Self-Sufficiency in Style
October diary
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Self-Sufficiency in Style October diary
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Potatoes - stored in old feed bags |
October has been a good month.
In many ways it is the end of the self-sufficient year, and at last, after some very poor weather, we had a little Indian summer. It is an important month with the final harvesting of the produce, the preparation of some livestock for slaughter, and an element of battening down for winter. |
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The unexpected happened. A neighbour who was moving offered us his
poly-tunnel and the chance of a second tunnel was too good to resist.
We downed tools from the walled garden, dismantled and re-erected the new acquisition. We now have two thirty-foot tunnels. This one, we have floored with plastic and pea shingle. Amongst other things, it will provide good storage for, and a place to paint, the garden furniture over winter. |
Number Two - Ready for Use |
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17000 bricks sounds a lot - it is a lot! |
The wall for the walled garden is behind schedule, but the bricklayer is
due any day....any day...any day.
We have bricks everywhere. |
| The raised beds are finished though; all
21 of them:
16 are 20 by 5 feet and the remaining 5 are just over 5 feet by 5 feet. All are drained, all have water taps nearby and are bounded by either shingle or concrete slabs. We decided to experiment by covering most of them with plastic for the winter. If the reader is thinking that this is a very extravagant way to garden, you are right; it is. The writer will repent when gardening with his feet clear of clay and back protected from the wind - for this is Self-Sufficiency in Style. |
Wild Extravagance |
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Providing a special environment |
We live in a landscape of alkaline soil and that makes the growing of
cranberries and blueberries impossible; well nearly impossible.
You need a raised bed, lined with plastic, lots of bags of ericaceous compost and a source of stored rain water. We need the soft water anyway for the citrus trees in the conservatory. Oranges and lemons do not thrive on our tap-water either |
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We have lived, from choice for many years in houses with totally wood
fired central heating systems, sometimes, as now, with some open fires.
And being fairly remote, we are liable to be cut off from the outside world by snow, floods and even fallen trees. So getting enough dry wood, suitably stored, before winter is an absolute necessity. This year, almost all was bought in and we finished piling it away nice and early. Logs are everywhere. But it is a good feeling to know we will be warm all winter. |
Preparing for winter |
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Unexpected success |
Although we are not fully in production in the garden yet, we did have an
unexpected success.
The melons in the shops often seem hard and tasteless and we nearly didn't bother to grow any. But there was a space in the poly-tunnel that somehow beckoned, and, even though we were really too late, we planted some. The flavour has been fantastic and we have harvested so many that we have given plenty away. |
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Gladys the Jersey will be coming in from the meadow soon and into her shed
for the winter.
Her milk yield has begun to drop quite sharply towards the period when she will be dry before calving again next year. So we are busy filling the freezer with butter and skimmed milk ready for the time when milking has to stop. That will mean getting up later in the morning for Mrs P, so it is also a time to be enjoyed. |
Cartons for freezing milk and butter |
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An Indian Summer at the chillingly named Hangman's Cottage, just to the south of Misery Corner. |
