Thank you all for your insightful ideas and input.
Unfortunately, lime is not an option as I have tried to get it before, and so has my mother, to no avail. Can't seem to find it around here and as I closed out my bank accounts, buying online is not an option. We're going to take some more wood ash and use that, hopefully it will work in a similar fashion.
We're also going to take an old plastic pool that's broke and fill it, replant a potato crop in there at the opposite end of the garden. The eggs have been removed.
Got the gate up, stapled myself in the hand while I was at it (don't ask how, I have no idea). It has detoured all rabbits and the cow that has escaped with its calf from the neighboring ranch.

Owwww!

The road to good food aint exactly painless is it

Good developments I wonder if it'd be good to try and shade out the sides of the pool? Keep the sun off them like?

I've read that Neem oil can be used to treat this, apprentice knows a thing or two about Neem iirc.

Have you tried to get lime from your local agricultural contractors or a farmer that has some left over after treatment, this is likely to be Dolomitic lime which is better than hydrated and has a slower release.
Another way you can deter slugs and other beasties is by spreading grass cuttings over your garden which brings in the birds to sift through the mulch and remove the pests and slows down their travelling progress.

If you don't know what the eggs are try hatching some out in a container with a damp sponge inside, then you can try different potions like nettle soup or other natural pungent detterents.

Nicotine being one of the most powerful natural pesticides there is, grow some and place a few leaves in a gallon bucket until well fermented and dilute the liquid 20-1and spray liberally on the plants on sign of infestation and also grow know beneficial host detterents amongst your plant crops.

StarsChildren wrote:

I've got me first blisters!

And I've not started 'the dig' yet.

Removed a couple of small(ish) trees, a bay and a non fruiting pomegranate to maximise the sunlight and space I can work in. I've found a regular source for free manure and found a relatively easy way to ship water up from the natural underground well spring at the end of the road.

Tomorrow replant the 2 trees on the mountain then I can get started!

Afterwards when all your toil has fruited one will look back and say I made this happen, no middle wo/man, the wo/man. It is one entity to be a keyboard warrior talking and getting nowhere as in 90% of cases, but getting stuck in to ease the burden upon society, I admire your efforts even though I cannot see them.

The Tesco talk of every little helps is one of the greatest metaphores of dystopian dellusions, when it is everyones own attempts that not only enable us as individuals to escape the civil theft that is being created by us in funding the paradigm, but if more did what you have just shared here, the whole would eventually free themselves of the surplus sucking varroa in the fullness of time.

Thanks for sharing with us and for listening to my miuites.

Keep the faith.

oioioi wrote:

My 'muck' has finally arrived, a whole load of digging can't be put off any longer, I'm out of excuses now!

oioioi wrote:
Please describe the aforementioned muck in detail.
Is it cow/pig/horse manure, and is it fresh or well rotted old ect.. Its a genuine question, in case you think otherwise.

griswald

Griswald wrote:
It's all sacked up so I don't really know yet, does it matter?

oioioi wrote:
Sealed plastic bags, sounds like manure ready for the garden, and should be grand for what you want. The reason I ask is, if it was lets say fresh horse manure, it would do more harm than good for a variety of reasons, than horse manure that has been left to rot for a few years. Same could be said of fresh pig manure too. As always gardening books will advise using well rotted manure, and if its sealed bagged and from the local garden centre, then it sounds like you are good to go.

But before you launch into slinging that muck everywhere, it would be advisable to id the crops you want to grow, and research their fertiliser requirements. Taters may benefit from loads of manure, but carrots may fork in a heavily manured plot. So check out your chosen crops needs first.

happy gardening

gris...

Well my muck man came by this morning to give me a couple of pepper and aubergine plants so I was able to ask the source of my shitty goodness, it's sun dried goat shit from his sin dried goats.

Yum yum, I am currently enjoying a bumper crop of Tayberries. The arrival of the sun has filled them with sweet juicy goodness
Sadly our blackcurrants haven't done so well this year

Its been a while, we are still enjoying the bounty from our garden, sprouts, cabbage, leeks, turnips, onions, carrots, all still growing happily away.

Glad to hear it app
We are still sort of half way through the process of moving back down to Cornwall, which will be completed at the end of January. The whole year for us has been one of not knowing where we were going to be from month to month which obviously caused us to scale back our plans for outdoors. Next year is a different thing altogether though and we'll be in the van for a few months. There's plenty of space to get growing in and we'll certainly be doing that. The whole move down there for us is about taking more steps to detach from 'the system'. Hopefully this thread will be picking up again as the new year gets underway.

On a slightly off topic subject I've met some people who run vehicles on homemade fuel and when I can get rid of the car I've got now and get a diesel I'll be doing that too which will be a massive step for me. I'll be posting about it more in due course.

dubmeup wrote:
you prolly know this already but...stay away from Lucas injection pumps!

Bosch is best.

Diesel mechanics is pretty much a new area for me novum, have had very little to do with them.
The only changes the people I've met make are to wind up the boost and up the fuelling. That being cos they figure they might as well get more power if they are paying literally pennies for the fuel. Have to say it's quite scary what can be done. My neighbour has a Corsa van with a 1.5TD in it and it goes off like a rocket. I don't think I'll be going down that route cos my speed freak days are over.
Point being though that their vehicles run on the stuff with no mods required. Just pour the stuff in and off you go.

dubmeup wrote:
Theres a guy not too far from me who makes it out of canola oil. He has many things running on it, even a john deere tractor.

Heck i think on his tractor from memory he runs straight canola oil and its fine...but he got tricky and set it up so it starts with diesel, and switches to diesel shortly before shut off (so it starts with diesel in the pump and lines again) ,,,he puts canola in the original fuel tank and added a small auxillary for diesel...he says the straight oil is a little thick in cold weather and thats why...makes starting easier...anyway too much info but the point is...

him and others seem to all say the general consensus is that Lucas injection pumps can be temperamental when running on veg oils and homemade fuels...whereas with Bosch there isnt any issues....so just saying, look for something that doenst have a lucas injection pump.

some vehicles even came with one or the other depending...the same vehicle can have lucas or bosch,...and another good idea is to buy a vehicle thats proven to run on the stuff without issues if they have a pump other than bosch.

yeah diesels can boogie...you basically run an EGT gauge off a probe put in the zorst mani...and can then add fuel and boost until the temps get to the limit of where they should be.

The people I know use a little bit of petrol in the oil to thin it a bit which I guess helps with the cold starts and possible pump/injector clogging. Apparently it's recommended you add the petrol then leave it for a while but my neighbour adds it whilst applying heat. He maintains that this helps the molecular bonds break and aids the mix and you can then use it immediately. He certainly has no trouble doing it that way. I'll certainly bear in mind what you said about Bosch V Lucas pumps when I get to looking for a vehicle

Hi Dubs

The older ford courier van we used to run, could take neat heating/sunflour mix, no mods, as will all 1800 diesels of the era.

There is an alternative route more suited to anyone with mechanical/repairs ability and that is pre injection/electronic days, such as beetle or morris 1000 with a slmple single ring perculator gas conversion, you can use bottled gas in the boot at only 5% tax.

No road taxx, no stupid emmission tests, dirt cheap insurance.

Hahahahaha you've only just got back and already you're singing the praises of Bugs and Moggies You gonna get Gris to come back and big up the bugs too (I hope you do btw)

Seriously though, I hear ya but I have a very worthy and plentiful supply of veg oil lined up which will mean all I have to do is put in the effort filtering it and adding a few pennies worth of petrol. This is why I'm looking at the diesel route.
Certainly worth posting up your knowledge of gas conversions though, it may well be more suitable for some. Heck maybe even me in the end