Hello From Wales :)

[Miffy]

Hello,

Just wanted to introduce myself. I live in South Wales with my husband. We are novice Preppers although I have previously had an allotment for 10 years and am now turning my new garden into an edible garden of fruits, veggies, herbs and flowers

We are prepping for the next recession as my husband is self employed and may be short of out of work. I also remember the previous petrol strike and feel we are overdue one of those too.

We are starting by stockpiling food and non-perishables as well as gardening (although not so much at the moment!) but I hope it will progress into a longer term self sufficiency way of life/hobby.

Nice to meet you all

[Deeps]

Welcome to the forum, it sounds like you know what works for you. I hope you find the site useful.

[Miffy]

Thank you

[Arzosah]

Morning Miffy, welcome to the forum - sounds like you're right on track with providing for your needs. You may only just have come across the concept of prepping, but with 10 years experience of an allotment, I'd say you're pretty well along

[Miffy]

Thank you for your kind reply. I quickly checked out your blog, I will go back to it later but the bonfire thing is something I have been umming and ahhing about since we moved in. But I'm worried about upsetting the neighbours! We're not rural. I have masses to do in the garden and I have a garden waste collection but it finishes for the year next week and I'm not looking forward to dozens of trips to the dump over the winter! I felled a holly tree that was so so huge a couple of months ago and we've only jist got rid of half of it! Plus we have masses of overgrown shrubs that I need to thin out or get rid of to make the garden the edible functioning garden I envision. The cutting back is easy, it's the disposal thats the nightmare. I don't want to pay anyone to do it though. It's a work in progress! 2 palm trees and 4ft of laural and a conifer already gone though and the stagnant pond is almost converted into my new herb garden!!

[pseudonym]

Hello and welcome to the Forum.

[Deeps]

Miffy, if you're worried about upsetting the neighbours with a garden burning, just let them know that you'll being doing it a day in advance. As far as I now you're well within your rights to have a fire in your own garden.

[Miffy]

Thank you

[Arzosah]

Hi Miffy, thanks for reading the blog and thats a really good idea from Deeps about telling the neighbours. And I agree about cutting back the shrubs (and hedges) to let the sunshine and air get in.

I know what you mean about disposal being the main issue. I had to take extreme measures a couple of years ago. I'd been quite ill for several years, and I had a fifteen foot stretch of cherry laurel that wasn't clipped at all. It grew to 30 feet high, maybe ten feet in width, it was awful. So my brother came to stay with me for a few days.

Day 1, we cut the whole thing down, to about 8 feet tall, and 4 feet wide. Days 2 and 3, we rented a *big* van, a Luton - each day, we did a trip to the council-run green waste tip. Two days rental for a van that size cost about £60. A local gardener quoted me £290, so it was a huge saving, and I got a lot of bonding time with my brother (and my sister, she helped too!). I highly recommend van rental, it gets it all off the property.

[Miffy]

Hi! Thanks for your reply. That's a good idea thank you. I'll speak to dh about doing something like that. I do want to get it cleared before the end of the winter. I am hoping to strip some of the thinner holly branches off to make into pea canes and trellace too. I also need to make a compost bin. I am going to try and make one for free rather than buy one