Become a garden farmer
The enthusiasm for growing your own produce and cooking fresh and local extends much further than simply reducing costs. People are feeling tricked; we no longer recognise the true shapes, colours and textures of the plasticwrapped and over-packaged produce that appears on the shelves of our supermarkets.
Carrots and tomatoes all uniform in shape and colour; broccoli trimmed and wrapped so perfectly that no one knows what the real plant looks like. Grow your own, and you see the plant for how it is: the beautiful deep-red veins that run through beetroot leaves, strangely shaped carrots, or the majestic thistle-like flower of the artichoke.
A white wooden hive adds interest to your garden; buy basic, good-quality tools
With the growing awareness of the impact that food miles has on the environment and the advantages of eating non-sprayed, local and organic food, people are once more opting to grow their own. In the UK, the sales of vegetable seeds have now overtaken those of flowers and hen husbandry is outstripping the keeping of rabbits and guinea pigs as pets. Of course, this all makes sense. Nothing is as good and tasty as a bright-yellow egg produced by your own free-range, happy hens.
From left: it’s rumoured that hen keeping is the UK’s fastestgrowing hobby; ripe apples ready to be harvested
The space you have will determine just how far you go in being a garden farmer. If you have a small patio, with room for only a few pots, this shouldn’t put you off. You can grow a wide variety of vegetables and fruit in a small space and many varieties will enthusiastically grow wonderful produce.
If you have a larger space, plan carefully and you’ll be able to have enough beds to rotate your crops, helping to maintain their health and that of the soil, and you’ll be well on the way to being self-sufficient.
Clockwise from left: be proud of your produce and display it in your kitchen. It may encourage others to share your passion; if you don’t have a broody hen you can use an incubator, and the chicks will adopt you as their mother; cardboard loo-roll tubes make ideal containers for young plants that don’t like their roots to be disturbed when you plant them out
Animals will need time devoted to them, and they also need to be kept in an appropriate area that is best for them and best for you. I once kept a goat and decided to let it have free run of the garden, until it ate through my internet cable.
In our modern society, time is also an issue. Most people cannot devote all their time to becoming self-sufficient, but even if you make a small impact on your own and your family’s lives, you will be contributing to the good of the environment and your family’s wellbeing.
From left: carrots are sweeter when eaten soon after picking; goats are renowned escape artists. Always keep more than one – a lone goat is not a happy one; Swiss chard comes in an array of brightly coloured stalks
Creating Your Garden Farm, by Nicki Trench, is published by CICO Books, priced £12.99. Readers of The Lady can order a copy at the special price of £10.99, including p&p. Call 01256-302699, quoting GLR 8BK.
Carrots and tomatoes all uniform in shape and colour; broccoli trimmed and wrapped so perfectly that no one knows what the real plant looks like. Grow your own, and you see the plant for how it is: the beautiful deep-red veins that run through beetroot leaves, strangely shaped carrots, or the majestic thistle-like flower of the artichoke.
A white wooden hive adds interest to your garden; buy basic, good-quality tools With the growing awareness of the impact that food miles has on the environment and the advantages of eating non-sprayed, local and organic food, people are once more opting to grow their own. In the UK, the sales of vegetable seeds have now overtaken those of flowers and hen husbandry is outstripping the keeping of rabbits and guinea pigs as pets. Of course, this all makes sense. Nothing is as good and tasty as a bright-yellow egg produced by your own free-range, happy hens.
From left: it’s rumoured that hen keeping is the UK’s fastestgrowing hobby; ripe apples ready to be harvested The space you have will determine just how far you go in being a garden farmer. If you have a small patio, with room for only a few pots, this shouldn’t put you off. You can grow a wide variety of vegetables and fruit in a small space and many varieties will enthusiastically grow wonderful produce.
If you have a larger space, plan carefully and you’ll be able to have enough beds to rotate your crops, helping to maintain their health and that of the soil, and you’ll be well on the way to being self-sufficient.
Clockwise from left: be proud of your produce and display it in your kitchen. It may encourage others to share your passion; if you don’t have a broody hen you can use an incubator, and the chicks will adopt you as their mother; cardboard loo-roll tubes make ideal containers for young plants that don’t like their roots to be disturbed when you plant them out Animals will need time devoted to them, and they also need to be kept in an appropriate area that is best for them and best for you. I once kept a goat and decided to let it have free run of the garden, until it ate through my internet cable.
In our modern society, time is also an issue. Most people cannot devote all their time to becoming self-sufficient, but even if you make a small impact on your own and your family’s lives, you will be contributing to the good of the environment and your family’s wellbeing.
From left: carrots are sweeter when eaten soon after picking; goats are renowned escape artists. Always keep more than one – a lone goat is not a happy one; Swiss chard comes in an array of brightly coloured stalksCreating Your Garden Farm, by Nicki Trench, is published by CICO Books, priced £12.99. Readers of The Lady can order a copy at the special price of £10.99, including p&p. Call 01256-302699, quoting GLR 8BK.