Progress on the Frugaldom Microholding

Much Digging and Planting has Been Done

We've really been making the most of the past three weeks of exceptional weather, although it has meant having to water everything every day. We're very lucky to have the stream at the bottom of the garden, as it's a simple case of filling the watering can from there and then watering the fruit trees.

We now have the mini-orchard completely planted and all of the trees seem to have taken to the new ground. In total, we have the old plum tree, which was in the garden to begin with, 12 assorted apple, plum, pear and cherry trees plus 5 crab apples.

The crab apples have been planted along the south facing wall and will be kept down at manageable hedge height as part of my 'edible hedging'.

The orchard will be fenced off from the main garden, as I want the ducks to have the run of it. Slightly beyond this area, but within the fenced part, we plan on digging a pond.

It was lucky for us that we found a pile of 10cm diameter plastic pipes dumped at the bottom of the garden. These have now all been retrieved and measured - there are enough to join them up and make an overflow drain that will run between the pond and the stream. I'll just need to source a few connectors and a couple of angled joints to lead it down through the middle of the garden and then round to the little footbridge. It'll take a lot of digging to lay them all in but the pond will take even more, when we get around to excavating that. Hoping to be able to make it between 3m and 4m diameter, with a small patio/seating area nearby.

The big rhubarb patch has now been dug out, most of the rhubarb picked and the bed surrounded by a rock border. We used some of the chicken hut manure, which has composted, to dig in among the soil and I also planted the new crown that a friend gave me. In total, I have counted 10 crowns in this one plot, which measures about 4m x 1m.

The large slabs propped along the side of the rhubarb patch still have to be moved but we can't budge them. That's a job for son and his weight-training buddies, I think. Hopefully, we'll can find some strong logs or blocks to rest these on, as they'll make fantastic garden benches down in the orchard.

Since stripping out all the largest stalks of rhubarb, many more has started to come through. We should see an excellent second crop and I haven't wasted any of the first lot, as fellow LETS members have been trading for it.

The microholding, is being created in 'layers', as the garden slopes slightly, down to the stream. The laying hens are going on the opposite side of the water in what will be a 10m x 10m enclosure with a 3m x 2m chicken hut.

The chicken hut is gradually being renovated as and when we can salvage reuseable materials.
 

There's plenty of space for the hens, plus there's the opportunity to clear a further area of rough land in the future. At the moment, this area is VERY rough - mostly overgrown with brambles. It also has the burn running along the side of it, so that would need to be made safe. We haven't quite decided what to do with this, yet, all we know is that, as microholding land, it won't be wasted.

So, starting from the very bottom of the garden, we'll have poultry separated from the main garden by the stream.

Next, we'll have the orchard with the duck pond. This is where we've laid out the old livingroom carpet that was in the house, so it helps kill off all the weeds and grass beneath it before we start excavating. We'll then use the carpet to line the actual pond before fitting a proper liner, so there's less chance of any stones or rocks bursting the liner once the pond beds in. I suspect eBay or eBid will be the source of the pondliner.

The orchard will all be fenced from the main garden to keep the ducks enclosed and I'll probably keep the pure breed bantams there, so it's easier to keep an eye on broody hens and chicks. The compost bins have been fitted into a corner of this area, too.

 Next, we'll have fruit bushes - raspberries, tayberries, red/white/blackcurrants, gooseberries - and rhubarb. The shed will be sited here, too, which means it will be about halfway down the garden. We've already got most of the blackcurrants into the ground and some are starting to form berries, already. I've made a start on getting the raspberry canes in and I've got the gooseberries transplanted from their buckets.

Proceeding towards the house, the next area is being dedicated to vegetable growing, so this will be an area for raised beds, square foot gardening and cold frames.

Not sure how much of this will be achieved in year 1 but I'd really like to get somewhere dug out for potatoes, before it's too late. (If it isn't already!) I have only one row of potatoes planted along side a small onion bed. There are plenty of old windows lying about the place, so the carrot seeds are growing well under them and the courgettes are looking like fine, healthy specimens.

Beyond the veg plots will be the greenhouse - not yet organised - and then the tubs and pots leading up to what will be the patio. At the moment, it had planters, tubs, pots and buckets sitting everywhere, along with an assortment of other garden 'stuff'. I also have a couple of tiny trees in planters that granddaughter planted from fruit stones about four years ago. I think there are two nectarines. I don't suppose that they'll ever grow to bear fruit but it's nice to keep them for her.

In the assorted pots, planters and tubs, the strawberries are doing exceptionally well. The prolonged warm, sunny spell has really driven them on.  There are about a dozen planters and troughs filled with them, as I haven't decided where they'll eventually go. With luck, all these flowers will develop into fruit and we could see a bumper crop, despite their all having had to move. Some were only transplanted within the last week.

Many of the seeds I planted over the past couple of weeks have germinated and today's rain should really help their cause: salad leaves & lettuce, radishes, carrots, peas, parsley, onions, the onions sets have sprung into life and the nasturtiums and sweet peas are catching up after their late sowings. In other tubs, I have sat seed trays containing courgettes, giant pumpkins, tomatoes, peppers, peas, runner beans and french beans. These tubs have been covered with glass, so I'm eagerly awaiting the results from there anyday now.

My mint - two varieties - is growing well. We love this ground and mixed with crumbled chocolate into homemade ice cream but it's just as nice mixed into cheap, shop-bought varieties, which I suspect will be all I'll get time to use this year. The lemon balm mint gets used for drinking as tea - tastes delicious.

With so much to do indoors, we are glad to see the arrival of the much-needed rain. For a start, it will make us stay indoors getting more of the renovation work done. But lest you all despair, we have managed to get quite a bit done in the house. All the wood treatment has been completed upstairs, we have holes in the sittingroom, hall and bathroom floors, the kitchen ceiling is partially down and we have, I hope, only one serious pipeleak to be mended.

The new fuseboard for the electrics is being fitted tomorrow and the attic rooms should be completed by next weekend. By then, also, the shed should have been delivered and we can start getting all sorts of stuff stored into that.

The Frugaldom microholding is coming together and we have another 29 days left of the 50-day challenge to make it all habitable.

Challenging times - follow the daily progress in my '50 day challenge' thread of the Frugaldom Forums. The forums are free to join but you need to register in order to read or post. We also reserve the right to delete 'lurker' accounts.

When Renovation Becomes Excavation!

Out with the old... or NOT, as the case may be.

Our 'new' house is an end terraced cottage. It's probably about 200 years old and adjoins what was formerly the Inn and, adoining that, what's known as the weaver's cottage. We have no idea who lived in ours, originally, it could have been the Innkeeper's cottage, for all we know.

These particular stone cottages in SW Scotland are all under some sort of conservation order and, as such, are listed as historic buildings. We need to renovate carefully and in keeping with the original design of the buildings. We need to do this on a frugal budget, so the easiest and cheapest part of the proceedings is preparing to create the microholding in the back garden and tearing out the interior of the house - these things cost nothing to do and it's all time well invested. So, I was delighted when I excavated down to a stone flagged hall floor!

We've already put many hours into clearing the garden, it will take many, many more, but the micro-orchard has now been transplanted from the old garden, several borders dug and planted up, the first of the raised beds dug and sown and the hen house repairs have begun.

12' x 8' hen shed

Replacing rotten wood in hen shed

The old hen house at the bottom of the garden measures 12' x 8' and is situated within a 30' x 30' run, which is fenced almost entirely to a height of about 6'.

The roof of the shed is solid and seems watertight, although we haven't had much rain to try it out properly. Anything that has rotted or been chewed, burrowing or damaged is being repaired and crittur-proofed. It will be a brilliant place for the hens, separated from the main garden by the stream. 

Concrete slatted flooring in chicken hut

There looks to have been a lot of added 'security' in the past, so I'm assuming it's been to protect against mink coming along the stream and foxes from the adjoining fields.

Only the hens will be kept in the enclosure at the bottom of the garden, as the ducks will have their own space in the orchard. Beyond the trees, I am planning on digging a pond and an adjacent seating area, for relaxing in summer.

Duck pond will go here

The main garden has now been split in two, one half for poultry, the other for veggies and fruit bushes. In the bottom half, I have covered over a patch that will become the duck pond. We found a whole stack of plastic piping of the 10cm diameter plastic type, so this will be used as drainage for overflow and to make cleaning of the pond an easier task. Coupled with the metres and metres of hose pipe retrieved from around the property, we should be able to create a good flow of water, topping up from an outside tap and draining off any excess into the stream at the foot of the garden.

8' x 7' raised bed split into growing sections

I've dug out the first deep bed and now have it filled with compost. It's split into three sections - main part has onions planted, then there's a block of carrots. The smallest corner is being kept for the lettuces, once I start thinning out the seedlings.

The wooden frame on bottom left supports two 4' windows to form a cold frame for the carrots. This can then be netted to deter any carrot fly.

When H started digging out the contents of the chicken hut, it looked like it hadn't been cleaned out in years. We know the previous owner also kept pigs, goats, rabbits etc, so the soil and manure have now broken down into lovely compost. I used some of this for the raised beds, but there's plenty more to be moved.

There must easily be the quivalent of ten bags of compost piled up along the wall, so no excuses for buying any extra and it will also help start off the new compost once we get the bins moved over from the old garden.

On what will be our patio, the platers are coming to life. The salad leaves (Speedy Veg variety) are growing very quickly. Thank goodness, as the number of salad sandwiches we're getting through whilst unable to make any lunches at the new house seems to be increasing by the day. All this good weather means packed lunches outdoors, sitting in the garden.

I also noticed that the first of the peas, carrots, nasturtiums and sweet peas have germinated, so things are startig to grow all over the place.

Trees awaiting planting

One of my priorities was the orchard, as I wanted the trees into the ground as soon as possible. The cherry trees had already started blossoming in their tubs and I didn't want to wait a day longer than necessary. So, I measured out the plot of land allocated as orchard, marked out where each tree was going and then H got to work digging all the holes. These were soon filled!

It's been a busy two weeks, since getting the keys to the new house. It's also been a sunny two weeks, so more has been done in the garden to start off our microholding than has been done indoors, making the house habitable.

Follow the Frugaldom Microholding progress in the Frugaldom Forums, with daily photo updates and progress reports. You'll find it listed as our '50 Day Challenge' in the 'Challenging Times' section.

Another Step Closer to Microholding

This morning saw the arrival of the solicitor's letter headed, 'We are pleased now to confirm conclusion of a bargain on your behalf', along with the receipt for all funds transferred to pay for the house. As soon as the funds clear, we can collect the keys and begin work on turning the house into our home, at which point, our very own microholding project will begin.

This is what we have to convert into a self-sustainable, eco-friendly, self-sufficientish garden.

Here, we see the bottom of the garden. This is where the hens and ducks will soon be going to live. It's a fair sized area to fence off for them, probably measuring about 8m x 10m - plenty of space for our micro-flock.

Between there and the main garden, there's a stream, so there's plenty of scope for keeping a duck pond filled with fresh water, not to mention watering the furthest corners of the garden.

The far end of the garden meets the main garden by way of the small, concrete bridge over the stream. Perhaps, one day in the future, we'll have a more ornamental water crossing but, for now, this will do us just fine.

Once across the bridge, we arrive at the bottom of the main garden. It's over 90m long and about 10m wide, so plenty of space for developing our great outdoors.

Looking down the garden from what will, one day soon, become our patio, you can just make out the trees at the bottom, where the steam runs through and where the feathered friends will take up residence.

It's all very exciting, but also a huge task, as the place hasn't been touched in two years. Apart from that, we still need to get the house reasonably fixed up this summer. There's no building work to do, thankfully, just major cosmetics and upgrading of services & utilities before we can safely move in; with luck and a great deal of determination, we're planning on being there sooner, rather than later.

Apart from that, I need all my fruit trees and bushes planted so I can see what the space looks like once the bottom of the garden has been turned over to the feathered friends. The fruit trees will be transplanted to form the mini-orchard.

Progress will be mapped here and in the forums, but you'll find all the relevant links at http://www.microholding.co.uk/ just as soon as we make a start.

Absolutely Fabulous, Frugal Spring-like Day

What a Difference a Day Makes!

We've had a gorgeous, warm, sunny day, here in Frugaldom. I hope the weather has been similar elsewhere.

With 10 fruit trees to prune, dig up & pot before moving, I still ended up spending, but with good reason and without costing me a penny. I caved and ordered two lots of multi-coloured flexi tubs using Amazon vouchers that have accrued over the months from gifts, points redemptions and Topcashback. I'm a happy bunny, as these will all be reuseable after we've transferred the mini-orchard to what will become the new Frugaldom garden.

We've managed to get a fair bit of the current garden dug and transferred into pots, ready for 'the big move', so I decided to do a photo update blog post. This way, those of you who have followed our progress over the past few years can see what 'un-gardening' looks like, after all the hard work that went into creating a garden in the first place.

Sparrows on the arch

Last year, we finally managed to get an arch for the gate. It's been great fun for the many birds we have visiting our garden. I had planted honeysuckle either side of it, so that had climbed a fair way up it by winter, before it was pruned back. The plants had just started to waken from winter hibernation when it had to be dug up, but I think they should survive the transition period in their big pots.



The de-arched garden gate



Along with the honeysuckle, I had cut some willow withies from a friend's forest, so these were starting to root. The plan was to have a willow archway with the honeysuckle intertwined. However, it's not to be, for now. As of this afternoon, this is how the gate looks.

Inside the gate, we had constructed a large, deep bed, using four, 8ft long sleepers, sectioned into two beds, each seperated by a wooden walkway.

Hens dust bathing in the raised bed

Slowly clearing the corner

The square foot garden has proven to be a very productive corner , especially after employing the square foot gardening method of growing fantastic vegetables.

We grew huge cauliflowers and amazing broccoli, amongst everything else. Now, I've had to rip out the winter cabbages, early carrots and the last of the parsnips, as it all needs to be cleared prior to moving out of here. It was quite a quick job to do, what with all the little helpers of the feathered variety!

After a few dry days, it has ended up looking ready to plant up again! The wooden walk has been removed and will probably be chopped for firewood to use in 'George', our logburner. The rich soil that's left behind will be used to backfill the holes where we dig out the fruit trees.

In another corner, we had completely gutted out all the brambles, bricks and rubbish to create a growing space for potatoes, herbs, globe artichokes, peas and beans, all of this around a cherry tree. Like the square foot garden, this was also fenced off to protect it from marauding chickens and ducks.

Aother corner cleared

This corner has also now gone, barring the cherry tree. With luck, the new trugs will arrive quickly, enabling us to make a start on digging up the remaining trees. I've already received the despatch notice after ordering them only this afternoon! Impressive!

The telltale garden canes and fence stabs are all that's left to show what was once there. It took two years to cultivate the corner and about an hour to undo all the work.

It's quite sad seeing it all disappearing so quickly, but we have the prospect of a whole new beginning, once we move. In this respect, the landlord's decision to serve notice on us has served us pretty well, thank you very much. Fate is beginning to lend a helping hand, once more, despite the heap of ill-fortune we have had to face this year, so far.



Joey, at back, distinguished by his
tail curl, and Phoebe.

As well as the sudden losses of one third of our household income, the old car (it died and had to go to the big carpark in the sky) and our rented home, we hace also suffered the loss of one of our trio of ducks - dear Monica passed away at the start of the year. We never did find out the cause of her death, although there had been a scuffle involving some of the chickens. We suspect there may have been another weasle in the garden, with the ensuing 'battle' encouraging the cockerels to attack.

Joey and Phoebe have been fine, and are now back to normal, waddling about the garden with their comical, clumsy walks. Pheobe has taken to laying her daily egg beneath the hedge in the front garden.

Silkie 'Chick'

Our hens all freerange but, despite their freedom, they are normally to be found wherever we are - following us about the garden, digging wherever we dig, squabbling over any creepy crawlies or worms that we uncover. Silkie Chick (original name for a Silkie hen, NOT!) is one of the household favourites. She was the only chick to hatch from half a dozen eggs in the incubator. We'd had a lengthy power cut and had given up all hope of anything hatching. However, I left the machine switched on, just in case. Lo and behold, out popped a solitary Silkie chick. The name has stuck, even although she was two years old this month.  In that time, she has paid her own way handsomely.

Willows and fruit bushes

In the furthest corner of the garden, we had our work cut out right from the start. This corner didn't really exist when we arrived here in November 2008. It must have been some sort of dumping ground. Out of here, we dug oil drums, a roll of fencing wire, an old mattress, a couple of bikes, the remains of a long-forgotten barbecue, a sackload of broken glass, a broken compost bin (we nursed it back to health and put it back into use) and hundreds of bricks. The bricks were salvaged to lay a base for the garden shed, but they'll need to be replaced in their original positions before we leave. Our landlords have not been forthcoming in their letting us know the condition they want the garden left in, although we've been well-informed by several people that we need to remove everything in order to claim back our deposit.

I'm not too sure how we'll put this back to the way it was, if the landlords insist! Fortunately, I have the original photos for reference, but I don't really fancy re-hiring a van and driver to return to the council tip, where most of the stuff was taken. (At our expense, I might add!)

By clearing all this lovely space, we managed to fit in three vegetable beds, space for beans and peas, a row of sweetcorn and some more globe artichokes.

Strawberries, fruit and flowers

We also erected a small greenhouse, which has been along this road from one house to the next. We are the third house in the road to have made use of what was once part of a neighbour's conservatory. It's built on a raised, slabbed patio, which has been brilliant for growing tubs of salad stuff, courgettes and cucumbers.

All of this will be removed, as we transfer everything to the new place. For now, it is being used as secure storage for all the pots of fruit bushes, herbs, flowers and trees that have already been removed from the main garden.



One of our Lavender Araucana hens

 Once again, we have plenty of helpers offering to scratch their way through the remains of this previously productive corner garden. Even the Araucanas were investigating every turn of earth, every moved fence post and every pot filled. At one point, this one ended up sitting in the wheelbarrow and was wheeled around the garden with rescued soil that we were using for filling in holes. I hate to think what will happen when we attempt to sow the grass seed!



Dismantling the hen runs

 Our hens and ducks are all secured at night in pens along the back of the house. When we first arrived here, these pens were delapidated dog runs, complete with derelict kennels, so a great deal of time and effort went into refurbishing the wooden houses, mending posts, rewiring them and renovating the gates. We also ended up incorporating some flat-pack hen houses, purchased in haste while we prepared for my daughter's wedding. (We couldn't go away for the full day and leave the feathered friends to fend for themselves, so we forked out a small fortune to ensure hen and duck safety.)

Spurred on by the incredible weather today, dismantling of the first of the pens began in earnest. It will take a good few more dry and sunny days to complete this task, but everything that can be, will be salvaged for reusing at the new place.

Bernice, one of our Pekin hens

Our Pekins relished the demolition work today. Bernice was particularly interested in any place where a brick was being lifted and could hardly contain herself with excitement. She squawked and chattered away to herself for hours, whilst digging and scratching in the fresh earth. That was, until she suddenly realised that she needed to lay her egg! She scuttled off at a number of knots, jumped into a box, dropped said egg and was back into the muck within minutes!

Pekins are fantastic little bantams. They are so friendly and tame that they think nothing of hopping onto your lap whenever you're sitting in the garden. They're twice as quick if you dare try to sneak a biscuit without sharing it with them! The downside of these tiny, feathery, clockwork looking toy chickens is that their eggs are tiny! They do make great pets, though, and have a tendancy to sit and brood anything in the hope of hatching chicks. (The Silkies are the same, in this respect.)

That's the story, so far, of the preparations for our next big adventure. Hopefully, we'll be away and settled into our new place before summer begins and we will have enough time to make a start on the new microholding project. Hopefully, too, we'll have plenty of time to breed a few more hens, quails and ducks. It's getting rather exciting, as there's probably enough space to keep another of my favourite species - horses and ponies - but I have promised myself that there'll be no more of those. I can't, however, promise that there'll never be any more pets.

Keep up with the progress in our free frugal living forums. I'll eventually get around to reinstating more of the Frugaldom website and then the whole process will begin again - this time for REAL!

Help! Transplanting the entire garden...

As you may have gathered, we are planning a housemove next month. This means we'll need to move all the fruit trees and bushes that were planted here, and that's going to be quite a task!

I have the beginnings of an edible hedge of crab apples, about a dozen assorted fruit trees (all around 2m height) plus an assorted array of currant and berry bushes. Should I prune these right back before all the buds start emerging? Spring is on its way and everything has started to come back to life.

There's still a nip in the air and we're still getting frost - that can last until mid-May here - but most of the above are in the ground and many are beginning to bud. This means we need to dig everything up and get it into large containers ready for moving; we need to do this as soon as possible, but how do I do it?

I'm thinking large trugs with handles would be alright for the trees, although they're going to be heavy to move, but do I plant them into virgin ground once we move or would I be better to leave them in their big tubs until the end of the year? I've been advised to lift a fair sized root ball and pack them into the containers with as much of the original soil as possible, then keep them protected from the frost. Any other advice would be much appreciated.

I also have rhubarb and strawberries to lift and move. The rhubarb is already quite a fair size in the sunniest corner of the garden, so I'm worried about damaging it by moving it this far on into the growing season. I might be best to leave it for as long as possible, in the hope that it's big enough to pick before we are away from here. Unfortunately, we're working to a very tight deadline, unless the landlord concerned decides to respond to our requests for an extension.

Any helpful suggestions or advice that anyone can offer would be greatly appreciated. Also, if anyone knows of anything lighter weight than soil that can be used to pack around the root balls of the fruit trees, I'd love to hear about it.

Please post comments either here or into my forum thread marked 'Moving Fruit Bushes & Trees'. You can find that HERE. You will need to register a username in order to reply, but it's free to join and, to my knowledge, there are no spammy emails associated with it. It's our own free 'Frugaldom' forum.

Many thanks, in advance, for any helpful hints, tips or suggestions. It's a fairly traumatic time for all concerned, as this move has come very unexpectedly. But I guess that's what happens when you rent from private landlords - they can want their houses back at anytime.