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Wrapping babies
Thirteen months in, we’re still managing Leon-wrangling without a pushchair, which definitely makes public transport more straightforward. This week I wrote about getting started with woven wraps for A...
View ArticleEC guest post
I’ve got another guest post up at the practicalities of elimination communication.
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Baby tipi, and another guest post
I really wanted to put a willow den in our back garden for Leon to play in. Baby tipi between the blueberry bush and the rosemary Unfortunately, that was scuppered by the realisation that there’s a...
View ArticleAnti-snail defences
My grape vine has been getting munched up by (I assume) the snails; and one of my (still tiny) courgette plants is looking at risk too. After perusing the Organic Gardening Catalogue, I have acquired a...
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Permaculture principles: working with what’s there
I’ve been thinking recently about the design of a potential new permaculture garden project. It suddenly occurred to me that one of the underlying principles of permaculture, awareness of the limits...
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Keeping track
This year, for the first time, I actually bothered to harden off my tomatoes before migrating them full-time from the windowsill into their final home on the balcony[0]. In theory, this should mean...
View ArticleOne change at a time: easy shower greywater reuse
After a very full-on fortnight learning about permaculture and activism at the Earth Activist Training 2011 course in August, I came away all fired up to make some changes at home. I would absolutely...
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From pallets to shed
I spent much of February slowly constructing a shed (more of a tool cupboard, really; our garden is very small) from deconstructed pallets. The first step was to measure up (my shed was 80cm x 60cm in...
View ArticleThe Balcony Project: sector & zone analysis
I’m planning planting for our balcony, and in my last post on this wrote up the surveying. The next step is to do the analysis: some possible approaches are to consider zones, sectors, and...
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Back garden fruit
Having rearranged the herb garden, I looked at the vast expanse of 6+ foot high, south-west facing fence behind it, and thought “Something should be growing across that. Specifically, a productive...
View ArticleBalcony planning
For some reason I found it really hard to get to grips with a plan for the balcony. Perhaps because it’s a space that at the moment we really don’t use (since it overlooks the road, although it also...
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Bean wigwam
Lousy weather notwithstanding, I am soldiering onwards with planting in the back garden. (And, indeed, some things are even growing.) This week, it was time to establish the new bean wigwam. First job...
View ArticleSummer planting
I’ve just cleared out three of the raised beds in the back garden (some failed crops – no sign of turnips this year; some that are over – broad beans and winter lettuce) and need to plan my summer...
View ArticleEC and permaculture guest posts
I wrote about Elimination Communication, peeing on the floor, and the advantages of not going nappy-free, over at Natural Parents Network last week, in The Nappy-Free Potty Pause. Then, at The Green...
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Watering and wicking system trials
I find it difficult to remember to regularly water all of my various growing spaces. Two of them (balcony and porch) don’t have any water source which means watering is harder work and thus likely to...
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Compost!
This week I dug out the “composting” half of the compost pile, and lo! there was a big load of beautiful rich black compost: Nearly all dug out by the time this was taken, but you can see what’s left...
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The Garden Project: 2013 successes
A quick round-up of this year’s garden successes, as the summer growing season comes to a close and I start thinking about autumn planting. Garlic! No photo, but I got between 12 and 15 garlic bulbs,...
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The Garden Project: 2013 problems
Following up on this year’s successes, here are the problems that I’d like to fix for next year. Two of the raised beds had ongoing problems with seeds just not germinating, or germinating then being...
View ArticleThe Garden Project: 2013 analysis
As part of the ongoing maintenance of the permaculture design for my back garden, I made a list of the issues highlighted in my successes and problems posts: Lack of time for maintenance; this led to...
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Planning the ‘Forest Garden’ beds
Following up from my analysis of where my garden needs some redesigning, one part of the solution was to plant up half of the raised beds as a forest-type garden; or given the size of the space, in a...
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