You can solve the world's problems with a garden

No not Graham Garden... a real live garden. Take a look at what was achieved through permaculture design in the most inhospitable place imaginable - growing crops on the salty, barren shores of the Dead Sea. This is so clever and so amazing

This is "Greening the Desert"

Goings on in the bottom of the garden

Well an update is long over due.
The purchase of the Permaculture magazine was like a dealer handing out free heroin. Which is slightly worrying when you consider that my wife then bought me a magazine subscription for Father's Day [I suppose she thinks I can't come to any harm tripping out reading a magazine].

So the garden was planted and here's the update:

• Tomatoes - first ones were eaten this weekend having had to fight for sunlight with some beligerant Brassicas.
  
• Cucumber - still thinking about fruiting. A trip to the Riverford farm in Devon where our organic vegie box comes from taught me about growing them up a frame and keeping the fruit off the ground.
  
• Courgette - not really sure what these taste like - I will have to ask the slugs... b@rstards!!!
  
• Sweetcorn - lasted about 30 seconds before the slugs hoovered that up too. Despite putting down some garlic granules as organic 'pesticide', probably only gave the slugs indigestionSunflowers
• Brussel Sprouts - these have had to be thinned out to just two plants due to my over-crowding of the vegie patch. These were also starting to bend under the weight of the hundreds of caterpillars, which the slugs had obviously invited to a three week rave in our garden, as there was far too many plants for the slugs to eat alone.
  
• Brocolli - these were looking great. So we picked some with smug grins on our faces. We steamed them in anticipation of a pius portion of greens on our dinner plate. We were really clever until Jemima sitting at the dinner table said "Mummy there's a caterpillar on your brocolli!" Which was correct, but it would have been more appropriate to say "Mummy there's Brocolli in amongst that infestation of caterpillars!" In the end we had to ditch the plants (preferring not to think about the ones we'd already eaten) as, try as we might, we couldn't get all the caterpillars off the Brocolli to enable ourselves to eat it.
  
• Rocket - this was a success!! Let's leave it at that shall we?
  
• Red Onions - these amounted to spring onions with a red tinge. Not helped by the landgrab made by the Brocolli and Brussel Sprouts. But the season isn't over yet and they may take off now there is more room in the garden.
  
• Blueberries - poor fellow seemed to be doing better in his pot than he is in the garden. These guys like acidic soil and unless you like your blueberry muffins one small blueberry at a time, I think I will need to shift him.
  
• Raspberries - these were another success and seem to have thrived. Hoping we can prick out the stems into a bigger area next year. Jemima liked being able to pick them off the bush in the garden. Of course as soon as Beatrice learnt that this was fruit - she would have nothing to do with it (unless I planted a sausage tree).
  

Since then we have also managed to: grow a large sunflower; force some rhubarb nice and tall; build a cold frame next to the outlet for the gas boiler so the hot moist air can be put to some use and not just dissipate into the atmosphere; and plant a herb planter of parlsey, corriander, sage and chives. We also have a capsicum plant in the cold frame with dreams of roasted peppers preserved in olive oil through out the winter (yummy).


Alas still no Chickens...

The Diary of Tom & Barbara...

So Rob, what's happened since you last posted? Nothing for months and then a piece on solar power and soon to be ramblings about your vege garden. Have the Lewis Gourdie's of Brighton, swapped places with the Good's of Surbiton???

Well kind of...
I've had a long fascination with being inventive, making things and self-sufficiency. I blame too many Saturdays, pottering around in the garage with my Dad; watching him turn other people's scrap and junk into (amongst other things) an circular saw bench and a hotwater radiator system for the garage.
Then I went and found a magazine in our local organic shop that embraced this 'awareness' of the value in things around you - they called it "Permaculture", but I'm sure my Dad wouldn't have used such a fancy term.

I did find this quote the other day that made a lot of sense:
"Creation is a better means of self-expression than possession;
it is through creating, not possessing, that life is revealed."
Vida D Scudder

So, on the weekend I planted:

• Tomatoes


• Cucumber


• Courgette


• Sweetcorn


• Sunflowers


• Brussel Sprouts


• Brocolli


• Rocket


• Red Onions


• Blue berries


• Raspberries

With more things to follow in the next week or so. Apart from that I now have an unhealthy fascination in the state of my compost. Its almost the overwhelming first reason I have for getting out of bed in the morning - to check on the state of decomposition. Another great find, was to discover that one of our local shops has reinvented itself as a garden shop, staffed by a really knowledgeable and nice bloke.

Here's looking forward to the fruit (and vegetables) of my labours later this summer.