Smallholder Magazine article “Natural Friendly Interiors”
It’s got us in it!
Technopeasant & Quinta
Some photos of the jungle / Algumas fotos da selva
The gardens are going crazy. Peaches dropping by the 100s, mushrooms, wild pumpkins, all is a mass of growth and life. We are just starting to get courgettes with peppers and tomatoes not far behind, adding to the wide variety of crops we’ve already been eating.
Os jardins estão enlouquecendo. Pêssegos largando pelo 100s, cogumelos, abóboras selvagens, tudo é uma massa de crescimento e de vida. Estamos apenas começando a apanhar aboborinhas, com pimentos e tomates não muito atrás, acrescentando que a grande variedade de culturas que já foram comer.
I’ve planted soya beans between the veg to add nitrogen to the soil.
Tenho plantada de soja entre os veg para adicionar nitrogênio ao solo.
And our monkey puzzle saplings are doing well.
E o nosso Araucaria araucana mudas estão bem.
Look what’s been done to our view! / Olha o que tem sido feito para a nossa vista!
Big machine, kill all the trees and wildlife, including nesting birds, and then plant eucalyptus. Here we are increasing diversity, protecting trees, building soils and nurturing wildlife, and this is what the rest of our species do. Why do most humans act like viruses, intent on killing their host planet?
Grande máquina, mata todas as árvores e os animais, incluindo jovens aves e, em seguida, planta eucalipto. Aqui estamos a aumentar a diversidade, a protecção das árvores, solos e a natura, e isto é o que o resto da nossa espécie fazer. Porque os seres humanos mais agir como vírus, a intenção de matar seu hospedeiro planeta?
A very basic polytunnel
I spent yesterday banging old scaffolding into the ground, hammering, drilling and generally acting like a practical blokey type person!
And we now have a polytunnel, full of seed trays (well, at one small end) and the baby banana tree!
The door probably needs some work – it’s just a slit cut into the plastic now, and the rear end is a bit weird. But it works, and is ridiculously hot inside.
In the same way that the recent rain arrived just after I had watered all our young trees, as soon as the tunnel was up the sun returned properly. It may soon be too hot inside to keep anything in there except humans wanting a sauna experience!
Compost Toilet / Casa de Banho de Composto
O nosso casa de banho de composto
O nosso primeiro casa de banho de composto
The Humanure Handbook – Brilliant book on composting “human manure”. Everyone should have a copy! Also available as a free download (.pdf). Livro exelente sobre compostar o ” manure humano”. Todos deve ter uma cópia! Infelizmente, não disponível em Portugues, mas em Espanhol: Sistema de Saneamiento Seco por Compostaje de “Humanure”.
Lifting the Lid – Centre for Alternative Technology publication – where the design for our dual-chamber toilet came from.
Greenhouse or Polytunnel?
We saw some greenhouses advertised at market last week, and since we’ve just sold Quinta das Limpas we can afford a ready-made one. A 12m2 aluminium framed greenhouse with glass sides and polycarbonate roof, with double doors, 3 windows, gutters for rainwater harvesting, delivery and installation, will cost around 2,000 euros. That’s a LOT of money!
I don’t know where to get a ready made polytunnel in Portugal, or how much they cost (anyone?). So the other option is a home-made polytunnel using either bent plastic pipes or bent mimosa/eucalyptus sourced from our land. This is certainly the cheaper option and, at first thought, the greener option.
But is it? How long will the polytunnel last compared to the greenhouse? How often will the plastic need replacing, and how easily available/expensive will the plastic be in the future? How do we dispose of old/torn plastic? Do I want to spend time every year patching/rebuilding a home-made polytunnel? I think a greenhouse would be a lot easier to clean – should that be a big consideration? And of course, which is better for growing in – greenhouse or polytunnel?
Hmmm … I really don’t know. Which is why I’m posting this here, in the hope that anyone reading this will leave a comment with your thoughts (please)!
Surrounded by Beauty
While watering some trees up in the forest, this morning, it struck me – just how beautiful so much of the world around us is. The photos speak for themselves.
And the fantastic views from here. We live surrounded by extravagant beauty.
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Monkey Puzzles, Self-Seeded Olives and Oak Trees
Almost all of the monkey puzzle (Araucaria araucana) nuts that I put in a seed tray last autumn have rooted. Putting them into a tray immediately upon receipt works much better than waiting for the spring, even though they sat through some frosts.
The acorns that were planted in the same tray have done really well too, and we transplanted them into bigger pots yesterday to grow on before we plant them out. We think these are american red oak, which have less tannins than other varieties, and are fast growing.
The monkey puzzles that I grew last year have almost all been given away to friends, and this is our last one. It is putting on a growth spurt now, and seems to be growing faster than I expected. We need to think carefully aboput where to plant it out, perhaps this coming autumn, as it won’t like hot dry soil, so we’ll need to ensure it has plenty of organic matter around its roots and gets watered regularly.
And here’s a picture of 3 self-seeded olive trees, that I found in my garden over the winter. There are more now, all under the same tree, so I wonder if we just have a fertile tree, while all the others (about 150) are sterile?
Buy any of these highly recommended books and you’ll be supporting a small ecological bookseller and we’ll receive a small commission which we exchange for books for our library. Everyone wins – hoorah!
