The Cottage Smallholder


stumbling self sufficiency in a small space


Old roses: Rugosa Rose. Rosa Roseraie de L’Hay

Posted in Flowers | 5 comments

Old roses: Rugosa Rose. Rosa Roseraie de L’Hay

We are lucky that our garden is big enough to let some of our old roses grow into large tree like shrubs. This rose is about seven feet tall and ranges across the width of a six foot border. It is one of the old roses that I bought from Sagger’s nursery garden in Newport, Essex. I wanted to plant old varieties of roses but knew very little about these. Roger Sagger is a great guy to turn to for advice. He took a lot of time to find the perfect rose for each aspect. Fifteen years later the roses have matured from the six inch sticklike...

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Kill your slugs with milk

Posted in Discoveries, General care | 21 comments

Kill your slugs with milk

I am working in Saffron Walden at the moment in my friend Anna’s new house. It doesn’t have a fridge. A pint of milk doesn’t last more than a day. Two days ago Anna cleared the kitchen of various dead milk containers and put them on the terrace outside. One container was a transparent plastic cup, half filled with stale milk. The next day I was having a break in the garden and spotted that a lot of tiny curled things were in the cup. Initially I assumed that her little girls had put a handful of gravel in it. But something...

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