On the up…

Big day last Friday as the main growing section of the polytunnel got fitted out! Thanks to the kind loaning of a 7.5 tonne truck the racking was picked up from storage and delivered on site. After carefully measuring and levelling the foot pads the upright frame went up with literally an inch to spare!! […]

First bit…

Of proper kit. Introducing spud the sprayer, our first bit of proper kit. Some assembly required but with so many pathways to keep clear it makes sense to have some kind of sprayer on hand. And as we will be using vinegar as a weed killer we can still use spud for applying folia feed […]

Fuelling the fires…

  The main greenhouse had a gas fired water heating system that had been condemned. So after much toing and froing and the application of a reciprocating saw it has been pulled out. Gas is something we just can’t afford to use at this time and we can’t generate enough of our own on site […]

The indestructible greenhouse

I’m still amazed at how well built the greenhouse is. Whoever designed it was obviously inspired by the fourth bridge or the Graff Zeppelins of old. I swear I’m half tempted to fill some old bulk hard core bags with helium, undo the mounting brackets and float of on some perilous adventure like a modern […]

Shrooming in weird places

An interesting little experiment is afoot. Well little might be an understatement but you’ve got to try these things now and again. We’ve had a lot of cardboard tubes delivered from a local carpet recycling business, more than we actually have ideas to use them up. So plan B comes into effect. One of the […]

Composting, installing update 7 of 4079….

The old composting set up was a bit basic to say the least. Composting well is both skill, alchemy, magic and bewitchment in equal measure. And we don’t just want to compost. Oh no. We have bigger plans than that. We want to introduce a dangerous, vicious predator into the mix. A wild untamable beast […]

Behold, for we have Strawberries

A lot of the crops we will be planting are perennial fruiting bushes and the like, and we have lots of stock hidden all over Doncaster, ready for the day we took over this site and when the onset of winter sends them to sleep. One of those sites is a strawberry bed in my […]

I am a thistle shifter….

And that’s about as far as I got with that particular tongue twister !! But it did remind me of last Saturday in the sauna. Well less of a posh spa day and more like an episode of attack the weeds in the polytunnel. After being abandoned for four years the place was thick with thistles […]

Under pressure!

After the gathering comes the pressure! On Saturday the 1st of October we will be converting all those scrumdiddly umcious apples into a variety of pleasing drinks. Maybe an adult beverage or three. This Saturday we will build a fruit press or two, sort through the good the bad and the beautiful and get pressing […]

Let there be light!!

Four week in and we have now done a detailed survey of the site and its buildings and identified what we need. As in the best of traditions the problem is the solution and we need above all heat and electricity for the structures (I’m already tired of typing greenhouse and polytunnel!!) and electricity in […]