There are 2 things I have an enormous passion for –

1. Learning – I love to learn about everything and
2. Food/ cooking. I LOVE food.

I love food more than most things and I love fresh ingredients. You probably don’t know how much of a keen  gardener and cook I am too… probably because currently we live in South-East London and we have no real garden to speak of – but that doesn’t stop me thinking about it.

Unfortunately our garden in London doesn’t get any sunlight. I think it’s north facing and therefore trying to grow anything is near impossible.  Two years ago I bought some grow bags and planted some tomatoes in them. I bought 2 different varieties (bull tomatoes and gardeners delight) to see how they’d fare with my green fingers – they didn’t work out so well.

The lack of sunlight was a problem and so my love of gardening was squashed at an early stage. Still, I haven’t let this stop me but my love of food spurs me on. To be able to have to best and freshest ingredients for my meals is such a incentive! – and I also want to know everything that goes into it.

In France we have a garden which is about 140 ft x 100ft and I have plans. I want to make our garden in the same image as the house – self-sustainable and eco friendly. I am planning to grow our own fruit (to some extent), vegetables and herbs.  Therefore I am collating as much information as I can about: organic growing; location of plants; rotation; sowing; composting; soil etc…  I want the garden to be able to provide a good amount of our food on a daily basis.

Did I tell you that my food God is Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall? I think he is living my dream. I find him inspirational and motivational. I believe that living off our Land is invaluable to the way Lee and I want to live our lives. I’m not sure I could eat all the food stuffs he does but kudos to him for going the whole hog (pun intended).  He did a couple of series (Spring & Autumn) where he goes through the life of his small holding (not so small now) with his sheep and pigs and all his fruit and veg. I remember watching him pull a carrot from the ground and washing it off under his outside tap, eating it and then exclaiming that it was a extremely tasty carrot! The pleasure on his face from eating this carrot made me want to learn everything he did about food. If you didn’t manage to catch these series you can download them on iTunes and watch them again and again.

He also has some incredible books on Fish,  Meat and others about his small holding.
I recommend them ALL.

When we were out at our house last week (April 09) I spent some time designing what the garden will look like. It then gives me plenty of time to think it all through and start planning and learning and investigating. I plan to dedicate part of our French Renovation blog to my investigations and learning and help educate not only me but our readers too. This project isn’t just about building a house, its about building a way of life that we simply can’t get here in London. It is no longer enough buying organic food from Ocado (although I do LOVE ocado) or from Abel & Cole (supporting our local suppliers) and supporting other businesses – its about supporting ourselves and eventually passing on our teachings to our children.

So first things first, this is a rough picture of what the garden is going to look like (this is a rough sketch and the dimensions are wrong).

The basic principles of the design include:

3x 2m2 raised garden beds (to start off with – this might grow as I learn more and require more space)
A chicken coup for fresh chicken (yes, that’s right – fresh chicken) and fresh organic eggs
a greenhouse for housing seedlings – and safe guarding them from our strong winds (we are on top of a hill after all)
The reason I’ve chosen raised garden beds is because ground is very very muddy and raising the beds means I can add my own soil and compost.

As for the chicken coup – every small holding has to have chickens!! We would have sheep and pigs but alas currently we don’t have enough space. We might buy a cow and get our neighbour (the cow farmer) to look after it though. Ideally I would like to buy a whole dead sheep and cut it up myself and store it in the chest freezer in the utility room (sounds so dodgy!) like MFG (My food God) does…. but that’ll come with time.

And of course no garden is complete without a greenhouse. For me this is a vital and important ingredient in any garden (unless you have an alternative way of growing your seedlings). I have fond memories of my grandfather’s greenhouse in Kent and how it was always warm and full of tiny sprouting, living things. I loved the smell of the soil and the scent of the new seedlings.

Ok so that’s the context and an insight into where I’m coming from. More shortly…