I meet many like minded people who are smallholding in various ways around Ireland and I'd love to introduce some of them to you now and then. Each smallholder has their own way of doing things and a lot can be learnt from others. This is my friend Geraldine.
She and her family grow all their own vegetables and also keep chickens, goats and occasionally pigs. Both her and her husband work part-time giving them a cash flow and plenty of time to be at home with the children and tend the smallholding. They are in the process of converting to an organically certified farm. When I was visiting her recently over in County Roscommon I noticed an ingenious way of watering pumpkin and squash plants until they are established under a mulch. The system can be reused year after year.
Simple, effective and a perfect example of the re-use of otherwise waste materials before they go into landfill.
That's an awful lot of squash for one family! I'm hoping some surplus comes my way.
Very interesting! Just to clarify (and learn) upside down empty containers around a sunken post so it doesn't blow away. When it rains and fills, does the rainwater just run off the "tarp"? How long does it take for the continer to drain, and in dry weather how often do you need to refill it?
I love this blog, by the way-you are living my dream.
Posted by: industrial poppy | July 06, 2008 at 12:22 AM
Hi there, the rain does flow off the tarp surface, but it's great at holding the existing moisture underneath. The weeds are kept down but there are some extra slugs because of the moisture. The sticks hold the bottles in place with the base cut out. As for how long it takes to drain, not sure, probably very quickly but the neck of the bottle ensures it gets under the tarp rather than rolling off it.
Posted by: Rebecca (Sallygardens Smallholding) | July 06, 2008 at 08:53 PM
I am so looking forward to coming to see you and the girls, getting quite excited now. I love Aoife's contribution to my Story about 'Popple's Day In' on my yogastories blog. It's lovely to have an artistic daughter in law and grand daughter, and son of course!
I wonder which of your delicious veggies we will be sampling. All we've got ready to crop on the allotment right now is Cornish Kale and lettuces with rabbit spit on them, oh, and yummy globe artichokes....
Posted by: Tessa | July 07, 2008 at 08:22 PM
Hello there, just catching up with all your goings on. Congrats on the TV bit, that will be fun to see yourselves on screen. I'm about to show my husband your friend's strawberry guttering, I have just the place in mind for this.
And as for the rabbits for meat, well my Uncle used to breed a few rabbits for meat when I was a child. Many of them ended up at Swaffham market in those days and I probably shouldn't say this but my Aunt tells me that one of their regular customers was the buyer for a rather large and well known company that produced wait for this chicken pies! Anyway enough of that but the bit i was getting to was that one summer when we went away on holiday my two pet New Zealand Whites went to my Uncles for him to look after while we were away and ....
they never came back.
He did offer me some baby ones in return.
It's on;y recently, actually now that he is my only remaining Uncle that I've forgiven him.
And no I don't eat rabbit, well not unless some dastardly buyer has put it in my chicken pie that is!
Posted by: carolyn | July 07, 2008 at 10:39 PM
We have two uses for those empty containers, both involved cutting off the bottom. One way is to leave the lid on, and pop them on a cane where they act as bird scarers as they rattle and move in the breeze, the other is to bury them to half their depth in the soil BEFORE planting out thirsty crops like squashes and tomatoes. Then you put the seedling alongside and you can fill the container with water to empty itself slowly into the soil around the plant, giving a longer watering and deeper into the soil, so the water doesn't evaporate. If you push the container into the soil once you've planted out, you run the risk of damaging delicate plant roots.
Posted by: allotmentblogger | July 10, 2008 at 03:31 PM
Hi,
We do this in Australia too, except we put the soft drink container in the hole with the plant (off to the side of the hole), so when watering, the water goes directly to the roots instead of maybe running off water repelant soil. In winter we water maybe once a month to once every two months, in summer, and depending on how established the plant is, once every week - three weeks.
Great to see great ideas travelling the world!
Cheers,
Kimberley
Posted by: Kimberley | July 11, 2008 at 12:42 PM