On Apr 2, 11:49*pm, "Christina Websell"
wrote:
I have a paddock down in the village, a mile and a half away that I kept
goats on for many years.
Since my last goat passed away of old age quite a while ago, I have hardly
visited it, *it was very overgrown and a target for flytippers as a public
footpath runs along oone side.
A few weeks ago my brother suggested that we cultivate it as a family and I
was very pleased, as 1/3 acre of nettles and brambles was too daunting for
me.
He has a friend with a mini digger and he was pleased to have a chance to
play with his boy's toy, so they spent a whole day clearing about half of it
ten days ago and making a path towards the tap, yes, it has water on site!

We'll be able to grow organically as never a touch of chemicals has ever
gone near it since I bought it in 1982ish.
I've had an enquiry from a beekeeper who would like to have a few hives on
there and will visit him to discuss. *I'm likely to agree to that. *He also
wants a plot and I will probably say no to that atm.
I spent a nice few hours down there today with my brother who has the week
off work, *me sowing salad vegs (just lettuce, radish and spring onions for
now) *on a bit my bro had dug over, removed all the nettle roots from and
raked to a fine tilth, while he dug another bit over to make a separate bed.
My garden at home is large in area, but long and thin and shaded by trees.. I
try to grow veggies but they certainly suffer from the shading and don't do
very well.
The paddock is wide and open, no trees, plenty of sun.
This will be wonderful, if my bro maintains his interest. *He has 3 children
under 12 to feed so he probably will.
When the digger was there all the neighbours came out of the woodwork. *"Can
we have a plot, buy a bit?"

I was in a desperate situation when I bought this land. *I had a rented
place with stables for my goats and suddenly the owner gave me 3 months
notice to quit as he wanted to build there. *I had seven goats at the time
and the only land available was this piece. *The current owner of it had
been refused planning permission on it so he was up for selling it, but like
villages are, the word had got around that my goats would soon be homeless.
I ended up paying half as much as my house cost at that time for it and had
two large mortgages, more so as I had to pay the loan for the land off in 5
years.
I'm not inclined to let plots off for 10 quid a year or whatever is the
going rate, more so because I discovered that if I do I need liability
insurance.

Hey, I'm really excited. *I want to grow everything that I never could in my
shaded garden!
However, it's quite rough atm. *Even the digger did not get rid of some of
those dreadful tufts of grass and there is huge heap of the ones that it
did. *20 yards long and three feet high. *Will this rot down to grow
courgettes in? she says hopefully.
We haven't attacked the brambles yet. *50 yards x 15 yards at least. *How to
do it organically as that's the way we want to go? *I suspect slash and
burn.
Now if I still had goats, not a bramble will live as they love them.
Tina

Brambles are prolific croppers, the fruits are of good quality, they
freeze raw perfectly, they make great pies, and you can put them on
cereals straight from the freezer, no need to defrost, and kids like
eating them stright off the plant, and can be persuaded to pick lots
extra while eating. Some children are happy to jam them too. On a good
sized plot like yours I'd surely keep some brambles - but not 15x50
yards

Nettles are also good food with a wide range of uses including several
curries, flans, tea, soups, sandwich filler, risotto, rarebit, nettle
chocolate pudding, nettle mint sauce, a mild version of pesto, in
blackcurrant nettle pies, in lasagne & other pasta dishes, dried &
mixed as stock cubes, and even for kids to tie dye with. But
harvesting and washing require some basic mechanisation to be
worthwhile.

Brambles succumb to persistence. But so, often, do gardeners. A way to
improve the fight is to cover the ground with cardboard, then without
light the new shoots die quicker. I presume fire would get an initial
clearance, but I've not yet cleared a large amount of brambles, I tend
to treat them as friendly, even in quantity.


NT