Red & BBs retirement home......

[British Red]

8' by 4' is just a little shorter than a single one of those "frames" mate. The insect mesh is made, I am told, as scaffolding net. The wider stuff wants a couple of inch or so squares. You can get both on E-bay or from people who specialise in fruit cages etc.

 

[British Red]

Quick update where we are up to

Fruit

We picked up a couple of small rhubarb crowns in Wilkisons for about £2.50 each - they seem to be coming up okay


New Rhubarb 22-4 by British Red, on Flickr

Based on advice from wattsy of BCUK I have invested in a couple of June Berry bushed. Shrubs like blueberries but that grow in less acid soil conditions


June Berry 22-4 by British Red, on Flickr

The gooseberries covered in an earlier post are well into setting fruit


Gooseberry Fruit 22-4 by British Red, on Flickr

The pear now on its second year is blossoming well


Pear Blossom 22-4 by British Red, on Flickr

...as are the cherries


Cherry Blossom 22-4 by British Red, on Flickr

This is one of the plums we planted in November


Plum Leaves 22-4 by British Red, on Flickr

..and one of the apples


Apple Blossom 22-4 by British Red, on Flickr

The new crab apple we have planted for pollination and fruit for pectin is nicely in blossom



Crab Apple 22-4 by British Red, on Flickr

The old damson that I had to hard prune seems to be making a strong comeback



Pruned Damson 22-4 by British Red, on Flickr

The Sugar Experiment

Our Yacon is doing well - I'll plant it out when it develops a little more


Yacon 22-4 by British Red, on Flickr

The Sugar Beet is coming along nicely too


Sugar Beet 22-4 by British Red, on Flickr

Seedlings

The greenhouses are greening up nicely


Greenhouse Staging 22-4 by British Red, on Flickr

We are eating the early salad leaves now


Salad Leaves 22-4 by British Red, on Flickr

The heritage field beans are germinating. But no sign of the trail of tears yet


Field Bean 22-4 by British Red, on Flickr

Had to single out the tomatoes


Tomato Seeds 22-4 by British Red, on Flickr

Cucumbers are doing well


Cucumber 22-4 by British Red, on Flickr

Plenty of chillis on the way for S1 too


Chillis 22-4 by British Red, on Flickr

First of the succession of radishes are up


First Radishes 22-4 by British Red, on Flickr

The oca is coming along nicely - another experiment we are looking forward to


Oca 22-4 by British Red, on Flickr

Seed Saving

Acting on advice I re-planted some of the sand stored carrots from last year to seed save after they flower this year

They are greening up well


Re-planted carrot for seed 22-4 by British Red, on Flickr

The alliums experiment

We are trying to grow a huge diversity of Alliums - we like them and have successfully eaten them year round now from home grown by growing and saving our own

This year we have in

Perennial Welsh Onion



Welsh Onion 22-4 by British Red, on Flickr

Chives


Chives 22-4 by British Red, on Flickr

Elephant and regular garlic


Garlic 22-4 by British Red, on Flickr

Over wintering onions


Over wintererd onions 22-4 by British Red, on Flickr

Tree onions and potato onions


Tree and Potato Onions 22-4 by British Red, on Flickr

and we now have Babbingtons leeks to add to the collection thanks to sugarrat!

Thats it for now - more soon!

Red

 

[RonW]

Going good, Red!

A small tip on the netting cages; fasten them properly in the middle/top of the cage. This way you can fold one side over and open to work underneath it, without having the hassle of pulling the whole thing from groundlevel up, again + you can keep the netting in one piece, since there is no need to "make doors" in them.

 

[British Red]

Ahhh - we have a cunning plan on exactly those line Ron - it involves attaching the bottom of each side to 20mm conduit in push fit clips at the side of the bed. Pop the conduit out of the clips and fold the side over the ridgeline just as you said. Not done it yet...so time will tell if it works!

 

[santaman2000]

Red, I don't want to read back over the whole 11 pages (I've read it before but it's been a while) so I'll ask what I hope hasn't appeared already. Do you have strawberries? (or plans for them?) Also any poultry or small livestock? (rabbits, etc?) I' not sure how large your property is but I gather it's large enough for at least these examples and possibly even a small dairy goat. From your posts, I can just picture you processing your own cheeses.

 

[British Red]

Hi sm,

We have established a small strawberry bed this year (100 square feet) and will propogate on from there. We are "big" on fruit - we have a large gooseberry bed, large rhubarb bed and about 20 fruit trees as well.

We are slowly moving towards livestock (we have none yet). We are halfway through a beekeeping course at the moment and plan to establish at least a couple of hives this year.

Future plans as time permits are a large (several hundred square foot) walk in fruit cage for raspberries and other cane soft fruit. After that it will be chickens - although we ware more planning for meat than eggs - but will probably go for a hybrid breed.

I do plan to move into cheeses as well - but I'm not keen on goats tbh. If I can score a little more land, we may go for a couple of Dexters for meat and milk. Thats a couple of years away though.

Red

 

[santaman2000]

Yeah TBH I don't really care much for goat's milk either. Goat meat either for that matter. Just thought of them because they are easier to keep on small acreage and I actually enjoyed the animals themselves when a close friend had them. On a related note, I googled "dexters" and came up with a breed of Dexter cattle AND a breed of Dexter goats. LOL.

 

[British Red]

Ahh - I meant Dexter cattle - nice and small, good tempered, You can get a couple of gallons of milk a day from one cow and the claves make good beef.

 

[bushwacker bob]

Ahh - I meant Dexter cattle - nice and small, good tempered, You can get a couple of gallons of milk a day from one cow and the claves make good beef.

And the calves make good veal

 

[British Red]

Yep - that too!

 

[Gray1100]

Hi Red
I know this area very well, used to live out there, and beautiful it is too.
Fantastic photos and such progress on the house.
Very impressive, wished it didn't live in a city now
Regards
Gray

 

[British Red]

Not much to report beyond building another "full bed" set of frames and hoops this week. More seedlings on the go, added some Babbingtons leeks etc.

We really NEED some dry weather and sun now. I begin to understand why farmers obsess about the weather.

One thing I did this week was to make up a "raised bed" plan to help record areas to crops, monitor yield, establish rotation plans etc. I need to add science to our work and calculate the right areas for our consumption. The plan is very much to no otnly monitor yield, but also when we use up what we have stored, where we have surpluses etc.


Raised bed plan by British Red, on Flickr

I feel I have overdone the alliums, under estimated peas this year.

Note that we have not included the greenhouses or veg beds on the plan - although I will add those with time.

We plan to add a large walk in fruit cage in the next quiet period to our existing strawberries, goosberries and rhubarb beds. This will be mainly for "cane" fruit - currants, raspberries etc.
Then its time to build the cold frames, get the beehives going and then move on to chooks.

Red

 

[FGYT]

Just scored a load of Blue n black Water pipe in 32mm from the guys who did our new Sewage system, as much off cuts as i can carry (off cuts seem to be anything under 10m)
Im going for mini poly tunnels on frames at the moment with pipes cut to 2m as the hoops ive Stapled the Poly sheet on the first one that has survived the gales this week . but hope to have the net on hooks so its easier to roll up

unfortunately every bed needs something at all times as we have Free range chickens and spaniels who love fresh dug soil

also for the water butt system there is plenty of 32mm to use as the main distribution pipe and join the 2 IBC together

plus ive finally got some seeds in and sorted the green house

ATB

Duncan

 

[British Red]

Well now - time to put a net on one of the beds today to keep the cabbage whites off the brussel sprouts and other brassicas.

In keeping with our theme, all the parts for this are designed to quickly dismantle and store flat, Most importantly they are designed to move from bed to bed with crop rotation strategies. Once constructed, they should take no more than 10 minutes to put up or take down in season and less than one minute to open the net wide for weeding (something I find a chore with most netting arrangements).

So - our starting point was a standard sized bed , with a central ridgeline and conduit hoops.


A Tunnel Frame Built by British Red, on Flickr

What I need to add now is a way to secure the bottom of the net that keeps out the insects and birds, but allows quick, easy access for planting and weeding etc.

I have chosen to do this using another type on 20mm pipe - a long coil of 20mm blue MDPE.


B MDPE, fixings etc by British Red, on Flickr

Although MDPE will bend, it doesn't do 90 degree bends - I also want to be able to "unclip" just one side of the net - so I am going to cut two long and two short pieces of pipe and join them with these elbow joints


C Inspection Elbow by British Red, on Flickr

Unfortunately this cheap type don't come with any way of screwing them down - easily fixed with a drill though


D Drilled Elbow by British Red, on Flickr

A 4x40mm brass screw fixed one to each corner of the top edge of the bed


E Fixed Elbow by British Red, on Flickr

Now, I need to keep the pipe straight and tightly aligned to the top edge of the bed, To keep it there, I added a number of push in saddle cips to each side of the bed


F Sadlle Brackets by British Red, on Flickr


G Saddle Bracket Fixed by British Red, on Flickr

Then I cut a piece of MDPE the length of the side of the bed


H Cut MDPE by British Red, on Flickr

This was pushed into the elbows and the saddle clamps


I MDPE in place by British Red, on Flickr

Then I did the same for the other our sides. Its a bit cumbersome working with 75 yard coild of this stuff so give yourself room


J Remainder of the bed by British Red, on Flickr

I ended up with four lengths clipped tightly to the top edges of the bed


K MDPE Complete by British Red, on Flickr

Next I got a 10m x 3m length of net. This net is for insects (fine mesh). It prevents butterflies laying eggs on the brassicas. If I put this on the strawberries bees couldn't pollinate them, so a wider mesh is needed to let bees in but keep birds out


L Scaffold Net and fixings by British Red, on Flickr

The net is overlong for the 7.2m beds. This is because it has to "hang down" to cover the ends and because I want to have separate fixed net panels at the narrow ends of the bed


M Scaffold Net Over hoops by British Red, on Flickr

I cut a piece of each end to cover the narrow ends of the bed. One end was tucked inside the wooden board.


N One end tucked down by British Red, on Flickr

The bottom of the net was cable tied (through the mesh) to the blue MDPE pipe. A "skirt" was left to hang inside the wooden board to prevent any insects crawling under the blue pipe. The net was then cable tied to the black conduit and cut to size with scissors


O One end piece Secured by British Red, on Flickr

This was repeated at the other end of the bed


P Second End Secured by British Red, on Flickr

The large net piece was then spread to cover the gap between the end pieces


Q Main net in place by British Red, on Flickr

One end was clipped to the hoops with a few more saddle cips


R One end clipped in place by British Red, on Flickr

The net was stretched along the frame and clipped with more saddle clips at the other end hoop


S Stretch tight by British Red, on Flickr

This gave a nice tight finish. Note that there is a "skirt" again hangining outside the boards


T Tight Net by British Red, on Flickr

The net was cable tied to the "ridge pole" along its length


U Ridge line cable tied by British Red, on Flickr

The skirt was tucked in along each long side and the net cable tied to the blue pipe


V Bottom of net tucked and cable tied to MDPE by British Red, on Flickr

Thats it - the net is complete


W Insect Net complete by British Red, on Flickr

Just to test it, I unclipped one long side by simply unsnapping the blue HDPE and flipping it over the ridgeline


X - one side opened for planting by British Red, on Flickr

That seems to give plenty of room for weeding, planting etc. - and it met its criteria - less than a minute to open and close

Red

 

[British Red]

Just scored a load of Blue n black Water pipe in 32mm from the guys who did our new Sewage system, as much off cuts as i can carry (off cuts seem to be anything under 10m)
Im going for mini poly tunnels on frames at the moment with pipes cut to 2m as the hoops ive Stapled the Poly sheet on the first one that has survived the gales this week . but hope to have the net on hooks so its easier to roll up

unfortunately every bed needs something at all times as we have Free range chickens and spaniels who love fresh dug soil

also for the water butt system there is plenty of 32mm to use as the main distribution pipe and join the 2 IBC together

plus ive finally got some seeds in and sorted the green house

ATB

Duncan

Wheres the pictures Dunc?.........Without pictures....it didn't happen!

 

[Robbi]

BR...here's a thought for you.....if you drilled a load of holes on the inner facing side of the blue pipe and fitted a hose pipe connection ( reasonably simple to do ) you would have a built in irrigation set up. This could be gravity fed from a rain water butt if you have enough head. just connect the hose pipe to each bed in turn, leaving it on for say 5 minutes for each bed.

 

[British Red]

I have toyed with that idea Robbi - or even running a mister pipe underneath the ridge pole....

 

[Robbi]

I have toyed with that idea Robbi - or even running a mister pipe underneath the ridge pole....

i thought of the pipe under the ridge pole but figured you'd need a higher head to get it to work off gravity.

All looking very good matey

 

[British Red]

Hozelock Pump by British Red, on Flickr

 

[Robbi]

LOL ! lots of head then !!