Eco house open weekend

Yes its that time again!   We are opening our house and small holding from 10AM to 5PM on Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th September.   No booking is necessary and directions can be found at  http://www.ecodiy.org/ecodiy%20directions.htm 
We are focusing this year on food growing and how to extend the season and the range of crops.   We can also talk about keeping chickens and keeping bees in a more bee-friendly way.  Have a look at the website www.ecodiy.org for more information on the house and small holding

Usefull report on energy and growth

Check this useful DFID sponsored report on the link between energy and growth and the possibilities for growth in developing countries.
http://www.iier.ch/pub/files/Thu%2C%2008/25/2011%20-%2007%3A00/Green%20Growth%20DFID%20summary.pdf

Wasp attack

Hi,
We are under unprecedented attack from wasps this year, especially on our grapes!  The bees are also under attack but defending their hives successfully now I have made the entrances smaller.
We were looking forward to a great harvest from the vine on our veranda until about 10 days ago.  The grapes are nearly ripe - quite sweet and edible.
We have tried, imitation wasp nests and traps without any great success (they keep on coming!) and in desperation I have started protecting the bunches in plastic bags, will see if that works.

If you have any other suggestions do let me know.

Processing tomatoes

Yes its that time again!  Many kilos of tomatoes are ready to process and we are trying different ways of preserving them for the winter. Our favorite is to cut out the hard core and roast in the oven with onion or garlic until reduced by about half.  We then 'whiz' them and freeze or bottle the 'pasata'
We also have tried drying them and bottling them whole in brine - both work but don't seem to be so useful.   Home grown tomatoes are a different animal to those bought in the shops, much sweeter and with a thinner skin so this process works even though we don't skin them first.
We are also drying our surplus figs before freezing them to make an ingredient for cakes etc.  We cut off the stalk end of really ripe figs and slice them into quarters before drying them on a mesh near our stove, works well.  We store these in the freezer,

Dome moan

We are about to set off for camp!  I have stored our (homemade! ) Geodesic dome in the trailer over winter.  What an error that was!!  Half of the 75 poles were destroyed by woodworm.  So it was off to the wood for hazle replacements and 2 days hard work to make them into poles.  The shave horse came in useful as Rosie is demonstrating.

panoramic pictures

I have been playing with my photo software and made a panoramic view of our garden. You will need to click on the picture to get the full benefit!

Feeding our crops

We are now harvesting (and eating!) 22 different vegetables and 8 different fruits (as they come into readiness).

  This makes me think of how we feed the plants and keep the cycle going with local organic plant feeding.

1.  Good compost; We make compost from chicken bedding, vegetable waste (including peelings from neighbours and friends who don’t have a compost heap), grass cuttings (from 2 professional gardeners to save them other disposal costs), cardboard (egg trays and boxes are ideal), our own pee, non-seeding weeds, spent pots and grow bags (out of skips) and wood ash sprinkled on as an occasional layer..
2. Well rotted horse manure, treat this with great caution and do a test sowing in it of beans or peas to check it is not contaminated with herbicide, (we collect and stack this for a year before use.)
3. Liquid feed made from any deep rooted weeds, nettles and comfrey leaves left to rot in water in a dustbin.  Makes a good breeding place for hover flies which eat aphid in our garden.
4. Our pee diluted 5 to 1 as a liquid feed
5. Grass cuttings as a surface mulch to feed and keep the moisture in.
6. Top dressing with wood ash to provide potash (round fruit trees for example)
7. If I can scrounge fish heads and guts from the local fish monger these are buried where the runner beans or sweet corn are to be planted. Any feathers and remains from the chickens we eat are used the same way planted under fruit trees, bushes or vines.
8. Occasional use of fish, blood and bone where the soil needs a boost i.e., planting greens straight after another crop. I also sometimes (but rarely) use rock dust, calcined sea weed, and SM3 seaweed liquid feed to provide specific elements I feel might be lacking.