The Good Life





I’ve always regarded myself as quite a self sufficient person anyway. I don’t like to rely on others and I’m happy with my own company. I’ve been a single parent for over fifteen years now so I’ve had to learn new skills, wallpapering was an education, and do many things that fell outside my comfort zone. Self sufficiency with regards to food though, is something that never really appealed to me until last year.

Brexit scared me. I read as much as I could about it to try and educate myself. It seemed reasonable to expect a level of disruption with food supplies and, if we left with no deal, to have widespread longer term shortages particularly of fresh food.  I had some spare cash at the time so I decided to see what I could manage to grow. I was desperate to do anything I could that might protect us against the worse case scenario.  I invested in some fruit trees and bushes. These gave me a small harvest last year but I saw them as a longer term investment. I tried growing potatoes in bags for the first time which were quite successful but used tons of compost. I also had mange tout, broad beans (ants infested these!) rhubarb, strawberries and asparagus. I grew carrots, salad leaves, cucumbers  and peppers from seed. My huge success though was tomatoes! I grew them from seed and we had hundreds of plants. I couldn’t eat them all. I sundries loads, made some into pasta sauce and even made tomato hummus. 

So this year, with the Covid 19 pandemic, I’m trying to build on last years success. Everything is currently growing well



I’m hoping the apple trees will pollinate each other this year as my youngest daughter is an apple addict




It looks like the tomato success of last year will be replicated again with these beauties in the greenhouse. I’ve actually prepared a new vegetable bed for them this year







There is something so satisfying about growing your own food. I don’t have many hobbies but working in the garden is such a release for me. It lifts my mood and just makes me happy. I’ve had a few down points like squirrels digging up my garlic and my tomatoes developing bottom rot, but I’m learning all the time. I’m already looking ahead to what I can do next year. I’d love a proper greenhouse if I could afford it and I’m looking into having chickens!

When I was growing up, one of the most popular comedy programmes on TV was The Good. Life with Richard Briers and Felicity Kendal as the couple trying to lead a self sufficient life. Then it was just something funny to laugh at and a bit unusual, now it seems like life goals for me!

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