In this picture, my garden looks quite big and by the standard of most city gardens, it's huge, but compared to a lot of rural gardens, I'd call it modest.
I'm going to experiment with what I can grow here in a plot roughly the size that I used to have in my city garden. The reason for this is time. To fit everything in that I enjoy doing alongside everything that I must is becoming such a juggling act, so I've set myself a challenge. It is this. Can I live simply while working, either at the school, with my art or training the ponies? Of course I can, but it all takes a bit of thought and planning. There are a lot of bloggers with incredibly productive gardens of modest size who are worth checking out. Leanne of Somerset Seasons and Gretel from Middle of Nowhere are just two who cram a huge amount in to a smallish space.
That's not my aim though, not just to dig up my lawn for potatoes. No, I want to create a relaxing haven in my garden while growing a few delicious crops. At the same time, I'm going to explore all options from buying local to organic foods, the best use of local markets and how to get the best deals from your local greengrocer.
I want to live simply and ethically.
My raised bed is quite small, but in previous years has yeilded quite an impressive amount of food. At the moment it has some spinach that is very slowly putting in an appearance.
I did use to keep chickens here, and this is a picture of my original four. The two new girls however, were such a couple of hooligans that nothing in the garden was safe. As their run was collapsing with age, we decided to move the whole operation out to the field. It was lovely having them around though :)
Recently I bought one of those awful plastic greenhouses. It's pretty ugly and we've taken to calling it the incident tent as it reminds me of those structures that go up around crime scenes! However, it's gorgeously warm inside and I think it's the only way I'm going to get any tomatoes this year. I can't afford a proper poly tunnel and at the moment we haven't the space for one, so this seems like a good compromise.
It's all planted up inside, and there are even a few little shoots beginning to appear.
I actually enjoy standing in this tiny space, planning, planning!
So that's it for now, I've left it late for much of my planting, but there's still time to catch up, I think!
4 comments:
i love your plot of land- a place of organic produce and your cluckys roaming around- its already seems a haven to me ;0)xx
i only have a little yard and most of my veggies i grow are in pots so that my sweet pea wont 'squidge' everything hehe while she zooms about on her bike.
sorry i dont always comment but i love following your blogs ;0)xxxx
best wishes on all your crop x
Hope is the best thing in the world!! I hope you manage to keep it all together. We have been "hoping " for 30 years now and we are still hoping! It's fun and it's to cry for but we love it !
You could get a polytunnel like ours for about a hundred pounds (or less if you shop around)- and by the looks of it it would fit easily into all that space. Ours is 6 and a half foot tall by 14 feet long and we are struggling to fill it! We had to sacrifice a large amount of our limited space, but we have at least got courgettes about to flower, which is amazing in May! And although it is plastic, frankly that's a small price to pay for the rewards and it should last for years. (I rather love our polytunnel, it's like an extension of the cottage).
I'm going to grow a few things in pots too, Kaz, it will make life simpler.
Hope is indeed good, Gerry :)
Gretel, I'm coveting your polytunnel, and OH really has promised me one, but making it happen is a looong way off, for many reasons!
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