The Cottage Smallholder

Hi, apologies for not stopping in here first (I dove in the deep end posting on other topics first).

My name is Robert and I currently live in southeast London.  All going well however I shall be moving down to Crawley in West Sussex at some point later this year.

I have followed the Cottage Smallholder blog for quite some time now but only recently realised there was a forum attached to the blog.  It is nice to have the opportunity to chat with like-minded people and to learn from the experiences of others.

I am a keen (if very much hit and miss) gardener.  My other passions include writing and cooking.   Pickling and preserving are recently rediscovered joys that I have been having a lot of fun with over the past two years which has in turn also led me to discover the joys of foraging.

The situation on the garden front at present is that we live in a rental and share a very large garden with four other apartments.  That said, only two of us actually use the garden however, due to internal politics here, we minimise our usage to two terraced areas where I grow all my fruit and veg in raised beds and pots.  It is a bit limiting and frustrating to not be able to use the other 1 acre of land that is just being smothered by brambles however it is a fight not worth having right now so has to be that way.  Once we move down to Crawley I shall have a courtyard garden (okay for fruit, herbs and salads) and hope to get an allotment for the rest.

As a family we try to live relatively frugally.  This is also not 100% successful as things that would seem to support this way of life (i.e. the garden) are not really as cost effective as they appear at first glance.  Initial outlay in particular can be expensive, though this second year of growing has definitely worked out cheaper so maybe we will at least break even this year. 

So that is a little bit about me - if you want to know anything more specific, please ask and I shall answer.