Just when you were thinking there couldn’t possibly be another self-sufficiency blog, here it is.
Is this one going to be any different from all the others? Probably not. But it might give those readers who are based in my home town, Melbourne, Australia, some idea of what one of their number is doing to prepare for peak oil and civilizational collapse in general.
Actually, it’s intended to be a continuation of the Diary link at my website Preparing for Energy Decline which hasn’t been updated for a while, and in which I find I need to write much more than a few lines.
So what’s been happening?
It’s springtime in Melbourne and all my tomatoes are planted. All 66 of them! The most I’ve ever planted. Eight types: the tall growers — Grosse Lisse, Black Russian and Tigerella; 2 egg-types — San Marzano and Roma; 3 cherry types — Red Pear, Yellow Pear & Green Grape. Methinks that should just about do it for tomatoes!
With my new heated propagating tray I managed to get capsicums to germinate in a week in August and thereby got 25 seedlings to plant out. Half have already gone in and the rest will follow in a couple of weeks. I’ve always found that waiting for the weather to get hot enough to germinate capsicum seed outdoors, or even in the polyhouse, generally means they’re planted out too late in the season to do much good — by the time fruits are forming the weather is cooling and they don’t ever reach a useful size.
Foodnstuff 