Being super fed up and feeling a bit better, I decided it was time to do a bit of gardening. The sun has been shining and we had been enjoying doing bits here and there. We started with some strawberry plants, just putting them in seeding tray and popping them in the window for now until we are able to get the Poly Tunnel Greenhouse up. It didn’t take very long to do but felt nice starting something that will hopefully grow, we will of course keep you posted on their growth over the next few weeks.

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We will be buying some established fruit trees to start us off, but we like a challenge and decided to try and start off some trees of our own. If we can get them growing, they will make it to the place we finally settle once we’ve found our land, and can be planted there.

I did a bit of reading about plum stones and how to get them started, as we had put some in water and put them in the window. But as it turns out for plums, they need a chilling off period of about 10 weeks at a temperature of 1-5 C before they will germinate. So I have since wrapped them in wet kitchen roll and put them in a bag in the fridge, as was recommended on gardeningknowhow.com.

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We also tried out a wild card just for fun, and planted some satsuma seeds. I decided yogurt pots would be a good idea to start them off. So after eating some yogurts, I made a small drainage hole and popped some compost in the pot, and planted the seed. Reading up it said you needed sand too, but well I didn’t have any so compost it was.

We have also tried to start off just for a bit of an experiment some Pink Lady apples and a nectarine, so they can all be checked on after a few weeks. Wish us luck!

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Lastly today we planted some potatoes. I found some sacks in the garage, with one I tried to modify it to gain better access to the potatoes once they have grown. The other I just left unaltered as I wasn’t sure the other one would work out. We put a layer of compost on the bottom of the sack then put the potatoes in. The potatoes we used had been left to seed for a few months until they were good and sprouted. We covered them over with another layer of compost, and watered them. We will keep checking on them and when they start sprouting up they will be covered over with more compost, that process will be repeated until the sack is nearly full. Then they should hopefully grow leaves. Once the leaves turn yellow the potatoes should be ready to harvest.

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It is always a good idea, especially after the craziness that has hit us all, to be a bit more prepared. Growing our own fruit and veg was number one priority for us to learn now, ready for when we are finally living off grid. But as it turns out, it could be a priority for all after this has settled and people start to rethink old attitudes.

Growing your own food, and maybe even looking to raise animals eg chickens, to live a bit more self sufficient would not be a bad idea for people to start thinking about. The convenience lifestyle we have all, myself included, decided to lead has massively back fired in a crisis. I am not saying we can get everything our selves (CHOCOLATE!!!!!) but you can take a deep breath in knowing you will be OK, if we can all relearn basic skills that our grandparents or great grandparents probably knew.

We will be back soon to show you what else we have been trying out while we are stuck in, and maybe give you guys some ideas to try out aswell.

Bye for now.

Kiera & Tony