Permie for Pennies in France

Jun 14, 2016 11:23:44

Hi David
Love to see what you have accomplished over the past 2 years!

Jul 28, 2016 09:07:41

Hi folks a bit of an update
Firstly the bees are Back . My logish hive has new tenants go girls here are some pics of the hive .
As you can see the stup is still alive and sending up shoot . I will cut them off and mulch them in the winter but also Ivy is growing to further stregthen the hive

Jul 28, 2016 09:13:54

We also have some new visitors in the back garden . Georgina and the gorgettes
This last pic is taken right by the kitchen door and shows the babies being fed

Jul 28, 2016 09:17:05

Pumpkins are doing well but pots and toms badly beetroot okish and I have hopes for the Lupins burra sent me

Aug 01, 2016 14:09:16

Awe!
What cute bunnies
The log/stump hive is pretty cool
How does that work?

Aug 02, 2016 02:11:49

How does the hive work ? Find a log cut it into sections , hollow out the central sections , reassemble , make sure it has entrance hole *, wait for bees to turn up .

I could if I wanted to at some point in the future take off the top and harvest honey but its some work and that's more like starvation time food . I intend just to leave it be and harvest swarms for my other hives .
As for the bunnies , they are hares different species very widely spaced over the landscape dont dig holes , not like rabbits and not a threat to my garden . Rabbits come in groups of up to thousands and are best with red wine and potatoes.
David
* with my woodworking skills holes always appear without trying

Aug 29, 2016 02:25:25

Well my sweet potatoes seem to be doing ok I even have flowers so I must be doing something right

Aug 29, 2016 02:29:54

and my plum harvest seems ok too
49 jars of jam , 4 litre of compot , ten bags of plums in the freezer and we made 6 plum tarts plus gave away about 8 kilo to friends all from one tree

Aug 29, 2016 10:52:59

Well my experiments continue
First the edible lupins seem ok considering I planted them late ,even some seeds setting on one of them

Aug 29, 2016 10:56:19

The LL's agents have removed lots of rubbish to make a new lawn and a place for me to plant some fruit trees

Aug 29, 2016 18:14:15

Beautiful as always! I'm especially fond of that sweet potato blossom.

Aug 30, 2016 00:13:07

Thanks I thought it is nice too

but they only seem to last a day or so . C'est la vie

David

Sep 28, 2016 06:02:38

Well the Land Lord wants to give me some more land !
He is very happy with what I am doing the problem is I am not sure I want it . As part of an on going dispute with the farmer next door he want the Farmer to shift his cows off one of the field and give the land to me . The land is almost solid clay with a thin layer of topsoil and cow shit having been over grazed since Adam was a boy

Any suggestions ?

Sep 28, 2016 06:18:11

last roses of summer and todays harvest

Sep 28, 2016 06:23:12

Some pics of my swale . This was a ditch I reconditioned added some dams and harvested some good soil

Sep 28, 2016 06:42:01

some other views

Sep 28, 2016 22:57:13

David Livingston wrote:Well the Land Lord wants to give me some more land !
He is very happy with what I am doing the problem is I am not sure I want it . As part of an on going dispute with the farmer next door he want the Farmer to shift his cows off one of the field and give the land to me . The land is almost solid clay with a thin layer of topsoil and cow shit having been over grazed since Adam was a boy Any suggestions ?

Boy, that's a tough one!

If you feel like your to-do list is already way too long, I would gracefully decline. On the other hand, controlling more of the land means there is a bigger buffer between the farmer and your most prized plantings, no? You could plan on a very low-maintenance set-up, like letting the grass grow tall and scything it a couple of times, then over time add more interesting things.

I don't suppose there's a chance you could subdivide the field and actually keep grazing the cows, but intensively?? That would be the most awesome thing. If the big overgrazed field was split up into numerous smaller plots that were given more time to recover in between grazings, and the cattle moved from one to the next after things were well trampled, you would start building soil on top of the clay you have there. It's pretty obvious to me that's a win-win, but I doubt it will be obvious to the farmer!!

Sep 29, 2016 01:44:43

I think I will have to accept the land as I may not be offered it again ; I'm thinking of planting "wild " fruit trees and planting some walnut seeds I have about 40 trees I could plant I am thinking of asking the LL to pay for some more trees

David

Sep 29, 2016 06:17:43

Seeing as you asked for suggestions I'd plant a mix of fruit, nut, nitrogen fixing, fencepost and fuelwood trees in strips with enough room to strip graze animals behind electric fence. Ben faulks uses sheep, for example.
Mark Shepard gets serious about his rotation and talks about cows, then pigs, then sheep, then chickens (then I think the sequence goes: crocodile, dolphin, llama, unicorn and invisible elves but I might be misremembering). But that's some serious smallholding/ farming going on there.

You could also use a chicken tractor between the trees, with either meat birds or laying hens.

The other way to use it could be to go down Martin Crawford's route. He lays out black plastic to kill the grass and then intensively plants his food forest. One major plus from this is that if you're not in a hurry to get it all planted, you can manage a small piece each year and grow your own nursery stock. And I would imagine that most farmers would cut for hay twice a year on the rest of the plot?

Rus

Dec 16, 2017 07:33:21

David Livingston wrote: Its a great picture I agree . Our artist freind stayed a couple of days recovering from a broken leg as her flat in Paris was full of stairs .
The bread will be fine I am sure ,more pics to follow as for the folks with scythes they are the Faucheurs Volontaires http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faucheurs_volontaires

David

Bravo les Français! d'une ex-pat au Wisconsin. Oui à la désobéissance civile! I wish some scythe handlers in this country had the gonads to oppose Monsanto and their "experiments" on US.

Dec 17, 2017 18:42:11

I wish some scythe handlers in this country

I have chosen the soft action of not fighting the bad guy but supporting those that want the good.
I learned the word fauchier from living in and caring for an apartment complex with that family name. Having been raised in a family that cut forage daily with scythes I declare myself a fauchier.
I still have my family's 4 scythes of differing weights plus a new Austrian one with an aluminum snath not counting the gasoline powered one with its various blades and attachments.
I rotationally mow my fields to provide mulch for my vines, trees and garden beds. Providing naturally grown food for the Fresh Food Revolution Co-op along with like minded small holding community farmers is my form of corporate defiance.

It was answering a question about scythes that first brought me to permies.com

Dec 17, 2017 19:35:16

Hans Quistorff wrote:

I rotationally mow my fields to provide mulch for my vines, trees and garden beds. Providing naturally grown food for the Fresh Food Revolution Co-op along with like minded small holding community farmers is my form of corporate defiance.

Good for you. I hope your actions will be enough though.

Jul 09, 2021 15:21:58

that huge frosted tree picture is a killer!!! wow. lovely

Jul 09, 2021 15:29:06

Did you accept the land? why not plant some quinoa or buckwheat? if you don't want to harvest it use it as cover crop and it will help build the topsoil over time.

May 03, 2024 20:54:05

We put in a five year old Reine Claude earlier this Spring and we are so hopeful to have a nice harvest like this in a few years- fingers crossed. The baskets of plums are just gorgeous.

David Livingston wrote:and my plum harvest seems ok too
49 jars of jam , 4 litre of compot , ten bags of plums in the freezer and we made 6 plum tarts plus gave away about 8 kilo to friends all from one tree

His brain is the size of a cherry pit! About the size of this ad:

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