Siobhan Lavelle

Mark Reed wrote:

(Add) Siobhan Lavelle, I see you are in Ireland. I suspect you have dandelions but maybe not burdock but there are probably other weeds with powerful taproots you might utilize. Such things are often considered bad and can most certainly be so, but by watching their life cycle it isn't hard to learn how to control them and use their very tenacious qualities to your advantage. Also your talking about 12 acres, some of what I do might give you some ideas for a vegetable garden but don't know how it would work on such a large area. I only maintain along with the garden about two acres total, the rest of my land is mostly steep hilly woods where I plant grapes, berries and nut trees, I don't have livestock except the occasional chicken or turkey.

Hi Mark,

Yes dandelions and burdock both grow here. There are already a good few dandelions, silverweed and other wild plants with deep tap roots growing in the pasture. It seems the land is working to heal itself. I will maybe try adding burdock, turnips and daikon radishes through mineral licks for the cows. I just checked and cows eat all of those plants, which will keep them under control. I guess the turnips and radishes, being annuals, will rot themselves but the burdock won't die for a long time. I wonder if there is a point in me adding burdock if I can't mulch it on the entire 12 acres. Will it have the remedial effect if it's left to live on?

Mathew Trotter wrote:

Siobhan Lavelle wrote:

I'm not sure what you mean about how limestone soil should be fertile. Lime is primarily used to alkalize overly acid soil as well as secondarily to add calcium (and sometimes a fair bit of magnesium, depending on the makeup of the specific stone.) Most limestone soils, from my reading, are overly alkaline, which means most plants are not able to uptake nutrients. From what I've heard, trying to adjust the pH of lime-based soils is one of the most difficult things you could try to do. I know that Steve Solomon's The Intelligent Gardener includes a section on amending lime soils, but I skimmed that section since it doesn't apply to my situation.

Hi Mathew, thanks for that. I know alakalinity locks up soil nutrients but I read in The Intelligent Gardener that, because it's so soft, limestone leaches a lot of ntrients and if you can just amand the pH, fertility should be very high. Our soil pH ranges from 6 to 8.1. It's acidic in places and neutral in places. The acidity is due to chemical use by the previous owner. Yet fertility is low everywhere.

I've heard you can break up compacted soil using plants with deep tap roots and by building up soil life and organic matter. Has anyone had successful experience using these methods?

We have 12 acres of sandy, in parts stoney, soil. It is mostly in pasture (with quite a bit of plant diversity) with 1 acre being converted into food forest. Although the topsoil dries out too easily in short droughts, percolation tests show that water is slow to drain (1 hour on average). We are on limestone, which should be very fertile, yet fertility is low. I think this is because a hard, compacted layer is blocking nutrients from reaching the topsoil. I would greatly appreciate any opinions on this situtaion.

Thanks guys, that's helpful. Sounds like I'm right to be cautious. Yes, Skandi, I have the same issue with netting, it's such a hindrance to weeding and other plant care.

I would like to try polyculture with my brassicas but in my experience, they get eaten alive by birds and caterpillars whenever they're not covered with netting. I didn't always have to cover brassicas, but where I live now, they never survive unless I do. It doesn't seem feasible to create indivual cloches for each plant. So I figure I have to decide between polyculture and netting. I am wondering, will the polyculture confuse pests sufficiently that I won't need netting?

I've been living in a land-based community for nearly a year now. I'm loving it in many ways but finding the workload biiger and harder to manage than expected. Our tasks include growing our own food and medicine, building homes and community spaces, looking after a herd of cattle, creating an education programme and interpersonal, community building work.

What makes it so much harder is when community members whom we were relying on to help with things leave or change their minds about how involved they want to be. We started off with a core group of 3, went up to 6 members in the summer and are now back down to the original 3 plus one part-time member.

It's a particular problem with the growing side of things, since we can't just pause a crop like we can with a lot other projects. I was very ambitious last autumn, sowed a lot of winter vegetables and ordered a lot of bareroot trees because we had 6 enthusiastic memebers. Almost immediately, people started to drop off and we've been struggling to keep up with the garden ever since.

We have 2 new members wanting to join in April but I'm reluctant to rely on them and am tending toward caution in how many plants I start in spring. I feel it will be a terrible pity if we end up with a strong group and only a small percentage of our diet growing here. One of our core members has early stage cancer, which makes the need to have our own fresh, clean and very alive food more urgent.

I would love to hear from people with more experience with land-based community. Have you had similar problems? Did you find any solutions? Do these issues get easier with time?

One mistake I think we made was that the 3 members who let us down may have come here for the wrong reasons. They all cared about our mission and were interested in our work but they were all going through either a big, sudden life change or a mental or physical health problem. They all came here looking for a more peaceful life and found the busyness of life here too much.

We are thinking to make sure that new members we admit in future are people for whom land-based, self-sufficient living has been their dream/ambition for a while. This is the case for me and this has kept me going through all the challenges that have come up so far.

We are also thinking to insist that people who want to trial living here commit to a full growing season. At the same time, we don't want to sacre people off and I think, maybe, the only way for a person to know whether this life is right for them is to try it out. They might find it unbareable after a few weeks and it would be unpleasant for everyone if we were to pressure them to stay.

I owuld love to hear your thoughts on any of this!

I'm thinking of wrapping the exterior of my house (currently OSB plywood) with a mositure proof membrane to buy me some time to clad it. How long do you think that will give me? I will be putting sheet metal on the roof as well. I don't have the time or money to clad it yet so I'm keeping it inside a cow barn. The cows are cramped because the house is taking up half of their space, so I'd prefer to get it out. I should also mention that I'm in Ireland on an exposed site on a hill - so lots of rain and wind.

Thnak you everyone! It's starting to feel doable.

What are some good, trustworthy manufacturers of solar panels, inverters, etc?

Thanks for all the detailed advice. I don't fully understand everything but I can look for equipment with the keywords you've suggested even though I don't fully understand what those words mean. I cant emphasise enough how clueless I am or how difficult I find it to learn this stuff.

If I buy the parts seperately, can I safely assume they will be compatible with each other?

What do you think of this? I can't figure out from the description if it includes batteries?

https://www.ebay.ie/itm/Solar-Panel-Kit-100W-200W-300W-500W-600W-Solar-Panel-Module-Kit-12V-24V-off-Grid/222734398678?hash=item33dc0134d6:m:mtRL-aXckS3noDeEIwIKCVw

I'm leaning towards buying this and either a propane fridge or just a cooler that I can top up with ice from my friend's freezer 5 minutes walk from me.