I sometimes feel a bit of a fraud as whilst we have our two acres I wouldn't classify us as proper smallholders. As much as I would love to be able to do it full-time we both have to earn a crust at the moment with our day jobs, and that means we don't have livestock or indeed use our 2 acres enough to get closer to growing as much of our own produce as I'd like.
To be fair we have made real progress.... we have raised beds made up of about 40 full sized railway sleepers (to give you an idea of how many we have done) which we will grow veg in, and have really improved our outbuilding and the land which was in a real state. I have planted willow for wood fuel, and native hedging. I've already got through 800 rabbit guards to give you an idea of whats gone in.
What is my passion is gardening. Over the next few years I want to create a wonderful garden that we and others can enjoy and we can just relax in. That is one of the main reasons we have escaped to the country - moving little over 10 miles from where we use to live, to the village and street where my father-in-law lived for around 20 years, so not total newcomers.
I've had some great comments about my Dahlias, but I wondered how much interest would there be if I wrote as regularly as I could about my travails in the garden department?
It's probably not important to many when I read about how hard you are all working with your land and livestock, but though it may create a bit of light relief when things get hard for all of us?
BTW..... 125kg of daffodil bulbs just arrived, so think of me when I start thinking about planting them.... Apparently thats around 2,500 bulbs!