Val has over 40 years experience as a smallholder in the West of England. She currently runs a flock of 20 Ouessant sheep and keeps hens and grows lots of veg. She formally lived on the Blackdown Hills in Somerset and ran the award winning business The Woolly Shepherd from 2006-2012 but is now based in Cornwall where she has lived since 2013. Follow life on this permaculture based holding where there is never a dull moment
Sunday, May 11, 2008
I have added to my solar powered world with a solar powered oscillating fan in my polytunnel! I got all the bits from.....ebay for a good price..... and connected them all up to one of my electric fence batteries. To my amazement it works and keeps the hot air circulating rather than becoming humid and its very good! I have also connected one to the ducks fencing along with a little gate made from a pallet to get in rather than climb over the electrified netting. Itworks so well and keeps the battery topped up so well the ducks, who are prone to diving through the netting and raiding the hens food have not been near it!
I also planted my tomatoes in the polytunnel a few weeks ago and mulched them with good old waste wool and installed a 'leaky pipe' a recycked rubber hose pipe with deliberate leaks that trickle feeds the bed with water. Its great and the aubergines are now planted too. peppers and chillies will follow when big enough as will the cucumbers any day. Pete obtained a tomato planter in a job lot of bits and bobs at an auction, it is now lined with wool, filled with compost and home to 2 totem variety basket cherry tomato plants
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3 comments:
That all sounds really good!! I love the polytunnel idea.
A couple of questions...
1) how long does it take for the wool to break down?
2) Does that electric netting keep foxes and badgers away from your poultry??
Hello Hen
Answers!
1. It takes ages for wool to break down so it makes a wonderful mulch that keeps in loads of water! In hanging baskets its fantastic!
2. The electric netting keeps out badgers and foxes very efficiently but you have to remember to put it away from banks or hedges they can jump in from. The netting has to be regularly strimmed under in the summer to prevent earthing on vegetation!
Hehehehe---we use waste wool too---very colorful isn't it? Ours is around our fig trees though.
Monica
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