Grow Your Own Magazine

Jaxom I don't know where the BBC get their figures from for the weekly wage but they are miles out. I remember food shortages and power cuts but the food shortages carried on into the 80's. (If my memory serves me right.) I can remember one year when potatoes were so expensive that my Mother couldn't afford to buy them and she made little round pancake type things to go on the dinner plate to replace the potatoes. I don't know what year it was end of the 70's early 80's I guess.

__________________
[

Lesley. I know what you mean. My mother lived off a fraction of what the BBC clam was an average wage then. Today I wish I got what they consider to be an average wage
Jax

Now I'm getting depressed. All this talk of bread queues and stuff-which I can't remember- are making me feel like Marie Antoinette, for heaven's sake. But I DO remember rationing during the war! The effect lingers to this day: I'm more impressed by somebody in front of me in the queue buying a big bag FULL of Mars bars than by yon bloke's new X5. TWO DOZEN MARS!!- that's what I call decadence!

It's not just the 70's Jax. My daughter and I witnessed abrawl over the last pork pie in our local supermarket three days before Christmas!!!

What would these folks do in a real shortage, Grow their Own, I think not!

__________________
ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

http://grief-encounters.blogspot.com/

Ah!!!! Christmas the season of good will to all men. nothing like a pork pie to bring out tho love in people,
Jax

In another part of the Vine I have mentioned that I made a Wormery and now play Zookeeper to a few worms. I must admit that I cobbled together the information from various parts of the Internet before delving into my existing compost bin to get my worms for setting up my wormery.
Normally I read a book before starting most things in the garden. This time, however I approached things in the opposite manner. A month or so ago I finally decided to part with a little money and bought a book to confirm or not if I had done every thing correctly.
The book I chose was not too surprisingly called “The Worm Book”. It is an American book by authors Loren Nancarrow and Janet Hogan Taylor. I wasn’t quite sure why all books on worms came from the United States, until I started to read the book. I found out that during the last Ice Age all worms in the Americas were wiped out and now only to be found in the rock strata with other fossils. Worms in the USA are a modern novelty, introduced by Europeans. The worms were first travelled to the US in the pots of earth that the settlers used to transport plants and herbs they had known, grown and used in their old homelands.
Farmers and Gardeners noticed that for some reason plants seemed to thrive better in the city gardens surrounding ports and docks. Investigation found that worms were only to be found in these places. Soon worms were being introduced to other parts of the US in an attempt to improve crop production. Still to this day a lot of America does not have any worm populations. When the term Black Gold was coined for vermicompost they were not far from the truth.
Here in the UK we take worms for granted as they normally are found in abundance. As Children we come across worms at an early age. Most mothers do their best to stop their children from eating them.
“The Worm Book” explains in very simple terms the biology and other scientific information regarding soil improvement when using worms to do all the work. The Authors tell you how to build a wormery, how worm composting works and how to use the vermicompost (Poo) that is your end product. For all those folk who wonder what the worms taste like the authors also include resources and recipes on how to cook with worms.
Worms will turn your kitchen waste into the richest and finest compost you could ever hope to get your hands on. Every day worms eat half their body weight in kitchen scraps. Vermicompost is an organic long-term fertiliser and soil improper that you can’t afford to miss out on. Vermicompost can be used in your garden and for pot plants in your home.
All in all I found the book to be a fun and educational book that is well worth buying if you are thinking about starting your own wormery. The book details can be found at http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...951932-7027063
If you get the worm book I hope you enjoy. Happy zoo keeping
Jax

Jaxom,

I recall:

Toity poiple boidies sittin' on de coib;
Toity poiple boidies eatin' doity woims.

So they have them in New York! Thanks for interesting post. The worm book has come straight in at third place on my wish list ( behind- needless to say- The Sopranos Series 5 and The Anatomy of the Zulu Army).

well thats an interesting combination..ever tried rhubarb schnapps????....

How is it we give the Yanks useful stuff like worms and all they give us is Grey squirrels & crayfish that kill our native species, Obviously some thing in the make up over the pond

__________________
ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

http://grief-encounters.blogspot.com/

"We" even invented the Internet and now they claim that

__________________
ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

http://grief-encounters.blogspot.com/

Ooooh yes, make it by the bucket load or are we going round in circles. Should I start smuggling the stuff to you all?

__________________
Andrewo
www.andrewoldham.co.uk

Does that mean there are organisms in North America that perform the functions in their soil that worms do in ours? I wonder what they are. And are they unique to N. America?
Bags me the recipe for rhubarb schnapps.

Berr - take a look at the schnapps thread under 'juicy gossip' for the recipe! It's one Lottie and Andrewo both use. I thought from your diverse reading wish list you'd be into something like that!! I haven't tried it yet...need to wait a few more weeks.. but it looks fantastic from what everyone is saying ...what to do ( instead of half fill the freezer!) with spare rhubarb
Andrewo - yes please!!!!

I want to suggest the following book as a recommended read, it's not just about gardening but the lifestyle, the needed acreage etc.
New Complete Self-sufficiency: The Classic Guide for Realists and Dreamers by John Seymour (without him there would never have been Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...ink%5Fcode=xm2
Will start on the rhubarb smuggling caper later in the year!

__________________
Andrewo
www.andrewoldham.co.uk

i agree about joy larkcom and i also dip into bob flowerdews organic bible.

As veg. growers, I think Joy Larkcom et alia are excellent technicians and first-rate teachers of the practicalities, but Flowerdew's an artist and a writer of passionate, inspirational prose.
( I THINK I know what I mean!).
Talking about commercial chemical fertilisers, in particular N,P,K:
"These used to be thought of as plant foods replacing the elements taken away by the crop. And while these elements do exist as similar chemicals in the soil solution, it is not natural to have them in very high concentrations as in conventional fertiliser granules. This simplistic chemical idea is a bit like feeding your kids cooking oil, sugar, and flour; they'd do better with it cooked and mixed with other things. Well, we can make feeds from natural ingredients that provide a proper feast for our plants rather than just a few elements." From "The Gourmet Gardener". I like that!
From the same book: "To eat a ripe peach comfortably, you should need a bib. Such a degree of sweetly perfumed but near-liquid pleasure can be obtained only from a fresh sun-warmed fruit eaten immediately right beside the tree!" Sensuous stuff from a bloke in love with his subject, I think! Due back to the library tomorrow but I think I'll have a look on eBay!

Compost by Clare Foster is an entertaining book, fascinating and enlightening about a subject that doesn't normally inspire any such adjectives in many peoples world apart from us gardeners. Nominated for the Garden Writers' Guild's Practical Book of the Year Award 2002 this is a good book to have on your shelf.
This book takes some of the fear out of making compost. A compost pile does not have to be a slimy pile of rotting vegetable matter at the bottom of your garden. It can be a thing of beauty, which restores order to your garden and also helps to cure some of the problems that build up over time in garden soil. Think of well made compost as being a bottle of natural antibiotics for Mother Nature.
This book is easy to understand and follow the guidance. There is no gobbledegook in it and all the science contained has been explained in a clear manner. There are diagrams to help you build various types of compost bins and wormeries so there is something for all gardeners who wish to start making their own “Black Gold”
The book can be found on Amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...951932-7027063 If the customer review looks at all familiar thats because I wrote that too
Jax
Having said that we should remember that help and advice with compost can be found by reading Geordies posts.

I think "Geordies bit" is the best read so far .... it's free!!! then you can spend the money you would have on seeds & fruit bushes

__________________
ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

http://grief-encounters.blogspot.com/