Whilst the war

on the weeds was being carried out, I busied myself with a small experiment. Ray had picked up a tractor/truck/not sure but sure is big tyre in his travels around tips and clearing sales and although I'm not usually keen to grow food in tyres, I set up a small garden bed to see how it would fare being neglected for two weeks at a time.




Having read about African women who bury unglazed pots into the ground as water sources for their plants I thought I'd give it a go. The theory is that by filling the pot and covering it to stop evaporation, the slowly seeping water provides moisture to the root zone of the plants. As we are not there to water more consistently, I figured that this was as good a system as any, and so gave it a go. Having said that, we have had during each fortnight away some rain at FSF so I am unable to give a definitive answer as to whether the pot alone would have produced the results below.. also, when we are there I give the plants a good drink, like 6 litres of water and obviously the thick mulch makes all the difference also... but I'd say that the experiment is a success - we're thrilled, everything is thriving!




FSF is truly a learn-as-we-go experience. We've never dealt with weeds before, we've never grown fruit trees or vegetables or built structures like these before.. we're flying by the seat of our pants! :D