by Stephanie Hafferty | Feb 13, 2022 | Blog, Homesteading, Kitchen garden, Spring, Winter
February 14th – St Valentine’s Day – is a magical time for gardeners. It is around this time that daylight starts to exceed 10 hours, the key number of hours needed for plants to grow and photosynthesise properly. It’s time to start sowing some...
by Stephanie Hafferty | Oct 31, 2021 | Ael Y Bryn, Allotment, Autumn, Blog, Homesteading, Kitchen garden, No Dig Organic Home and Garden, Recipes, Seasonal Cooking, Winter
Happy Hallowe’en! To celebrate Samhain, I am sharing the recipe I use to make Mangelwurzel Wine, which may seem strange on a day we associate more with pumpkin recipes. Did you know that mangelwurzels were used to make lanterns in parts of the UK long before...
by Stephanie Hafferty | Apr 25, 2021 | Ael Y Bryn, Blog, Homesteading, Kitchen garden, Mulching, No Dig Gardening, No Dig Home, No Dig Organic Home and Garden, Organic, Permaculture, Preparing The Soil, Spring
Welcome to Ael Y Bryn! We have now lived here in West Wales for just over a month and are absolutely loving it. It’s an exciting time creating a whole new no dig garden here and exploring our new location. Here I am making an abundant small homestead, mostly on...
by Stephanie Hafferty | Feb 14, 2021 | Blog, Gardening, Homesteading, Kitchen garden, No Dig Gardening, Organic, Permaculture, Polytunnel, Spring
Every year I look forward to Valentine’s Day – not for romantic reasons but for leafy ones! Because this is an excellent time to start your sowings for the year. Here in Somerset the sun rose today at around 7:25 and will set at around 17:25, ten hours of...
by Stephanie Hafferty | Nov 14, 2020 | Blog, Kitchen garden
There are going to be some big changes here over the next few months: I will be leaving my garden and allotment early next year because I have sold my house! My children and I have lived here for almost 20 years and it wasn’t an easy decision for us to make, but...
by Stephanie Hafferty | Jan 22, 2020 | Blog, Kitchen garden, No Hungry Gap, Permaculture
I grow a lot of veg, herbs and fruit in planters at home, to make a largish area of old concrete productive. In November Vegepod sent me* one of their large pods to try out. Here’s how I filled it with different composts to help create a richly diverse...