Selfsufficientish.com

Hi green-girl If you are starting off with containers, I found that courgette, peppers and climbing beans are great to grow like that, too. I even tried pumpkin, but only had one the size of a tennis ball... (Mind you, that was in a slightly colder climate than yours!) Nowadays I grow them on a comp...

Talk about getting older - my back's been killing me all week. Sitting at that conference all day yesterday plus travelling in the car didn't help, and work seems to be a lot of heavy lifting at the moment, too... And I used to grin when folk told me, wait till you get to my age! Well, I have. And n...

Yep, Nev, Perth UK - or rather, Perth Scotland! Have been to Perth Australia, too, and rather liked it. That was just a short trip; I spent 8 months on a dairy farm in Victoria. But I can't imagine how I managed to live in that heat back then. I did crazy stuff like cycle to my "local" pub...

Mustard seems to be the best known green manure - but try phacelia. Seeds are difficult to get, but I have found them in one garden centre so far (or try the internet). Lovely flowers, very attractive to bees. Or use a clover; where I found the phacelia seeds, they also sold crimson clover and trefo...

You are right, Nev. It's just so hard to toss out stuff that you spent so much time and effort on... Veg is just as easy and safe to bottle as fruit, it just takes a lot longer. If I remember right, my mum used to boil green beans for about 2 hours or so - I think freezing is probably more energy ef...

I've never seen so many people who don't like plastic bags, either! Brilliant! But I don't think putting a tax on them will work. It'll just get people annoyed at yet another Government ploy to relieve them of their money. In Germany, which is where I originate from, plastic bags cost money, like ev...

Hi everybody Thanks for all your replies. Kincardineshire is not that far north - south of Aberdeen. (Actually, I think officially it's now called Aberdeenshire...) I'm about 30m south of Aberdeen, so quite a way from Cardenden! Had to look that up, too. Stirling, on the other hand, I know quite wel...

That's how it goes - I was looking for a supplier for the hens I am planning to buy, and here I am. Still don't know where to get those hens from (anybody any ideas? - I am looking for Black Rock). Have plenty of ideas how to become more selfsufficient. After all, the way pensions are going, I think...