This week has been a weird one. The boys need to be home schooled. How they expect a single parent with full time work to make sure the boys stay on task is beyond me; the school work comes first. So, in permaculture fashion - everything is going very, very slow. However...
The first Estufa is on the move! We acquired this second hand greenhouse from a friend after I had already ordered a 6 x 3m greenhouse. I knew we needed one to host all the plants that are needed to build a food forest, so we can have a safe home for seedlings to grow. So, I guess two greenhouses is better than one. We will also get a pretty amazing tomato harvest in the summer season, and broccoli in the winter.
It seems we haven't seen the sun in a while. Our seedlings are getting leggy, the radishes have suffered, and the cucumbers and courgettes are just hanging out. The pests are defeating me a little. The broad beans seem to be under an ongoing ant attack, although I spray them with a soapy solution nearly every day. The rainbow chard has a sneaky caterpillar or two I can't seem to find at night, and the Bok Choy has finally bolted and sent signals to every slug in the area, but at least we got our fill. We have been eating so much of it this last month that the boys have begun to like it, and we have enough left over to make Kimchi. Now it's a little out of season unless you want a tiny harvest, I'll be sure to have a much bigger Bok Choy season this Autumn/Winter.
At the moment, we are often eating the veggies I've already mentioned, chilli's we have preserved in the freezer, and from the garden: spring onions, beetroot, scallions/chives, asparagus (although small amounts as it seems the asparagus had been neglected the first few years of its life), thyme, red mustard, and radishes. Very soon carrot thinnings will be on the menu.
Although we might be putting up Estufas and selling a few vegetable boxes, it seems we need grounding a little. This project is never intended, nor suited to be, a market garden. You know the types you see with acres of flat land, flawless hedging, floating row covers, and precision planting? That's not really us. Head down the market garden route and we would likely fall flat on our arses, and waste a lot of money. We also don't really want to go down this route. Selling food from our gardens to a handful of people supports what we are trying to do, but we will never be able to support and make financially viable (and sustainable) a large market garden. Besides, it's always grated on me a little that although small-scale organic farms are certainly the way forward in terms of farming with nature, but what happens to all that plastic once it tears and becomes unusable? Often these farms have me in awe until I notice plastic is used extensively to grow food. Organic? Sure. Farming with, instead of against, nature? Well, no. That plastic might live for a while, maybe even your lifetime, but what happens when a cat jumps on top of your floating row cover and scratches it up? Two of my nets have already been destroyed by Mittens this season, pouncing on a cricket or a worm, so I'm generally curious.
Now that we will have Estufas, its time to really start planning the food forest: edible hedges, nitrogen fixing trees and shrubs, perennial flowers and herbs, and fruit trees. A tiny area will be a market garden of sorts, which will produce our bulk crops of potatoes and roots, but we intend to put most of our energy into building a system that supports what we need and that we can also support with very little management. Being in a bio-reserve, we want to develop the land in the hopes we will increase the wildlife here, including birds, whilst also being able to walk around and find all the things we need - which means ordering a lot of seeds and plants to ensure we have a large variety. The 'pests' can get their fill, and we will eat whatever is left. However, we don't intend to host lots of bunnies - anyone know where we can get a few birds of prey? 😄
The first Estufa is on the move! We acquired this second hand greenhouse from a friend after I had already ordered a 6 x 3m greenhouse. I knew we needed one to host all the plants that are needed to build a food forest, so we can have a safe home for seedlings to grow. So, I guess two greenhouses is better than one. We will also get a pretty amazing tomato harvest in the summer season, and broccoli in the winter.
It seems we haven't seen the sun in a while. Our seedlings are getting leggy, the radishes have suffered, and the cucumbers and courgettes are just hanging out. The pests are defeating me a little. The broad beans seem to be under an ongoing ant attack, although I spray them with a soapy solution nearly every day. The rainbow chard has a sneaky caterpillar or two I can't seem to find at night, and the Bok Choy has finally bolted and sent signals to every slug in the area, but at least we got our fill. We have been eating so much of it this last month that the boys have begun to like it, and we have enough left over to make Kimchi. Now it's a little out of season unless you want a tiny harvest, I'll be sure to have a much bigger Bok Choy season this Autumn/Winter.
At the moment, we are often eating the veggies I've already mentioned, chilli's we have preserved in the freezer, and from the garden: spring onions, beetroot, scallions/chives, asparagus (although small amounts as it seems the asparagus had been neglected the first few years of its life), thyme, red mustard, and radishes. Very soon carrot thinnings will be on the menu.
Although we might be putting up Estufas and selling a few vegetable boxes, it seems we need grounding a little. This project is never intended, nor suited to be, a market garden. You know the types you see with acres of flat land, flawless hedging, floating row covers, and precision planting? That's not really us. Head down the market garden route and we would likely fall flat on our arses, and waste a lot of money. We also don't really want to go down this route. Selling food from our gardens to a handful of people supports what we are trying to do, but we will never be able to support and make financially viable (and sustainable) a large market garden. Besides, it's always grated on me a little that although small-scale organic farms are certainly the way forward in terms of farming with nature, but what happens to all that plastic once it tears and becomes unusable? Often these farms have me in awe until I notice plastic is used extensively to grow food. Organic? Sure. Farming with, instead of against, nature? Well, no. That plastic might live for a while, maybe even your lifetime, but what happens when a cat jumps on top of your floating row cover and scratches it up? Two of my nets have already been destroyed by Mittens this season, pouncing on a cricket or a worm, so I'm generally curious.
Now that we will have Estufas, its time to really start planning the food forest: edible hedges, nitrogen fixing trees and shrubs, perennial flowers and herbs, and fruit trees. A tiny area will be a market garden of sorts, which will produce our bulk crops of potatoes and roots, but we intend to put most of our energy into building a system that supports what we need and that we can also support with very little management. Being in a bio-reserve, we want to develop the land in the hopes we will increase the wildlife here, including birds, whilst also being able to walk around and find all the things we need - which means ordering a lot of seeds and plants to ensure we have a large variety. The 'pests' can get their fill, and we will eat whatever is left. However, we don't intend to host lots of bunnies - anyone know where we can get a few birds of prey? 😄
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