Marc Palmer

Well summer has definitely arrived at long last, albeit interspersed with dull patches.

The garden is going nuts, and our veg patches are doing quite well – into our second year of rotation and the hard work putting in literally tons of compost is paying off. The potatoes are good this year, yields lower than last year but pest and disease-free. The peas are giving us a much better crop, and the broad beans were better too although suffered a bit with poor pollination at the end.

The cabbages have gone remarkably well, but we’ve totally failed again with carrots – this year because the slugs had the all the seedlings – ditto with the parsely which we had tons of last year. Beetroot and lettuce however have been good, as is the rocket. Climbing beans – a disaster, due to slugs/snails eating out the tops.

The sweet corn and squash are going bonkers, which is very good news indeed. Leeks… all seem to be infested with leek moth.

Our willow hedge/fence (these are called ‘fedge’  I believe) that was planted in April has doing fantastically well. We now have the challenge of weaving in/pruning the new grown to maintain the shape and increase the density of it for next year so the garden is more private, but retains a pleasing shape in winter when the leaves have dropped. I can strongly recommend woven living willow fedges – they’re beautiful and easy.

I’m recently getting more and more clued up on Peak Oil and Transition Towns, seeing as Stroud which is near us is one of the few Transition Towns in the UK. It’s pretty disturbing stuff, and like all potential calamities it may or may not happen in the way we expect – but I am sufficiently convinced by the pending peak oil crisis and worried enough by the impact this will have on food supply, transport and social cohesion (or the lack thereof) in the UK that I am working to become as self-sufficient as is feasible regarding food, water and energy.

This year we planted two apple trees, one plum tree, one peach tree and three blueberry shrubs. The peach tree is obviously planted in the hope that the Atlantic Conveyor doesn’t give up on us in a few years ("When the strength of the haline forcing increases due to excess precipitation, runoff, or ice melt the conveyor belt will weaken or even shut down"), and it seems to be growing well at the moment.

I’ve also now hooked up 3x 200L water butts to the downpipe of a small roof circa 8m2, to make sure we don’t run dry in the back garden for veg and plants and avoid using the hose. We had a massive thunder storm the other day which gave us 200L of water from that small roofspace, in just 30 minutes! Rainwater harvesting seems like a "good thing" to do, but coupled with some form of purification might be something we have to do in the not too distant future. Who says there will be enough water (or energy to clean/move it) for the taps to keep running post peak-oil?

I’m working on an idea for a solar powered mechanical pump to take water from water butts up-hill (if necessary) and possibly to drip-feed beds.

I’m also looking into electric bicycles. I’m particularly interested in electric pedicabs, as this would mean we as a family with young children could travel together, up the hills of Stroud. However they all seem to require a charge and don’t have regenerative breaking yet. It will come with time I’m sure – although a dynamo be a possible custom-modification.

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