It was January 2021 and we had finally completed a secondary dwelling next to the cottage for my mother to live in. It became known as Birdsong and has developed its own identity. For the first few months, we built fences and raised gardens around her using as much of the saved building materials as we could. By January 2022, most of the infrastructure has been finished with just some patios and a green wall yet to be completed. Yikes it was hard work and took longer than we expected…we did most of it ourselves with shortages of builders and materials – especially in the last few months of the year. Development of the main home and land took a back seat although we tried hard to keep pushing on.
Growing fruit and veg
Luckily, our food self-sufficiency had started to pay off after nearly 5 years. Improving the soil and finding the best positions for growing various veg took time! We learnt:
- Most plants and trees do badly in full, unrelenting sun. We needed shade. Finally we started to get some shade from our bigger trees. We planted all but one edge of shelter belt trees…over the years we have planted thousands but they needed to grow! Without shade, other plants struggle because water evaporates from the ground in summer, despite thick mulching. Protect lettuces and other sun shy veg with cages covered with shade cloth – this is cheaper and more flexible than a shade structure.
- The answer lies in the soil. After four years of adding compost and chicken poo (and this year horse poo as well) we are starting to get soil that is healthy and holds water. We are on solid clay here and we have been growing in sterile ground that suffocates roots in winter and bakes them in concrete in summer. This year that has changed.
- Water young trees and bushes. We made some bad assumptions about trees that are drought hardy and we didn’t water them. They died! All young trees need watering until their roots get well down into the soil…even those reputed to like the dry. Water is a critical resource…unfortunately our deep water bore was not the ‘get out of jail free’ card that we had hoped for. We use it, but the water is filtered to remove excess Boron and so we can only pump small amounts each day. Next year we will need to install a couple more tanks on the hill…in the meantime we are due for our second water delivery.
- Succession plant and save seed to save money. Growing food over a year takes some planning. Succession planting is the key. In previous years years we have had gluts and then shortages…Courgettes and tomatoes are a good example. This year we have been staggering our planting. We are pleased to say that we seem to have ‘cracked’ the production of continuous lettuce! Our biggest problem has been sowing far too many seeds and not being able to use the plants! Fruit, of course, all ripens at one time. We have been freezing, bottling and trading peaches, guavas, rhubarb, persimmons, walnuts. This year the plums started to produce a few fruit and our Avocados have, so far, produced 48 fruit with more on the tree…after only 4 years in the ground. We are experimenting with stone grown trees now.
Observations around climate change
The land cracks every summer and it is a challenge to stop this. We are doing this by planting trees for shade, leaving clippings on the grass areas as well as building up the soil and mulching.
Some of our trees are massive now (they were all tiny when we planted them)…things grow quickly here!
Plans for self-sufficiency, Kingfisher Cottage sales and adaptation to climate change
