You could ask a farmer at harvest time - or if you know any farmers who keep cattle, they're likely to have some stored you could buy a bit. Unfortunately most farmers now bale it into Big Bales, rather than the sort you can put in the back of your car. Some still make the smaller bales and sell it via the sort of place that sells stuff for pets - most places that sell goat and chicken feed will sell you some barley straw.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Alot of this also has to do with £££. ie those companies who sell algae products for ponds, they lobby like mad, and try and get the cheap (working) alternative banned.
Alot of EU policies are there simply to allow someone a licence to print money.. Look at all the vetinary products that have EU licences which cost a fortune, and are exactly the same as the human generic which costs pence, but the vet isn't allowed to prescribe those because someone has paid alot of money for an animal licence.
It's all about vested interests, at least like the "no reused jam jars", "no coffee grounds for slugs", "no selling cakes at school fairs" etc we can happily go on just ingnoring these daft rules.
Going off on a slight tangent; I'm reading Monty's "Ivington Diaries" at present. It is a lovely, poetic book and gives a real insight into his personal philosophy and a vivid picture of how he built his garden up from a rough field. It also shows what an eccentric gardener he is, which is perhaps why he divides opinion so much on GW. He really does have a very individual take on gardening and pretty much everything else.
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Just using shorthand Dove. Not xenophobic, obviously, living where I do.
It may be shorthand Obelixx but so are lots of other offensive terms and I am surprised to see it used on here
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Didn't mean to be insensitive but I take your point.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Tootsietim-very good!
Alan- I know someone who fishes and he said his local group just chuck in a couple of bales early in the year.
Problem sorted.
Barley straw works-end of story and stuff the bureaucrats. Interference fro the sake of it like so many other situations.
Just my opinion for what it's worth .. that's all.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Wheres the best place to get large clumps of barley straw? Surely there must be loads of it growing in farmers fields if I asked them nicely?
You could ask a farmer at harvest time - or if you know any farmers who keep cattle, they're likely to have some stored you could buy a bit. Unfortunately most farmers now bale it into Big Bales, rather than the sort you can put in the back of your car. Some still make the smaller bales and sell it via the sort of place that sells stuff for pets - most places that sell goat and chicken feed will sell you some barley straw.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Alot of this also has to do with £££. ie those companies who sell algae products for ponds, they lobby like mad, and try and get the cheap (working) alternative banned.
Alot of EU policies are there simply to allow someone a licence to print money.. Look at all the vetinary products that have EU licences which cost a fortune, and are exactly the same as the human generic which costs pence, but the vet isn't allowed to prescribe those because someone has paid alot of money for an animal licence.
It's all about vested interests, at least like the "no reused jam jars", "no coffee grounds for slugs", "no selling cakes at school fairs" etc we can happily go on just ingnoring these daft rules.
Andy- so right...
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Going off on a slight tangent; I'm reading Monty's "Ivington Diaries" at present. It is a lovely, poetic book and gives a real insight into his personal philosophy and a vivid picture of how he built his garden up from a rough field. It also shows what an eccentric gardener he is, which is perhaps why he divides opinion so much on GW. He really does have a very individual take on gardening and pretty much everything else.