Thursday 18 May 2023

Previous Gardens, Vegetables and Tyres


I was asked about my previous vegetable growing spaces and gardens and which one I loved best.  So I decided to make a post all about them.

My favourite way to grow vegetables is in a polytunnel, or 'high tunnel' as they are called in some countries.  I briefly had a greenhouse at one of our rental smallholdings and it just wasn't as good, well not for me.  Perhaps I was spoilt by my first polytunnel, and the space and atmosphere it gave me and the vegetables growing in it.


  This was my second and last polytunnel on the day it was completed ... and the crazy guys that built it for me.  I couldn't resist sharing this photo again. 😄

My vegetable garden ... or Veggie Patch as it was known ... in Wales.  

(And the last header photo from the old blog.)

August 2015

We lived there from September 2013 to March 2021 and enjoyed most of our time there.  Our reasons for leaving were summed up pretty neatly on the final post of my old blog Our New Life in the Country.  HERE

A tour in and around the polytunnel in July 2017 is HERE.

Prior to moving to Wales we lived for a couple of years near Pangbourne in Berkshire, England and this was the vegetable garden there.  

The only problem with this one was the deer that came and ate a LOT of my plants and vegetables.  As you can see from this photo we tried all sorts of deterrents to try and stop them.


Behind our first rented farmhouse in Great Haseley, Oxfordshire was my first vegetable garden, well photo shows some of it, behind me as this photo was taken were four more beds on the grassed area in front of the chicken area.

I loved this and I guess that it was this one that sealed my love of growing food for us to eat on a larger scale.  But of course this was only the tip of the iceberg ...


... here's Alan on the John Deere tractor that he restored, ploughing in the field ready for sowing, with our pigs in the field beyond.

So of course my new garden seems tiny to me, but I love it just as much, and if anything the challenge of getting something edible from it is giving me so much joy.  

No matter what available space you have whether it be the ten-plus acres as we had at first or the five acres that came next (twice) or a tiny garden or even a window sill, there's always something that you can grow that will taste wonderful and save you some money.


In fact some of my tastiest ever onions were grown in two tyres!


Sue xx


8 comments:

  1. Really lovely reading this Sue and looking back through the links to previous lovely posts. We have a similar experience having 're invented ' ourselves several times! Nothing beats a poly tunnel for a great , cosy way to grow loads of crops but as you said tasty veg can be grown almost anywhere in almost anything - where there's a will there's a way x
    Alison in Wales x

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    1. It's good to be able to re-invent yourself on a regular basis isn't it, there's no chance of life ever getting boring or repetitive that way. :-)

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  2. Wonderful to see all the different 'patches.' Glad you are still at it. The deer are a real problem here, as are bunnies but at least they are not as tall.

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    1. Deer were a terrible problem in our Pangbourne garden, as you say they can jump fences and cause a lot of damage as well as eating the crops. We also had badgers to contend with there, they killed two of our cats. :-(

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  3. Lovely to have a look back at some of the growing areas you’ve had - you have definitely “been there,done that” - and earned your tee shirt 😂
    Glad you are going to be able to harvest a few tasty things in your current home.
    Country Cook

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    1. Growing food is just in my blood now, even if I only had plant pots I would grow something. :-)

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  4. How nice to take a trip through your various gardens.

    God bless.

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    1. Sometimes a trip down memory lane is good isn't it, if only to see how far you have come and what you've achieved. :-)

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