All about sustainable food production on small spaces plus books and gardens
Read about the one-acre plot that Sally Morgan has set up at Empire Farm in Somerset. Sally blogs regularly about the plot – what's being grown and raised, her polytunnel, and the certified organic allotments on the plot, as well as matters that concern her - climate change, soil, organic growing, peatfree compost, biodiversity, sustainability etc. She writes about her visits to farms, gardens, allotments and growers during the year. You can also find out about her workshops that she runs from Empire Farm and the books she has written, including The Climate Change Garden and Living on One Acre or Less
Lockdown sent people into their gardens. They have spent hours nurturing their green spaces and while garden centres remained closed, the online suppliers of seeds, compost and other gardenalia were deluged with orders. We saw a shortage of loo rolls,
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A keyhole garden is a raised circular vegetable garden with a cut out or keyhole on one side for ease of access with a compost bin in the middle. They originated in Southern Africa where they were made popular by
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In this series of blogs on unusual vegetables I am looking at some of the quirky veg that I grow on my plot. I had a count up and I think I grow 50+ unusual types, so I’ll cover most
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I like to eat a home-grown lunch. Winter is a time for hearty soups from the plot but after months of variations on vegetable and squash soups, I look forward to a homegrown salad for lunch. I could grow salad
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Spent mushroom compost – it’s light, easy to work with, full of nutrients, free of weeds and disease, rich in organic matter so improves soil structure and water retention. This soil improver is also reasonably priced with a one tonne
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It’s April and the #peatfree campaign is off the starting blocks. It’s hard to believe how much progress has been made since September, when an exchange on Twitter resulted in a group of gardeners and garden writers coming together to
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We are living through uncertain times with worrying scenes of panic buying and empty shelves. And we may be faced with the uncertain and restriction on what we can do and buy for the next four months or much longer.
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Sometimes, I wish I didn’t know the backstory to some foods, so I could happily buy them at the local shops and not think twice. But I do and here is my list of foods I won’t be buying again
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It’s the time of year when the allotmenteers at Empire Farm are planning the year ahead, seed catalogues are out and planting plans in preparation. Like much of the country, the weather has been very wetover the last few months,
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A few twitter posts re lovely poinsettias got me thinking. Are they green? Should we buy them? What are their eco credentials? And why are phytoplasmas so important? So, a bit of background first. Poinsettias are a member of the
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