Selfsufficientish.com

I do think that everyone on mains should have water meters as it does make you appreciate how much you use, and using it on your garden (whether from stored water or mains) makes you appreciate it even more. Then there is the double edged sword of growing your own veg, particularly lettuce, which n...

0%? Yes, that's about what I managed. I'm going to see how I do with seeds harvested from my own plant rather than ordered online.

Wulf

Don't let your grass get too long, especially round your valuable beds; that seems to create a safe haven for the slimy blighters.

Wulf

Slightly off topic for Russ but possibly of use for Odsox - look out for some Sweet Cicely ( Myrrhis odorata ). This is a brilliant little herb which (almost magically) roughly halves the amount of sugar you need with crops like rhubarb. Also, don't neglect uses for rhubarb that don't involve sugar ...

I think one of the most effective ways to keep a slug population down is to often go out hunting with a sharp implement and chop up all the gastropods you see. You won't get them all but you can keep the population (and thus the damage to crops) to a reasonable level. One trick to make this easier i...

I wondered if your "magic wand" was some system for inserting a tube into the ground but it looks like an attachment for a hose? Is this the equivalent of a plumbed-in watering can? In my garden I've eschewed the use of a hose (our hosepipe ban has only just been lifted) and use a can. Min...

I would be inclined to wait with the rhubarb. Unless we have a blazing hot summer and the ground turns to concrete, it should be easy enough to lift the root shortly before you move. Stick it in the ground with plenty of compost (or, better yet, rotted manure) and keep it watered and it should thriv...

I'm not sure I would take the risk. Unless you can get that clause officially rescinded, you could be in for a lot of stress and potential expense if a present or future neighbour takes exception. It would certainly be worth considering other options. For example, we've decided not to keep chickens ...

That is a big question. It might be worth breaking it down a bit. For example, what kind of stuff do you eat? For example, I probably get through three or four onions a week as I find them a brilliant base for all sorts of things. If I reckoned on growing enough for five a week (to allow for a small...

Vampires? Aren't they Sorcerors? Could just be a different edition of the game. I got Small World about a month ago and love it.

Wulf

ps. FWIW, I think Flying Sorcerors / Vampires make any lone active token on the board a target for their nefarious power, albeit only once per player per turn.

It is possible they all came from the same source at the same time (if a previous plot holder divided up rhubarb and shared the roots around). They will certainly have been in fairly similar conditions.

Have you got the plant well fertilised and well watered?

Wulf

Leather instead of rubber? That might work. I suspect part of the solution might have been that drinks would often have been stored in larger containers like barrels and bottling wasn't as feasible as it is today precisely because of the lack of ideal materials.

Wulf

I've filled in the online survey but I'll summarise here as well for the thread. I've got a couple of water butts attached to the downpipe at the front of the house (and an old bin in the polytunnel that I manually fill from these). The main use is watering the garden although it is also convenient ...

Didn't we used to have a built in spullchicker? Much as I like the idea of everything being spelled correctly I am not sure that spell checking technology is up to the job. If you know the right way to write what you want to write, spell checking can be a hindrance; if you type quickly, it can even ...

The last two brews I made (all-grain beer and then rough cider) used three 5l containers originally used for bottled water. Two had the fermenting mixture and lids adjusted to hold a rubber hose. The third bottle has clean water and acts as a place to stick the ends of the two hoses - in other words...