Starting Out - We're Finally on YouTube!

Well, the start of our new venture is almost here. A YouTube channel that will document what we are up to in all the gory details! From planting seeds and growing as much of our own food as we possibly can, to building the hay store, the chicken house, the poly tunnel and anything else my husband can get away with building (he's a man on a mission .... mostly a mission to buy power tools but a mission nevertheless!). The good and the not-so-good aspects of trying to live a simpler life on the way to becoming more self-sufficient. As soon as the first video goes up, I will post a link to it so you can have a look and you can let us know what you think. 

So, apart from that there has been loads happening. After such a long time dying to get some seeds into soil, it's finally March and everything I could possibly plant is being planted. I've been planting like a maniac and pretty much all my window ledges are full of pots and trays just waiting to burst into life. We actually have some seedlings already germinated which is awesome. I love this time of year, the planting and the getting ready for the growing season ahead. The nights are getting lighter and I no longer have to get up in the dark - which I hate.

The poly tunnel is now planted with seeds. They're doing really well and the radishes and lettuce I planted 8 days ago have already germinated.

So far this year I have planted

2 different types of sweetcorn, 8 different types of tomatoes, 3 different types of courgette, 2 types of patty pan, 2 types of spring onion, radishes, mixed salad leaves, 5 different types of basil, 3 varieties of potatoes, peppers, chillies, and some cat grass for my cats, which they totally loved and was gone in like 24 hours! Luckily, cat grass grows super fast so I can plant a pot for them and it's ready in like 10 days

Potatoes chitting before planting

Potatoes just peeping through the soil

Flowers on one of my fruit bushes. 

Trying to get sweet potatoes to grow slips

Broad Beans which were planted in the Autumn now full of flowers

Round courgette plants doing brilliantly

As you can see, I have plants growing like mad all over the place and the poly tunnel is gradually filling up with germinating seeds and plants getting bigger and stronger. Hopefully we will have a really good harvest this year and will be able to become a lot more self-sufficient as a result. I will keep my blog updated on the progress that we're making and you can also follow us on Instagram. There is a link in the right hand column at the top of the page if you want to have a look at some of the other pictures I've been taking and things that we've been doing and you can now also follow us on YouTube! We've only just started and we're total novices to all this so be kind. Here is a link in case you want to have a look. It's just the little introduction bit but please let us know what you think. If you like it, please subscribe and click on the little bell symbol to get notification of our new videos as we post them.

Wow, it all seems very real now!! Anyway here is the link of you want to have a look.

YouTube

My Seed Stash

For the past couple of weeks or so, I have been pondering what vegetables to plant this year. It's a very pleasurable pastime. I love looking at seed catalogues and browsing on seed websites but the fact remains that I still have a whole load of seeds left over from last year. I'm always in a quandary about whether or not I should use them. I know that the seed packets have a use by date on them and some of them are use by 2013 so does that mean I can use them this year? And if I do use them, are they less likely to germinate? Is it better to use fresh packets of seeds? So many questions and so few answers. So, usually I wimp out and just buy new ones.

So. To this years planting. I have 5 raised beds. Three wooden ones which I made myself and 2 that are edged with slate slabs which are stood on their ends, which I also made. Actually, the largest slate bed was just a case of making the most of a large pile of dumped topsoil that I was too lazy to move and I basically, I just slapped the slate around it, flattened the soil out and turned it into a raised bed. It worked so well I made another one.

Anyway, here is a list of things I am hoping to plant this year.

French Beans                                  Shallots
Leeks                                             Mange Tout
Beetroot                                         Peas
Salad Leaves                                  Curly Kale
Tomatoes                                       Broccoli
Potatoes                                         Cauliflower
Cucumbers                                     Carrots
Courgettes                                      Strawberries

These are all things we eat regularly. Last year, I made the mistake of planting things that I wouldn't normally eat like chard and broad beans and I didn't eat them. To be fair, the weather was so bad down here in Cornwall last year and the slug problem so bad that I didn't get very much from the garden last year. Some leeks, some potatoes, some tomatoes, plenty of shallots and some salad leaves were really all I managed to salvage from the slugs.

Anyway, I have been collecting seeds over the last couple of weeks from my local cheap-as-chips store, Trago Mills, and this is what I have go so far. I still have quite a few left to get but I'm getting there and I will have to have good rummage through my last years seed stash to see what else I have left that I can plant. I also bought some fabulous flower seeds but that will be another post.