The reason for my absence from ATS.....

a reply to: Benevolent Heretic

Thank you very much I am glad you like it. I did not expect to go to bed last night and find this on the front page the following morning...

a reply to: the2ofusr1

Auqaponics is a very productive method of farming. Its not for me though as I only eat a little fish and its very readily available from the sea.
Some old villages in England use to use a two pond system they would swap ponds periodically and flood the water onto the land to help fertilize it. It was an effective method..

a reply to: rusblued9217


There is nothing stopping you having a garden like that in London. If you do not have much land you can grullia garden. I am doing the same and putting a secret garden in on the cliffs. So far I have simply walled an area I need to start bringing soil down when I can.

I will try and get a picture of it for you.

a reply to: rickymouse

Thank you for reply.

I think Rhodiola although a very tough plant does not tolerate very cold conditions. Would be happy to post you some root when it dies back for the winter. If you are interested just PM me. Alternatively you could grow it on a windowsill or something..

a reply to: pennylemon

Hi and thank you I am glad you like it.

The soil in the garden was old black peat. I dug it out and replaced it. Up on the hills are buildings the sheep take shelter in some of these have 2-3 foot of dried sheep poop in them. I pick axe the stuff out and get someone to bring it down for me. I mix this with fresh peat dust and sand from the beach. We are lucky here the sand is made from crushed shell it is lovely stuff. I also mix in household compost, cardboard,top it with seaweed. If can obtain any top soil I mix that in too for the microbes.

I did have a worm farm I should get another on the go. I have some massive worms in the garden.
I use to mix worm castings with malt and water pass it through water with a bubbler. It is a great plant food.

a reply to: AlaskanDad


Thanks for sharing the pictures I can see you have a lovely garden in an extreme place and have put a lot of time into it. It looks like it has paid off too...

Purplemer, have you considered planting seabuckthorn? It grows well is salty environments, is cold hardy, fixes nitrogen, produces edible fruit, and can act as a primary wind break.

The tree doesn't live for very long (20 or 30 years) but that's enough to shelter secondary trees until they are mature and strong.

a reply to: UnderGetty

Hi Undergetty

I have planted some seeds up for sea buckthorn this year. The plants are very small still maybe ready to go out year after next. I did not know it had such a short life expectancy..

a reply to: purplemer


Absolutely amazing stuff purp!!

You should really be very proud, looks fantastic and your hard work paid off.

I would inquire about your gardens fresh water supply...
rain water or what...
it seems a well would not be a feasible thing

thanks

a reply to: purplemer

I'm thinking it would grow if I grew it right next to the foundation of the house. It doesn't get real cold there since the basement is heated.

I would need to figure a way to keep the raspberries out of that area, They love that place. I suppose the raspberries are good too. Wild Raspberry leaf tea is good for some things that ail you, especially women, and the berries make good jam. To get the leafs you don't have to hurt the plant either, the plant can be pruned so it gets bushier. The uppermost leaf of the stem needs to be taken and dried, that has the most of the hormone. I think that this reason is the reason that we started to prune trees, the most potent medicine is in those areas in most cases. So now, we prune them and have forgotten why we started pruning them, we are more interested in making them look nicer. I guess we should have listened to our ancestors better, we saw what they were doing but didn't pay close enough attention.

Another thing about herbs, many types should be picked in the morning right after the dew dries off, they are the most potent at that time. Rinsing off the leaves is not recommended for some herbs, Water them the night before picking so they are clean of environmental toxins instead....or pick the next morning after it rains. The chemicals that are excreted by the herb in the morning can be medicine, it as an ammonium based chemical.

a reply to: purplemer

I am in complete awe!! This is beautiful and amazing and... words I can't express! Just last night, my family and I were talking about getting some land and making a self-sustaining farm, etc. We were talking about hospitable places, etc. But this just goes to show you can make near any place hospitable (Except maybe parts of the arctic....)

S&F over and over and over!

Oh, and welcome back!

Oh Well, when TSHTF i know where i'm going.
Nice job man.

Looks like you put a lot of hard work in. I hope you get a lot back in return.
My wife and I just did finish getting our garden and flower gardens going. Man, that wore me out, but well worth what it's all going to produce. My kids are addicted to cucumbers and choose those over junk food. At 4, 5 and 14, they walk into the garden and get them everyday. I love watching them do that. Not to mention the other stuff they pick and eat. I also got some rhubarb back in the garden this year after several years of forgetting it! lol

Welcome home and good luck

Really awesome job you've done transforming your home in to a small farm. I can tell you come from hardy stock, the Hebrides are a very unforgiving environment and here you are taming a small part of it. You do your forebears proud.
Bon appetit!

a reply to: purplemer
I am impressed! And just last night, I watched an episode of Time Team, where they were working on a site on Barra...so I've got a pretty good idea of your locale. Amazing, smart, garden!

originally posted by: purplemer
a reply to: Logarock


I did look at growing asparagus but I think it might be to windy for it here. Apparently asparagus does not like wind. I live on the Outer Hebrides. That is about 50 miles off the coast of NW Scotland.

purp

wow o wow! hats off my friend! i thought we had it tough in michigan.

the outer hebrides brought about all kinds of google fun last night and i must say St. kilda takes the cake for me. the amazon of st kilda is one of the coolest stories I've heard out of that area. the pre historic foundation and "boat" shape stone ruins. really really cool stuff.

looking the hebrides area over on a map and thinking back through all the more "Intense" times in history from that area conjures all kinds of ideas. those islands and coves and mountains and forests gotta be full of memories that will only ever be speculated upon. i bet that area was just POPPIN during the pirate era. Any fun treasure in the area?

originally posted by: St Udio
I would inquire about your gardens fresh water supply...
rain water or what...
it seems a well would not be a feasible thing

thanks

you would really be surprised at some of the spots fresh water can be found. on Oak island of the "Oak island money pit" fame they drilled a buncha wells and said something along the lines of: we thought it strange to strike sea water in the middle of a bunch of fresh water wells. that made me look into it and surprisingly enough a crafty and tenacious crew can ferret out at least a little bit of fresh water in all kinds of tight spots. look at Hawaii for example, they dont have much but they got it.

Hawaii water USGS publication

Absolutely awe inspiring, especially given your location. Must have been a huge learning curve.

I have a one year old daughter who we have tried extremely hard to feed a completely organic diet, which is not always easy. I have thought about starting to try and grow some veg but not being a gardener I've never given it a shot.

You have inspired me!

originally posted by: kingmonkey
Absolutely awe inspiring, especially given your location. Must have been a huge learning curve.

I have a one year old daughter who we have tried extremely hard to feed a completely organic diet, which is not always easy. I have thought about starting to try and grow some veg but not being a gardener I've never given it a shot.

You have inspired me!

might i recommend Teaming with microbes by jeff lowenfels (thats a link to the PDF, i cant vouch for its safety but i downloaded it and can vouch that the book is there) this is an amazing book that i still havent even begun to digest all the way. great great read! if you like it i recommend getting the hardcover version and keeping it on hand as often as possible cause it really is about as close as you can get to a "bible" for organic gardening.