at the moment the small baby at home means I’m unable to leave the house without her). Other interests we’ve identified as being useful for those who aim to be more self sufficient are fishing, shooting, first aid, general building skills, plumbing, teaching and counselling, dressmaking, knitting, crocheting. About a lifetime ago I trained to be a primary school teacher and although I never actually got paid for doing it I do still sometimes have an urge to home educate our kids.

At the moment we are fairly close to being a typical modern family but perhaps where we differ is in our new attitude to doing things for ourselves. We are raising our children (twins aged five and a new baby) to know about food (cost, growing, preparation, nutrition), how to enjoy their free time without classes or clubs where people tell them what to do, to spend plenty of time in the fresh air and to understand that money is a finite resource which for most people is hard to come by and too easily spent. We teach them how to sweep, how to make their beds, how to hang clothes up, how to load/unload the washing machine, how to donate old things no longer required to the charity shop, how to borrow books from the library. We holiday in a twelve year old five berth touring caravan and we write letters to friends and family members. All this is fairly new to us as only two years ago we wer, like so many others, enjoying the luxuries that a two salary household could enjoy.

At present we rent a fairly big Victorian house with a good sized garden on a busy main road in rural Worcestershire but aim to one day live somewhere with enough land, outbuildings etc to grow vegetables, raise some animals for food (chickens, ducks, pigs?), to have access to somewhere to fish. We don’t know where this will be. We sold our house in London last year and now are settled and happy enough for the time being where we are taking the small steps towards a totally different lifestyle to our old city ways.

The only conundrum for me is how we will have enough time and energy to manage such a lifestyle. At present we watch very little television, have not much time for sitting and reading, I get up with the three kids early in the morning and I am just finishing cleaning, washing, drying, feeding etc by the time it is our bedtime. My hope is that as they grow older they will be more independent on us and will have their own role to play, Bealers will presumably work away from the home less as theoretically we will need less cash to pay for things and will therefore have more time to spend on managing our home environment.

http://www.selfsufficientish.com/forum/

http://www.goselfsufficient.co.uk/

http://www.simpleliving.net

http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/

The Willow Den in the background will get much leafier this summer

Last March we bought the willow withies to make a willow den for the children as our garden has no shade after midday during the summer months. Withies can be bought from November-March in the UK when the wood is dormant.

We followed the instructions found in a great book called ‘How Does Your Garden Grow?: Great Gardening for Green-Fingered Kids’ and within a few weeks of planting at the beginning of April, the willow had taken root and formed a superb play den in the corner of the garden.

Now it is a year on and I’ve been asked to show a picture of just how leafy it is. We’re not sure whether the maintenance of tying in the bows at the top of the dome will be an annual job. It may be that using the recommended rafia twine was a bad idea for long term growth as it just rotted during the winter and the vigorously growing willow burst its joins. Bealers is going to use more sturdy non-biodegradable ties when he has the time to bend the open roof branches over again.

Not a very good picture as the plum tree growing behind makes it look very tall! 

My son really disliked peas. The way to get him to finally after years of cajoling him try some and announce ‘Yum!’ was staightforward but long winded in the extreme. I had to sow peas, grow peas, stake the peas, have the children pick the peas, shell the peas and only then did he feel the urge to put one in his mouth.

Bit of a shame I didn’t plant acres of the things as this evening he asked ‘Where are the rest of the peas we picked?’ (I ate them with my dinner last night) cue lots of boo-hooing about how he didn’t know he liked peas and now he does he wants to eat more but they’ve all gone! I feel a trip to the greengrocer coming on.

What I don’t know is whether pea plants are like runner beans and keep on producing more pods the more one picks them (perhaps yes as that’s the theory with sweet pea flower crops) or once the harvest has been taken is that all there is from that plant (like potatoes). I recall that the packet of pea seeds instructed me to plant another row or two every few weeks so I would have a continuous crop which makes me think perhaps the latter is true.

Veg growing, it seems, is very much a lifelong process of learning.

[Update - I just found this which is helpful for those new to pea growing like me]

http://www.gardenaction.co.uk/fruit_veg_diary/fruit_veg_mini_project_april_1b_pea.asp#Harvest%20peas

Harvesting Peas
Garden peas are best when slightly immature - when fully mature they become hard and loose the sweet taste. Harvesting them early also encourages them to produce more. As a guide, peas are normally ready for harvest three weeks after flowering. Peas quickly loose their flavour after harvesting, so pick them just before they are required for cooking.

The peas at the bottom of the plant will tend to be ready first, so begin harvesting here, working up as time progresses. When the plant stops producing peas, cut the top of the plant off and leave the roots in the ground to compost for next year.

Loads of visitors have wondered what we have growing over our willow den to make it look so leafy so I thought I’d post an update to the original post ‘How to make a willow den for under £40′ so that anyone interested in making one next year will see that it GETS LEAFY ALL BY ITSELF!

There is nothing growing over the willow den, the willow withies are so easy to grow that just by sticking them in the ground and giving them some water straight after building the structure it grows to look like this by summer time. We love it.

Last month my daughter and I decided to create a mini pond in our rented garden with the hope of finding some frogspawn to come and live in it.

We built the pond from an inexpensive ‘tub trug’ and placed loads of rocks in it and around it so the small creatures could get in and out of it without drowning (according to our bee keeping friend Janet - even bumble bees need a rock to stand on when they drink or they’d fall in and drown). We used rain water collected from the rain butt to fill it and the final touch were a couple of pond plants bought at the Malvern Gardening Show (a miniture pink water lily and a water iris).

We never did find any frogspawn as everyone we asked claimed that the local herons eat all the tadpoles but instead we have enjoyed watching loads of birds discover the drinking facility. It also brings a small bit of height and interest to our newly created triangular herb/cut flower border and the two of us girls really enjoyed creating something together.

Making the mini pond:

The mini pond in June:

While at the Malvern Spring Show I saw a ’swimming pond’ show garden. My friend Tissy reminded me how we used to go swimming in Hampstead Lido which was an enormous swimming pond.

I really love ponds and would love one day to have a big pond to attract lots of frogs and other watery creatures but what a fantastic idea to build one to be pleasant to swim or dip in too!

It seems to me that if you have enough marginal planting and gravel, steps to get in and out of the water easily, and a deep enough bit to paddle around in anyone can call their pond a swimming pond. The main idea is that the water is regenerated by the marginal planting so that it is clean enough for people to want to take a dip. No more chlorine, pumps or sterile blue rectangles - swimming ponds are definitely the way to cool down. I particularly liked the area next to the pond where one could dry off and lounge around.

I’ve just found the handout given to me by Hartpury College’s team that built the inspirational show garden at Malvern & it says:

Natural swimming ponds are stiull relatively unknown in the UK but are a natural alternative to chemically managed swimming ponds. A natural swimming pond combines a swimming area with aquatic planting that not only looks aesthetically pleasing but also serves the purpose of cleaning the water.

Natural swimming pools use the idea of the natural landscape to create a safe swimming environment and employ the same biological processes to clean and purify the water as those found in the wild. They consist of two zones - a deeper central area for swimming and a shallow planted area for cleansing the water.

The biological processes are a combination of the actions of plants and beneficial bacteria. They break down the waste matter into usable substance for the plants.

A swimming pond has a number of benefits such as the fact that it is easy and less costly to maintain than regular swimming pools, it is free of artificial chemicals, it is aesthetically pleasing and is also wildlife friendly.

My friend Tissy and I had a great day out at the Malvern Spring Garden show last week & amazingly the rain held off for us.

We both love gardening and knew that there would be plenty of opportunity to see lovely planting ideas with the show gardens and chance to spend a day looking at loads of garden related things to buy. Since our last visit to a garden show together (it’s an annual treat for us ladies and we always take a day off work for it) we had both built up a small shopping list of gardening things we wanted as there are so many retailers selling their wares it is easy to get just what one wants at a reduced price.

Tissy was in the market for good quality secateurs and a garden tool belt. I’d showed her the belt Bealers had bought for my birthday and how great it is for just having everything to hand at all times in the garden (secateurs, scissors, twine, marker pen & labels, gloves). At first it felt a bit geeky wearing it but very soon I loved the fact that with one easy move I could hang everything up on the coat rack.

We found a super company selling really funky big neoprene garden tool belts/aprons. The people who run the company Garden Tribe were really helpful in pointing out that if you put your trowel handle pointing at an angle then it won’t poke you in the ribs as you crouch down. I told them I’d put a link to their site from mine so do add one of these to your birthday wish-list if you like gardening as much as we do.

Doesn’t she look glamourous yet practical…(actually the one she bought was bright pink as we figured it was prettier and easier to spot if left lying around in the garden).

http://www.wrap.org.uk/caw/index.html

The seventh annual Compost Awareness Week (CAW) will be celebrated nationwide from Sunday 6th to Saturday 12th May 2007.

Compost Awareness Week aims to encourage more people to recognise the benefits of home composting and the great results that can be achieved by using peat-free composts containing recycled materials in the garden. The week was brought to the UK by The Composting Association and now forms a key part of WRAP and The Composting Association’s (TCA) annual calendar.

As a nation we produce around 30 million tonnes of rubbish each year and over half of this waste can be easily recycled. In fact, over one third of the contents of an average UK household dustbin can be home composted, not to mention all the garden waste that can be added to a compost bin. Yet many people still do not recognise how important and simple this is to do.

Compost Awareness Week is our chance to help people get closer to the benefits of compost. There are plenty of activities going on across the country, so don’t miss your chance to take part. If everyone gets involved in spreading the compost message, we can all help to create a cleaner environment for future generations.

At the beginning of April I planted my ‘early’ potatoes (a variety of spud which is ready to eat early in the season) and ‘main crop’ potatoes (a different sort which is ready later in the season - and bigger? I’m not entirely sure yet) in a couple of trenches (about 20-30cm deep) next to each other at the far end of the vegetable garden.

I left plenty opf space (30 cm) between them and a bit more between the first trench and the stumpy barely alive new raspberry canes. Bealers thinks I’m mad to leave so much room but I think we’ll be surprised how big they grow and we can always plant something little beside them. My theory was that I remember that potatoes need earthing up so the newly formed potatoes don’t get exposed to the sunlight and turned green while they are growing bigger.

I got the children to help me trowel in a couple of inches of well rotted manure before we pushed the seed potatoes in firmly and were about to cover them up with soil. I noticed that on the end of one trench there was extra room by the fence for me to dig another foot or so of trench so I could get more potatoes in.

As an experiment I didn’t line the bottom of this last mini-section of trench with any manure but covered the whole happy lot (about thirty seed potatoes) up as I wanted to get the kids in for some urgent tea & bathtime (they melt or are totally loopy and uncooperative if I miss their bedtimeby half an hour or so). I watered them in with a couple of trips with the watering can.

Anyway. This evening I noticed that the spuds have sprouted this weekend (and my sweet peas have become very poorly looking but that’s not interesting right now). The earlies are some thick blueish green foliage and the main crop  have lighter green leaves sprouting through the soil - BUT NOTHING GROWING IN THE BIT WHERE THERE WAS NO MANURE ADDED TO THE TRENCH!

No wonder man discovered manure being tremendous for the crops. I’m looking forward to finding out which ones taste better An hoping its the ones grown in poo as there are so many more of them…

One of my kids really enjoys planting things, learning the names of flowers, watering, digging, weeding and generally being out in the fresh air helping me in the garden. Her brother is more interested in books and films but now we live here in the countryside with a large garden, he is becoming interested in being outside more.

Whenever I’m digging a trench in the vegetable garden the kids are at my side but have only got one little trowel to use or their set of plastic beach spades and invariably end up bored and throwing soil at each other which isn’t allowed and results in someone crying and needing their eye flushed out with water.

I’ve kept my eye out for a set of children’s sized long handled tools for a while now but couldn’t find anything so was delighted to see a lovely little set in Woolworths this week for £19.99 which included a shovel, a rake, a broom, a wheelbarrow, gardener’s apron and gloves all in lovely bright colours but proper metal implements.

It was just the thing I needed to say thank you to my daughter for being such a great little gardener and also an encouragement to my son to come and help out more instead of moaning about wanting to go inside.

Before…

After a very special trip to Woolies…

Now all I hear from my son is ‘Mummy please can we go into the vegetable patch and do some more digging?’ which is cool and they fight over who is going to sweep the path. Brilliant.

I make sure they treat the new tools with the respect all actual tools reserve by putting them away in the shed after they have used them, not swinging them around their heads uneccessarily, or even just leaving them lying around where someone could trip over them. With a bit of luck they’ll last for a few years and will have helped me occupy a couple of energetic four year olds while I’m too busy in the garden to entertain them.

The other thing that’s really helping instilling a love of gardening is having them choose seeds (pumpkins, sunflowers), sowing seeds, label seed, water seeds and then amazingly seeing things grow just a few days later. They think it’s excellent fun.