Nancy Reading

Let's look at another gardening myth that Paul wants to dispell through the GAMCOD project discussed here on his podcast.

I've always thought of permaculture as lazy ways of gardening - finding less labour intensive ways of doing things by working with nature instead of against it.

So we have threads about different time saving techniques:



Is it a waste of time to grow your own food - does it take such a lot of time that you could just earn the money instead and buy the food? How much time does growing your own food take, and what are good time saving techniques?

Eino Kenttä wrote: On the other hand, if you leave all the shoots this year, you'll get a maximum amount of leaf surface area, and so a maximum amount of photosynthetic potential.

Good point! I think at this stage I want the plants to get as big and strong as possible. I'm sure that getting a good start in the spring will help them to ripen flowers.

Interesting on the hop seeds...Anything that grows with dense nutrition like that is valuable in these climes. I think I have some hop seeds as well to try some wild forms too.

Has anyone tried making dock pudding? It's also known as ledger pudding or passion pudding due to the seasonal proximity to Easter. Apparently it is a traditional spring food in Northern England. They even have competitions for the best pudding! it is made from bistort and other spring greens cooked with oatmeal and then fried with a cooked breakfast.

My bistort is starting to get established, so I'm thinking of having a go at making some this year. It spreads moderately fast in damp soil and appears to be thriving with me, so I'm propagating it around (and hoping that I like it!). It's rich in vitamin A and C but also contains oxalic acid ( nutritional info. from pfaf). Bistort is a wild plant of wet meadows, and some of the farmland in Yorkshire has protected meadows where the flowers bloom in drifts in summer.

Wildflower meadow Yorkshire

There appear to be two different methods: this one looks like the easiest - just cooking everything up in a pan, leaving to set, then slicing and frying. The other (two variations here) put everything in a pudding cloth and boil to cook. Then again you slice and fry the pudding.

This picture of my bistort is from a couple of years ago in summer - the flowers are pretty! I'm hoping to get seed set; as it is related to buckwheat, it may make a useful grain crop too.

Spring in the secret garden.
All the bulbs are in bloom (still a few daffodils too) Unfortunately the Gevuina didn't make it, so I'm still working on higher levels. The ground cover layer is nice though

spring flowers

Live stream from Sweden:
https://apnews.com/article/sweden-great-moose-migration-slow-tv-7c13e3b13a6b5bec01dfc3bb7465506d?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-gb

From now until May 4, the livestream’s remote cameras will capture dozens of moose as they swim across the Ångerman River, some 300 kilometers (187 miles) northwest of Stockholm, in the annual spring migration toward summer grazing pastures.

watch here

Hi Pascal - I love the look of your heater! I hope we can sort out the teething troubles with you.
Building on Nina's suggestions it may be that it will all be fine once everything has dried out. Maybe it would be worth finding a bit more insulating blanket to wrap around the barrel? That would make the whole heater warmer and maybe keep the flue drawng for a bit longer. Once it is all dry you may not need it, or could cob it up as Nina suggests.

Hi Mark (belated welcome!) I like what you're doing and look forwards to seeing the results. Personally I quite like the 'dry river bed' aesthetic in a garden and planted with appropriate plants think they give movement. One good thing about not using concrete is that things are easier to adjust if you need to.

Ac Baker wrote:Gromit is SORN at the moment but could be on-roaded again I think?

Yes, I gather that road fund license is zero rated for invalid scooters, but the rider needs to be certified with mobility issues. I think it would depend on how far from the house we venture though

I just got my first electric car scooter! Technically it is a 4 wheel invalid carriage, but has a bit of off road capability having reasonable diameter wheels and the grunt to get up and down hills.

arriving home

We were offered it by my husband's cousin who lost their father recently. I understand he used to use it to go to a canal nearby where he was part of a conservation group. He even made a trailer for it!

home made trailer

I think I may modify the trailer though so that the sides fold down, as I think that will be more useful to me.

Technically the excuse is that this will enable less able visitors to go up and down the tree field (and maybe on the road as well - I'll have to check on that) but I think I may well find it handy for load lugging too!

At the moment we are seeing if the batteries (two 12V AGM lead acid) will recover; they were pretty flat but are showing signs of life now, so I'm hopeful we won't need to get new ones.

edit - image from the manufacturer web page:

electric scooter and trailer

I don't think it would manage that load up my hill!

Toko Aakster wrote:We've been trying to make a habit of taking all the trash & recyclables to their outside bins every night before we lock up the house.

I'm going to give you an apple for this! Really why have two bins when I already have them outside? I may well try and do this too - it will make extra space for me in the kitchen!