Today I spent the afternoon in the forest garden, so I thought this could be a good time to give you an update from this area. Everything is going wild – with lots to harvest and plenty more on the way.
The main jobs today were harvesting gooseberries, clearing things up a little, and harvesting and using comfrey and nettles. I have harvested around 4kg (c. 8.8 lbs) of gooseberries from by gooseberry bushes, and there are still more remaining. I have made some gooseberry and ginger jelly, and some gooseberry juice, and plan to do more over the next few days.
Another main job was chopping and dropping comfrey around the fruit trees. I also have spread comfrey in this area, and have a wheelbarrow of comfrey to use as a mulch in the polytunnel. There is still some standing for the bees, of course, and the other pollinators.
The nettles are now also ready to harvest for fibre. I made a start on harvesting some flowering nettles to use for making string or other projects later in the year. And I will continue to do so over the next couple of weeks. I prepare strands which can be used when I have more time for projects.
If you would like to know more about any of these projects from my forest garden, please feel free to get in touch.
How do you treat nettles to use as string?
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I just make a rustic string and am by no means an expert in plant fibres. Nettles can be used to make fine fabric, but I have no experience in this. But here is an article where I talk briefly about how I do it: https://www.treehugger.com/garden-twine-sustainable-options-5185465
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Thanks for the link!
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