Selfsufficientish.com

I agree too. You are going to have to water your polytunnel anyway so it would be better to let it have more light and include some raised beds. Not having tree roots underneath won't make up for not having rain falling on the ground from above. You would also potentially find the plastic made stick...

Once you get a polytunnel up, you get an extended growing season so you will be able to get a few things in later than you would for an exposed garden and get some harvests. Do leave space for starting off lots of seedlings next spring through - from about March to early May, my polytunnel is conges...

Crabby Cider... I've currently got a vat with chopped apples and crab apples covered with water. Next week I'll take the resulting liquid, add some sugar (about 1lb / gallon is the ratio passed on to me) and ferment it for a week or two before bottling and putting down for 2-3 months before drinking...

I'm not sure about the shelf life on dried malt extract but I've read various things that suggest the liquid form doesn't keep brilliantly and also tends to a darker colour. That tin from the back of the shelf at the homebrew store will probably still produce a drinkable beer but not as good as it w...

If even Dunc doesn't malt his own barley (hops to the nearest 0.1g you say!) then you know it is going to be hard work! BTW, those spent grains are human edible. Being on the high fibre end of the scale, I wouldn't want to eat too many but I've found that, among other things, they make a great mix t...

I'm a fan of the brew in the bag approach. I like the control that comes from starting with your own choice of crushed grain and hops but don't want to invest the money (or, more importantly, the storage space) in a "proper" all-grain set up. It just so happens that I wrote a fairly extens...

I got my seeds online somewhere... possibly Jekka's herbs? Last year we had more than enough self-seeded plants that we didn't bother saving any seed this year. I'm not sure if we'll be so lucky again this year but I did give some seed to a friend in London for his allotment, so that will be my rese...

I might be a little cautious - even trees tend to throw up a lot of their roots near the surface and it is all competition for water too. How about dotting the surfaces of your tree containers with one or two light pots containing suitably decorative plants (or placing ones like nasturtiums in pots ...

I've got a medlar ( Mespilus germanica ' Nottingham') growing at the front; harvests have been on the small side so far but I'm hopeful it will give me a bit more as the tree matures. I think my favourite unusual edible is Giant Tree Spinach ( Chenopodium giganteum ). It grows 6'-8' tall over a seas...

Have you already got garlic planted for a planned harvest this year? If not, some of this could be used for that purpose - try some left where it is and some replanted elsewhere. If the space isn't needed for anything else, the rest can be left to grow and grazed from as you need it.

Wulf

When I got a bread machine, I used to use it almost daily and then I discovered that making the bread by hand and baking in the oven gives "artisan" quality results with a much better texture and appearance. Roll forward about four years and my bread machine had largely been gathering dust...

Mine:

http://web-den.org.uk/blog/

Wulf

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wulf/

That's my stream, including some photos tagged selfsufficientish and lots tagged garden.

Wulf

One of the many available versions of the Linux Operating System. Microsoft's Windows and Apples Mac OS are the other main contenders but you can't legally download and share either of those two.

Wulf

Try Plants for a Future as a brilliant resource site for edible / medicinal plants, both common and rare.

Wulf