This way up, King Edward
If you’re trying to be self-sufficient in cool temperate regions, potatoes will likely be your most important crop apart from wheat.

Even without special storage facilities you can just about eat potatoes all year round. They are a productive, easy to cultivate and usually reliable crop, and provide a good supply of carbohydrate, protein and vitamins for your diet. Apparently no other crop produces more energy per acre than potatoes. I wonder what people did before they arrived from South America in the 16th century?

You grow potatoes by planting a potato! A whole host of important things stem from that fact:
>>Keep reading “Self-Sufficient Veg: Potatoes 101″

Planting jerusalem artichokes
At last! The days begin to noticably lengthen, the sun feels warmer than it did a few weeks ago and there are signs of things growing again.

I’ve just spent a couple of weeks up in northern Scotland at the Phoenix Project, apologies for no articles in recent weeks - I’ll try to make up for that soon. There’s a good selection of vegetables for eating fresh from the garden there now: kales, cabbages, purple sprouting broccoli, even some calabrese, carrots, turnips, jerusalem artichoke, radicchio, leeks, parsnip, brussels sprouts, swede, winter radish, beetroot.

Its time to begin sowing and planting outside if conditions are favourable.
>>Keep reading “Self-Sufficient Veg: February Calendar”

Kevan Trott and wife Gillian
The London Sunday Express made a big deal out of Kevan Trott and his French earthship, calling it “the first residential Earthship in Europe.” The design pioneered in Taos uses old tyres and bottles to create a fully recycled home. The word “earthship” derives from the fact that not only does the shape of these semi-submerged properties resemble a ship, and they are also self-contained vessels.

The property will be available to rent from May, but in fact it is not the first residential European earthship by a long way.
>>Keep reading “Invasion of the Earthships”

Listen to the future
Wierd weather provides yet another reason to dabble with self-sufficiency. Last summer’s floods left more than 300,000 Brits without fresh water and 50,000 without power.

2008 is shaping up to be another bumper year for kayak sales. If things do go wrong, many of us lack the wherewithal to fend for our family. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
>>Keep reading “Stuff you need for eco-life”

A handful of seed

To grow a seed likes warmth and moisture, exactly what you should avoid when storing seeds! Can you recognise the seeds in the picture? They are all ones I’ve saved this year, answers at bottom of article.

Properly stored most seeds will keep and germinate well for several years, some - like tomatoes - can remain usable for a decade or more.

Storing seeds wisely enables you to save money and compare different varieties. I almost always grow more than one variety of each vegetable and there are often surprisingly large differences in how they perform and taste. This would be too expensive to do if I had to buy fresh seed for each variety every year so I take care of my seeds and add new varieties every year to sow alongside good performers from previous years.

Cool, dry and dark is how you should store your seeds.
>>Keep reading “Self-sufficient Veg: Seeds”

Dylan Appleseed

On 22nd November Dylan Evans abruptly ended The Utopia Experiment (TUE) less than half way through its planned duration:

“The original aim of the experiment was to find out what life would be like in the aftermath of the collapse of industrial civilisation. I have now collected enough information to achieve this aim. There is therefore no need to continue the experiment any further.”

No doubt there’s a bit more to it than that but we’ll probably have to wait for Dylan’s forthcoming book to hear the much more. I have a brief explanation for you: Dylan changed just about everything in his life while setting up the experiment and, having arrived in his ‘new life’, felt very uncomfortable in it.

Fortunately the outside world still exists much as it was a year ago and Dylan has escaped back into it. If things develop as his scenario suggests - and I expect - that option will become less available within a few years. Nearly all recent news on the three main threats (economic, oil and resources, climate) has been about as bad as could realistically been imagined over this last year.

So I would say the original premise for TUE is even more valid than it was a year ago and the project should and will continue, we’re calling it Phoenix for now.
>>Keep reading “Whither The Utopia Experiment?”

Blackbird ‘Oscar’ with his sultanas

If you haven’t yet done all your winter chores on the land by now, then you have my sympathy but please be very, very choosy about when and what you do. Walking on wet, recently dug soil compacts it, making it hard for roots to penetrate. Better to wait till the ground is hopefully drier. This is more important on heavy clay soils than light sandy soils, but important on both, nonetheless.

You can still be clearing trees, shrubs, brambles and the like from ground you plan to dig but I wouldn’t do any digging now unless the soil is quite dry (unlikely in most places). If you do have a lot to do before spring then you should probably crack on with what you can now, January and February are usually worse.
>>Keep reading “Self-Sufficient Veg: December Calendar”

Few weeds can fight potatoes!
Ever wondered why we usually grow many veg in rows? Two main reasons: to make it easier to cultivate and weed between the plants, and so we know where they are!

What is the best spacing and arrangement for various crops? It depends how you grow them and what you want to achieve.

First you need to bear in mind my previous post: they must have sufficient light, water and nutrients. The more you want to produce from a given space the more effort you have to make to ensure none of these are deficient.
>>Keep reading “Self-Sufficient Veg: Space and yield”

Energy, water nutrients — the three big things a plant needs. All are essential.

Surprisingly similar to you and me, really.
Turnip: light, water & feed me

The main difference is the source of energy - plants get it from light by photosynthesis using their amazing chlorophyll invention, we animals eat organic material and breathe in oxygen.
Photosynthesis

Liebig says: growth is determined by the scarcest resource, not the total of resources.
Law of the Minimum

You need to remember that. Provided pests and disease don’t afflict your plants their success will be determined by the most lacking of these three essential resource types.
>>Keep reading “Self-sufficient Veg: Energy, Water, Nutrients”