My trip to my sisters was marred by the darn virus but we managed to get out and about a couple of times. It’s always good to see her, we live 500 miles apart and only get together a couple of times a year so we need to make the most of it.
Found this pretty forgetmenot broach in a second hand shop and just knew it destined to be mine.
There is a park with ancient woodland and it’s only a 20 minute drive from her house so off we went to walk her two dogs. Despite the chill in the air it was a beautifully clear, dry day and the autumn colours were beginning to come through. It was lovely way to spend the morning.
While away I watched a TV documentary about ‘Permaculture’, which fascinated me. In a nutshell Permaculture seems to be the practice of growing food in a way that does not require vast quantities of fossil fuels. Apparently conventional farming with all the high tec, fuel hungry farm machinery plus processed animal feeds and fertilisers means modern farming pollutes rivers, kills the land, burns fossil fuels, generally accelerates global warming and creates a massive eco-footprint. The ecological cost of our food is dangerously high but……. the good news is; there are other ways of doing things.
Seems we need to think smaller and more back to basics. Wandering ducks and chickens fertilise the land so efficiently manufactured fertilisers are not needed (free range duck eggs are a bonus), a wild life pond full of hungry frogs gets rid of slugs and snails, no more nasty insecticides. Native trees with berries encourage song birds; and allowing native wild plants (weeds to conventional farmers) to flourish ensures bees and butterflies return to the land in abundance. Once there they pollinate and keep the whole thing ticking over nicely.
The film also encourages what it referred to as ‘’vertical growing’’ as opposed to ‘’horizontal growing’’. Basically this seems to mean allowing fruit and nut trees to grow and then growing other things in layers downwards.
As well as maximising the use of land this prevents soil erosion and top soil blowing away. I have the film on DVD and if I had the faintest idea how to do it I would post it in YouTube for all to see. There are other short clips on YouTube about Permaculture but from what I can see they are not as good as the film I watched.
Anyway……………. I was inspired and had some small fruit bushes delivered almost as soon as I came home. How fortunate that this is the time of year to plant fruit. I have planted blackberries, blueberries, white currants, red currants and strawberries. I also have some tiny saplings bought back from my sisters garden, two Victoria plum trees and one damson Tree. When I say ‘’tree’’ I use the term optimistically; these saplings are barely two inches tall at the moment.
While out in the garden I had quite a lot of tidying to do before I could plant the fruit. There were fallen leaves every where AND; I couldn’t help noticing how well my small raised garden was looking, maybe you remember this was just a pile of rubble in the summer and look at it now.
Now I’m on the look out for a hazel nut tree, hazel nut seems to be the native nut tree that is the fastest growing and produces the best crop. My plot of land is tiny, but I’m going to give it a go.
I’ve already made blackberry jam this year (subject of previous blog) AND I picked a whole load of Rowan berries and made some quite sharp but delicious Rowan marmalade. I was a little concerned about using the Rowan berries due to their bad press and supposedly being poisonous. Seems the truth is that Rowan berries are indeed poisonous to humans in their raw form because they contain parasorbic acid, however…. Cooking the Rowan berries converts the toxic Parasorbic acid into harmless sorbic acid. And lets face it………….nothing gets cooked as much as a pan of jam on the stove!!
Anyway, my thinking is to get a Rowan berry tree of my own because you can never be sure what the wild berries are exposed to. The blackberries I picked this year came from the side of a railway line and the Rowan berries came from the same area. Soon I hope to be picking them from my own garden and away from any possible pollution from the trains.
One of my sisters has set up a fish tank and I told her once home I would take some pictures of my fish and send them to her, and here they are.Thought a couple of shots of my fish would be a good way to finish.
And
that concludes my ‘update’. I’m now almost over the cold or what ever
it was and back at work, life has returned to normal and I’malready counting the days until the Christmas holidays.
16 Comments
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veroniquemariquita wrote on Oct 24, '09
Hazelnuts
grow wild here at the edge of wooded areas. As a kid I always tried to
see how many I could gather before the squirrels got to them.
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forgetmenot525 wrote on Oct 24, '09
For every one who who wants to watch the film.... I've found it on youtube
http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/journal/item/436/A_Farm_For_the_Future....._HAVE_FOUND_THE_MISSING_FILM If you're interested in gardening, farms, food, wild life................sustainability watch this film. |
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aimlessjoys wrote on Oct 24, '09
Hazelnut
is my very favorite, but I'm not sure they can grow here. We have tons
of pecans, though, yummy! Your gardening & fish culture looks to
be going great guns! I'll keep a good thought turning for you & for
those fruit seedlings, too!
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brendainmad wrote on Oct 24, '09
I'm
counting the days until Christmas too even though I've only been back
to work less than a month (October always seems to be a log month to
me). Anyway, Loretta I think you've written your blog for Blog Action
Day in this post. It's good to see you enjoying your new camera.
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sanssouciblogs wrote on Oct 23, '09
What a blog, girl! Oh yes, the forget-me-not pin was meant to be yours!
Glad you got out and about despite the virus. So lovely where you are, I could feel the cool air in the trees. Fascinating as always. You can upload to youtube in parts, not sure how that works, probably ahve to upload to your computer first and possibly reformat to .avi. I've been wondering about that, too. Have a great weekend. xo |
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spiritwalkerr wrote on Oct 23, '09
Sounds like you had a good time, minus the virus, and learned some cool things too. Yah!
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greenwytch wrote on Oct 23, '09
very
inspiring, indeed! wonderful blog, it's so nice to hear what's
growing on in your world. the garden is looking fab. ; D
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hedgewitch9 wrote on Oct 23, '09
Wonderful blog, very inspiring!
The brooch was a great find too! Have fun with your planting. |
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I
love your pictures!! I am so glad your daughters got you a camera.
The forest picture is so beautiful - haunting, like a fairy place. And
making jam - I do remember when I made jelly and jam and vinegar from
the black raspberries in my garden. Very nice. I missed you so much.
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