Little Green Space
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Little Green Space |
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June 2009 June 19, 2009 Solar Panels Today we had our solar panels - and all the kit needed to fit them - delivered. The solar panels will be installed in a couple of weeks - meaning we should no longer need to use any gas to heat our water. Our wood-burning stove, which is linked into our hot water system, will combine with the solar panels when the weather gets colder - although these panels are so efficient that they can heat water pretty effectively even when there's snow on the ground. Our solar panel kit came from Swithenbanks Alternative Energy. This is a great website for information about solar panels, and all other forms of renewable energy. Swithenbanks fit solar panels as well as sell them, and have done so for people we know in Transition Matlock. Talking of Transition Matlock, Rich has been involved in setting up a new Tree Group as one of its action groups. We are already hearing from local people who are interested in having trees planted for fuel, food or other reasons on their land. June 13, 2009 Know Your Onions I have been looking at my onions over the past couple of weeks, and thinking to myself that they weren't doing too well. Surely I was harvesting my first onions by about this time last year? This is where keeping a gardening journal is really useful. A quick flick through my diary of planting and harvesting, which I started last year, confirmed that my onions were not, in fact, harvested until August. So they have plenty of time yet to put on some growth. I still keep writing things down in my journal - not quite so much as last year, admittedly, but I am finding that as I get more practice at this grow-your-own lark, I'm actually starting to remember stuff. In about twenty years time, I may not need to write down anything at all! June 7, 2009 First Potatoes, First Carrots We have harvested our first potatoes - "Rocket" - this weekend. I got fed up waiting for the potatoes to flower, so I rummaged around a bit in the soil under one of the plants, to see what was going on underground. There were a couple of nice, fat tubers down there, so I dug up a couple of plants, which yielded about 5 potatoes each. Not a great harvest, and there would have been more had I left them for a bit longer, but I just couldn't wait! The first carrots have come up, too: "Nelson" and "Paris Market". So far, there seems to be no damage from the dreaded carrot fly - which destroyed much of my carrot crop last year - so I'm hopeful this year's carrots will be more successful. This could be pure good luck, or because I've sown carrots very thinly between rows of garlic and onions. I'll get my maincrop carrots in the ground - "Autumn King" - in the next few days. |