Selfsufficientish.com

It's a while since I last sprouted things but it was basically putting the beans in the jar just covered by water and then rinsing every day. I used to use peanut butter jars - it's easy to drill through the plastic lids, making lots of holes to drain the water (small holes for alfalfa seeds, larger...

I just revelled in the novelty (for me) of getting beetroot fresh out of the ground! I didn't have enough of a glut to need to get into preserving them but there was sufficient crop to count as a success (and to share a little with friends).

Wulf

A quick Google turns up the relevant website for doing a bit more reading without buying the book first:

http://www.squarefootgardening.com/

Wulf

I think boltardy was the variety I grew. No beets this year (too many other things to try) but I'm probably going to attempt a few different varieties next year.

Wulf

I'm currently in urban mayhem with a garden that measures about 4' x 10' with rubbish soil. So last year I got a compost bin from the council for about a fiver (part of their effort to reduce landfill), and made a raised bed about 2' x 8'. It's still all a bit experimental, but this year in that sm...

I grew beetroot last year and found it worked really well. Most of mine came out pretty small (I'm sure I didn't thin them out early enough) but they were edible and very tender (being small also kept down the cooking time). It's a great plant and also very ornamental in it's own way (beautiful leav...

We've tried a commercially produced pepper spray on the bird feeder with little success :( ... you also have to be careful spraying it, as it's very powerful when in tiny droplets! Not something to get in your eyes! Actually, we have had one success in the battle against the furry fiends. The bird f...

The trouble with trapping them is what to do with them afterwards. A long car journey with a distressed rodent, then releasing it (and its germs) into a "foreign" area where it will probably either displace local wildlife or be torn to shreds / starved out by the natives (not to mention th...

Any ideas for dealing with squirrels? The network of back gardens here plays host to a colony of at least three grey squirrels, which I think is more than it can really support. It was okay when there was just one, a couple of years ago, but over the last year we've observed a lot of damage, such as...

Thanks for the welcome. I'm an old enough hand at the Internet that the rules of netiquette, like hang around a while and get the feel for the place before you starting making a big noise, are pretty well ingrained. I hesitate to promise that I'll post regularly but, now I've followed another of tho...

I've got some bottles in my recycling boxes and various plants that are going to need planting out with stakes for support before too long, so I think I might give the technique a go!

Wulf

Greetings from Lewisham, SE London. I think I came across this site from the Real Gardeners forum and I've been lurking around for two or three weeks now, getting a feel for things. Among my other passions, I love nurturing the life in my garden. I'm not even really that near selfsufficientish but I...

What colour glass? It sounds like a great idea - with the benefits of recycling of materials and preventing the base of your cane's from rotting as well. I wonder if there's any danger of it getting too hot between the bottles, if the glass magnifies the heat? Oh... I'd better go an introduce myself...