The Cottage Smallholder


stumbling self sufficiency in a small space


Giving away plants and watering

Posted in Vegetables, Watering | 12 comments

Giving away plants and watering

“I gave him some purple sprouting broccoli plants and told him to net them. A week later he rang me to say that the pigeons had eaten the lot.” John Coe peered at me, eyebrows raised over his coffee cup. “And then he had the nerve to ask for replacements! No chance. I’d cared for those small plants for months.” If you give away plants you have to let go of them there and then, and not get upset if you see dried out husks still in their pots a couple of months later. This only happens occasionally. It’s generally with new gardeners...

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Setting up the drip feed water watering system for the summer

Posted in Watering | 11 comments

Setting up the drip feed water watering system for the summer

I’ve spent the afternoon playing with water. There’s nothing more relaxing. Especially if you know that your system will save time, energy and water throughout the summer. There are loads of watering systems available for your garden. The ones that run from butts appealed to me as they are environmentally friendly by reducing mains water usage. We now have six small (250-300 litre) butts and a large 1500 litre one. We have another large butt waiting in the wings to be linked up. We have four sheds that potentially could feed...

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Rain. The lazy guide to watering in dry weather.

Posted in Watering | 0 comments

Rain. The lazy guide to watering in dry weather.

It’s been raining on and off for about three days now which has set back the work on the outside of the cottage. The garden is loving it. The plants look so much fresher. The pond and all the water butts have filled up (even the butt holding 1400 litres is half full!). We water the vegetable garden using a slow drip system fed by seven water butts that are dotted about the garden collecting water off the greenhouse and various roofs.Laziness drew me into the world of slow drip watering. Two years ago we raised tomato plants from seed and...

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