Hi and Welcome, we are not like most forums.. so go haead and be vague, we will all enjoy helping you
The site I would send to yo to is Tee gees there are all sorts of realistic advice there.
We have folks here who are pretty good with certain veggies so take a look around and ask antything you like.
We are a very friendly lot.
Can you have animals, you said yiou wanted to be as self sufficiesnt as possible, so are you allowed eg a goat.
My husband and I were self sufficient for many years but farm animals were fine as we had 10 acres,
We did the whole thing, even making our own cheeses, canning meat and fish, growing everything ourselves, we even swapped home made preserves for fresh cows milk to make cheeese, butter and cream and we swapped cakes for honey.
We kept piglets and sheep, goats, chickens, ducks geese and even a couple of peacocks which we kept for eggs which we hatched and sold the chicks, and I used to take pigs to market and buy beef on the hoof with the money.
We loved it. the best life in the world.
XX Jeannine
Within two minutes I had about 10 replies telling me how lazy I was and to look myself.Oh that made me laugh - what a strange thing to say to you! What did they think a forum is for? Honestly some people are so grumpy they shouldn't be allowed online! ;D
One traditional use for coal ash is path building. Chemicals probably do leach out to some extent, but we put it all on our paths in Cornwall, and it never did any discernable damage to anything.That's what I was going to say! When I was little our paths were cinder paths too.
I was wondering who that enormous tree belongs to? It looks as though it ha been pruned before and a good crown prune would give you a lot more light.I believe the tree is owned by the farmer who has the field bordering the gardens. A lot of the problem with the tree is it is full of ivy which cuts out much of the light.
You could build raised beds which would give you a depth of soil above any tree roots.
i was thinking about the coal dust too. I'd be afraid of it causing damp in the shed. It might be worth rebuilding the wall - you don't want your patio suddenly collapsing into the shed!! but you might need some sort of barrier to stop baby Elis hurtling down!
By allotment do you mean veg garden or is "the allotment" an extra bit of land you rent? What is the large building you walked past to get to the allotment area - is it part of your garden?
You have clearly put in a lot of hard work already but still have loads to do. I'd agree - take it a bit at a time: somewhere to sit and relax in the summer that's safe for the baby - maybe with your plastic boxes planted up with salads, spring onions, carrots etc and a few tubs of scented flowers. Cover up what you don't have time to do - cardboard covered with manure will suppress the weeds and rot down nicely for planting. Do an area at a time so that you get the satisfaction of seeing something completed. A big job like that is daunting but your garden divides nicely into "rooms" so you can develop it that way.