image by lizard10979
Of course: a rainy week in Britain just as the news is full of low water tables and drought. So this article about how to mend a hosepipe might have to wait until next year…
Levity aside, this summer, drought is likely to make things difficult for kitchen gardeners, smallholders and farmers in Britain. We’re so used to plentiful supplies of rainfall, we waste water terribly. There’s a good editorial at Smallholder Magazine which addresses the topic: click here.
Bealtaine Cottage
Someone kindly pointed me towards a new (to me) site from Ireland. Click here to read about the background to Bealtaine Cottage and permaculture centre, and look at the stunning photos. Collette, aka PermaGoddess, updates the blog daily and you can see from yesterday’s entry that they are not suffering England’s drought.
You only need a balcony…
My online friend Elaine, who lives in Canada, grows all kinds of food on her balcony. She’s also a talented photographer. This combination means her blog posts are as visually delicious as the foods they describe. Check out her balcony update last Thursday here.
…or a small garden
I just stumbled across a site called Container Gardening for Food, which does what it says on the can. Run by an ordinary British bloke called Rick, whose printing business was hard hit by the recession, he explores all sorts of ways to grow a lot of food in a small garden: containers, vertical gardening, square-foot gardening and so on. There’s practical advice and links to helpful videos.
Transition
The various Transition Town initiatives are busy. Tooting held their latest meeting and discussed a number of specific questions we’d all do well to consider.
Saeed Abdulrahim of Transition Town Finsbury Park has written an analysis of Islam and the environment which you can read here.
And Transition Town Bridport have been working with young people to encourage growing their own food. See the news article here.
Father’s Day
And finally, it’s Father’s Day in the UK next Sunday. Why not buy a gift that will really last and dedicate a tree to Dad via The Woodland Trust?