Autumn Hughes

We looked at those Colman Extreme insulated coolboxes and decided they were far too expensive so we bought some cheap storage boxes that were much larger than our (ordinary) coolboxes and packed the space between the inner and outer boxes with polystyrene. We keep the boxes on the north side of the van (though they have to be moved regularly as the sun moves round). They cool down a great deal overnight and stay cool enough for the rest of the day to keep things like milk and cheese fresh. We're lucky that our daytime temperatures rarely rise much above 16 or 17 degrees (C), even in the summer.
When we build our house we are planning to build an insulated room on the north side to use as a pantry.

Hi Graham.

Thank you for coming to advise us.

We're trying to be organic as well as vegan. We're just starting a forest garden in the north of Scotland, on marginal land. What would you advise us to plant for the optimum health of both ourselves and our plants?

Thank you Feidhlim. You've been a great help already.

Thank you Feidhlim. We'll use one of the drier areas and follow your advice.
We have the non-sterile comfrey, so, as you can imagine, we have no shortage of it
Hopefully I should be able to find the Scottish codes somewhere. If not, I'm sure SEPA would give me the information if I asked.

I haven't yet been able to find anything about comfrey beds designed for infiltration and nutrient capture but I will continue to look, since it sounds as though it could be the perfect option for us.

Thank you very much Feidhlim. I will email you for that list.
We have various very wet bits, extremely dry (almost pure sand and gravel) bits and in between bits as well. I just assumed the wetter the better

It's an extremely wet area, uphill from the septic tank. We were planning to plant willows and alders to try soaking up some of the water. If comfrey will grow in peat we'd happily use it.
Thanks I'll have a look at that link.

At the moment, when we're camping on our site, we just throw our basins of water into the rushes and let the willows and alders deal with it. When we build our house do we need a special greywater system with filters or can we just run the water to an area planted with willows and alders?

I would be very interested in the answer to this too. Does anyone know please?

If this works here are some from our house site in Scotland.