Grow your own!

I really miss my little veg garden, called Haddock's.

It is surprising how little space one needs to grow a few fruits or vegs.

In front of our row of four 'bijou homes' are about 4 square metres of tiny gardens, where there are plenty of herbs, tomatoes, soft fruits, and two apple trees. We may not be able to feed ourselves 100%, but we do our bit.

My late father always claimed that a person with 10 acres could be self-sufficient. Personally I think it could be done with far less. As a child we never had more than about an acre of garden, but we grew a lot. That's where my love of 'self-sufficiency' comes from.

At my first farmhouse in France, I had just One Hectare of partly sloping land, with a small patch of old grafted Chestnut trees. I grew Wheat and Maize. I also had a large Vegetable patch, a run-full of Chickens, and a few Fruit trees. We weren't self-sufficient, but we were close.

At our present cottage, I grew even more, on far less land. Haddock's (above) was better organised, and I planted a lot more fruit trees, and soft fruits. I also 'perfected' the art of preservation. The actual growing area at Haddock's covered an area of about 50 square metres, which supplied an extraordinary amount of food; enough even to give a lot away.

Our store cupboards were always filled with preserves, the freezer held even more, and wooden boxes were filled with onions, squashes, and fruit. There were always plenty of eggs. I suppose we were classic Smallholders/Homesteaders. It was a way of life that I loved, without depriving ourselves of the little luxuries that we all enjoyed as well.

Such a lifestyle is not to everyone's taste, but given the chance I would do it all again. But I would also love to do it all off grid.