From the quosac2 blog
Why do we need more houses in the UK? Why are house prices sky-high, and unaffordable by essential workers? Why do kids, old enough to move out, stay at home and spend their quite reasonable earnings on booze and cars? Why are more elderly people living on their own, necessitating carers to drive round in cars? Why are cars so necessary?
I'm sure if you add up all the bedrooms in the country, you'd find a surplus.
Surely, if people opted for sharing their homes, or move into shared homes, we could instantly get more accommodation. Young people can share, old people can share, mixed ages can share. Single households generate more waste per head. Single households need more heating energy per head. It's hard work maintaining a house on your own, especially if you need to work, or if you're elderly.
Government specs for new developments aim to cram them in - great for squeezing them onto brownfield sites, but pathetic for gardens, which are breathing spaces, places for drying clothes, composting waste, growing food, appreciating nature.
Shared housing shares burdens and costs, provides company, provides security, provides care when you're down. People in shared housing find they can afford to work part-time; they can downsize on their personal material comforts, upsize on their social and shared comforts.
Divorce is another issue - I blame lack of conversation in this busy-busy-busy lifestyle. The more you have, the more you have to look after - so cut it out. Axe telly-time, talk. And don't dream of winning the lottery - it won't happen, and any charity will benefit more by direct donation. If you've got a dream, work towards it - dreaming won't help!
In a large group, you can have babysitters, granny-sitters, dog-minders, specialists, and hearty entertainment - jam-sessions if you're musically minded! And how many cars do you need? Not many.
Freestyle Foods
On land where your tenure is unsecure, you want food that requires a minimum of money/effort. So:
scatter a manky pot of raspberries or strawberries (you can make a herbal tea from the leaves of the former)
toss your applecores (some of the best apples I've tasted have been from such seeds, chucked by the wayside)
...and some hazelnuts
planted ornamental almonds can offer tasty nuts (if too almondy, then too much hydrocyanic acid) - but you may need adjustable spanners to crack them
learn to recognise Ground Elder and know it from poisonous relatives - it's great cooked as spinach, or young leaves in salad. Don't introduce it to your allotment though!
plant roots like carrot and parsnip from the grocer - they'll give cheap seed
plant Jerusalem Artichokes for an excellent crop of tubers, that are wonderfully crunchy scrubbed for salad - but only harvest them when you're ready for them, as they don't store well.
other tasty wild plants: ramsons (wild garlic), common sowthistle (lettuce-like)
scatter a manky pot of raspberries or strawberries (you can make a herbal tea from the leaves of the former)
toss your applecores (some of the best apples I've tasted have been from such seeds, chucked by the wayside)
...and some hazelnuts
planted ornamental almonds can offer tasty nuts (if too almondy, then too much hydrocyanic acid) - but you may need adjustable spanners to crack them
learn to recognise Ground Elder and know it from poisonous relatives - it's great cooked as spinach, or young leaves in salad. Don't introduce it to your allotment though!
plant roots like carrot and parsnip from the grocer - they'll give cheap seed
plant Jerusalem Artichokes for an excellent crop of tubers, that are wonderfully crunchy scrubbed for salad - but only harvest them when you're ready for them, as they don't store well.
other tasty wild plants: ramsons (wild garlic), common sowthistle (lettuce-like)
Babington Leeks
Babington Leeks (Allium ampeloprasum var babingtonii)
Babington Leeks are a perennial, rare UK native, found on south-western coasts, with the following life-cycle:
Ripe bulbils fall from September on, to root and develop on the moist winter soil. They are unlikely to reach full size in their first season, especially if you mistake them for grass. Planting in September gives them the longest growing season. I’ve not done experiments, but suggest planting 6-8” (15-20cm) apart, and ½”(2cm) deep.
Around June, the foliage dies back to the underground bulb. (You may like to mark the position to avoid damaging them/overplanting.)
In September, growth resumes. If big enough, they’ll produce a flowering stalk in the summer. The flowers are sterile, but the ball of bulbils at their base can be used for propagation.
In June, the foliage dies back, but the stalk remains and releases the bulbils by breaking up in autumn.
Uses:
The leaves can be used like leeks, or to add a garlic flavour to meats, stews, whatever.
The bulbils can be distributed on pizzas (remove husks).
The bulbs can be used as giant garlic – you’ll find them in ones and twos, not clusters as traditional garlic. I’ve just pickled some for the first time – yet to open. To get bulbs, not bulbils, break off the young flower heads (use them in cooking), so that the stalk dies back early. Lift in July/August - if your ground is solid, baked in the summer sun, try watering it to minimise bulb damage when digging them out.
You may try bunching the stalks to make insect homes.
Our mediaeval ancestors, and their predecessors, probably found these leeks and used them in their pots, part of the essential spring greens. As the plant’s only means of reproduction is by bulbils and division, this is the very same variety. It can’t be improved upon – for the same reason; and cannot breed itself out of disease susceptibility, so should not be grown in bulk, just isolated gardens.
If you fancy growing them, I can send some bulbils to UK addresses on receipt of a suitably stamped, addressed envelope: email me, antthehat at my hotmail.com address for information. Fresh stock is available in September, also the best planting time. If you've got any interesting edibles to offer in exchange, that would be great, but not essential.
Babington Leeks are a perennial, rare UK native, found on south-western coasts, with the following life-cycle:
Ripe bulbils fall from September on, to root and develop on the moist winter soil. They are unlikely to reach full size in their first season, especially if you mistake them for grass. Planting in September gives them the longest growing season. I’ve not done experiments, but suggest planting 6-8” (15-20cm) apart, and ½”(2cm) deep.
Around June, the foliage dies back to the underground bulb. (You may like to mark the position to avoid damaging them/overplanting.)
In June, the foliage dies back, but the stalk remains and releases the bulbils by breaking up in autumn.
Uses:
The leaves can be used like leeks, or to add a garlic flavour to meats, stews, whatever.
The bulbils can be distributed on pizzas (remove husks).
The bulbs can be used as giant garlic – you’ll find them in ones and twos, not clusters as traditional garlic. I’ve just pickled some for the first time – yet to open. To get bulbs, not bulbils, break off the young flower heads (use them in cooking), so that the stalk dies back early. Lift in July/August - if your ground is solid, baked in the summer sun, try watering it to minimise bulb damage when digging them out.
You may try bunching the stalks to make insect homes.
If you fancy growing them, I can send some bulbils to UK addresses on receipt of a suitably stamped, addressed envelope: email me, antthehat at my hotmail.com address for information. Fresh stock is available in September, also the best planting time. If you've got any interesting edibles to offer in exchange, that would be great, but not essential.
The Chayote
Chayote - Sechium edule.
I got a job lot of these fruits for a song, so I thought I'd try growing them. A search on the internet suggested that the single seed inside this cucurbit's fruit might sprout if carefully cut out: I had no joy. They tried in their pots, but whether they didn't like the north facing windowsill in winter (the best place for me to keep my eye on them), or just didn't like being removed from the fruit, I don't know. But one fruit remained in its little plastic bag for some time, and started rooting and shooting. So I put it in a plantpot. As I write in mid April, it still looks reluctant. See the picture with the rotten fruit - taken before I removed the fruit and planted it up without - it had some roots trying to grow into the fruit, but rotting; there were still some healthy root starts waiting though. For some good pics of young chayotes, see http://www.greenculturesg.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=9734 Ultimately, I hope it will go romping up a bean frame, and if not produce fruits, then we'll gorge on shoots. I've none to offer, of course - just thought you may be interested.
I got a job lot of these fruits for a song, so I thought I'd try growing them. A search on the internet suggested that the single seed inside this cucurbit's fruit might sprout if carefully cut out: I had no joy. They tried in their pots, but whether they didn't like the north facing windowsill in winter (the best place for me to keep my eye on them), or just didn't like being removed from the fruit, I don't know. But one fruit remained in its little plastic bag for some time, and started rooting and shooting. So I put it in a plantpot. As I write in mid April, it still looks reluctant. See the picture with the rotten fruit - taken before I removed the fruit and planted it up without - it had some roots trying to grow into the fruit, but rotting; there were still some healthy root starts waiting though. For some good pics of young chayotes, see http://www.greenculturesg.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=9734 Ultimately, I hope it will go romping up a bean frame, and if not produce fruits, then we'll gorge on shoots. I've none to offer, of course - just thought you may be interested.
PS - It died. It wasn't healthy when I removed the fruit, and just went downhill...
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