Hi there,
My name is Bonnie and having had a smallholding 5 years ago with pigs, lambs and chickens, soft fruit and veg, I went off to do the corporate thing after being fed up of being broke all the time.
Now I have realised that being broke is vastly preferable to climbing the slimy corporate pole!
I miss living with the seasons and the connection to my food. So having upgraded on the man front and just bought a house with agricultural land in a village in Wiltshire, I cannot WAIT to get stuck in.
Am trying to pick up some permaculture principles to design a plot carefully rather than just rush in...but we will see how long that lasts!
Can't wait to get to know you lovely people.
Cheers
Bonnie
"A pretty face is fine, but what a farmer needs is a woman who can carry a pig under each arm"
Building the dream while chained to the desk...my blog The Part Time Smallholder
By the way, if anyone could help me work out how to upload an avatar, I would be grateful. I am reluctant to start a wordpress account as I already have a blogger blog.
Thanks in advance!
"A pretty face is fine, but what a farmer needs is a woman who can carry a pig under each arm"
Building the dream while chained to the desk...my blog The Part Time Smallholder
Hello and welcome Bonnie! I look forward to hearing more about you and what you do in the future. We have at least one other member here from Wiltshire, I expect you will meet soon.
Avatars are via Gravatar, and you will find that it recognizes you in most sites that you visit.
I'll try that again!
Thanks Toffeeapple, I have cracked it!
"A pretty face is fine, but what a farmer needs is a woman who can carry a pig under each arm"
Building the dream while chained to the desk...my blog The Part Time Smallholder
Hi Bonnie, pleased to meet you, I think the nearest to a Smallholder we have, is Aly, who lives in France. I don't think a Pensioner Plot qualifies, but am interested in every aspect to do with the Land. I grow my own Produce, and make Jam, Chutney, and Pickles. Love to Bake as well. Very interested in how you get on. And Welcome to the Forum. Tina x
Toffeeapple said
Well done, now - don't stop chatting, we need some new blood here!![]()
Haha be careful what you wish for!!
"A pretty face is fine, but what a farmer needs is a woman who can carry a pig under each arm"
Building the dream while chained to the desk...my blog The Part Time Smallholder
Ambersparkle said
Hi Bonnie, pleased to meet you, I think the nearest to a Smallholder we have, is Aly, who lives in France. I don't think a Pensioner Plot qualifies, but am interested in every aspect to do with the Land. I grow my own Produce, and make Jam, Chutney, and Pickles. Love to Bake as well. Very interested in how you get on. And Welcome to the Forum. Tina x![]()
Thanks Tina, nice to meet you.
Don't think I can call myself a smallholder just yet, although the chooks arrive at the weekend!
Hehe Pensioner Plot - I bet it is very productive. Look forward to hearing about it. I have never cracked Jam, so will be picking your brain come the autumn.
"A pretty face is fine, but what a farmer needs is a woman who can carry a pig under each arm"
Building the dream while chained to the desk...my blog The Part Time Smallholder
Good morning Bonnie,
Warm welcome to you - as Toffeeapple said, I live in Wiltshire, too.
Like Tina, we grow a pensioner plot, too! A walled garden, with espaliers along the whole wall, including 3 types apple; pear; figs; plums; greengages and cherries! Plus soft fruit, blackcurrants, gooseberries and raspberries; plus rhubarb. I have been busy recently with jamming the soft fruits, with additional fruits (redcurrants) from a dear friend with a garden too big to cope with!!
Looking forward to hearing more from you!
Val
Hi Bonnie, yes, my Plot is packed ! When I moved in ten Years ago, the whole Garden was given up to old, very diseased Roses, which had to be dug out, and being old, their Roots were in Australia. I now have a Ramp, as have a Wheelchair. My Beds are all Raised to allow me to look after them. Up my Ramp, as it is Stone built, I have a Potager Garden, that is Flowers, Fruit, and Herbs, all mixed. In my Mini Orchard, have three Different Apple Trees, a Plum, and in a Pot, have Loganberries, and Pears. Along the Fence, I have Raspberries, A Beautiful Acer has pride of place in my wide Border, and let's not forget the Greenhouse, where am growing Tomatoes, Peppers, and Cucumbers. Forgot the Gooseberry Bush, and Rhubard. In my raised Beds, am growing, Courgettes, Marrows Lettuce, Strawberries, Spring Onions, just lifted my Onions and Garlic. phew ! never realized I had so much. Am very interested in your 'Journey' as lived in Suffolk, on several Farms, as a Child. Good Luck ! in your new Venture . x The dreaded Jam making Season is upon us.
brightspark said
Good morning Bonnie,Warm welcome to you - as Toffeeapple said, I live in Wiltshire, too.
Like Tina, we grow a pensioner plot, too! A walled garden, with espaliers along the whole wall, including 3 types apple; pear; figs; plums; greengages and cherries! Plus soft fruit, blackcurrants, gooseberries and raspberries; plus rhubarb. I have been busy recently with jamming the soft fruits, with additional fruits (redcurrants) from a dear friend with a garden too big to cope with!!
Looking forward to hearing more from you!
Val
Wow, a walled garden! That's a rare thing these days. I work in a rural office in the old grounds of a manor house, with a walled garden. There are a few fruit trees hanging on, but it is more skill than our gardeners have in them to get them to bear fruit I think. It sounds wonderful!
Where abouts in Wilts are you? We are near Chippenham. I love Wiltshire at this time of year.
"A pretty face is fine, but what a farmer needs is a woman who can carry a pig under each arm"
Building the dream while chained to the desk...my blog The Part Time Smallholder
Hello Bonnie and welcome it's nice to have a new member who actually says something!
Sorry to be late to the party, we've just come back from hols in Devon....the wifi in the cottage was so slow it was virtually unusable (yes, even slower than our 1.4 mb we get here in deepest rural Somerset!
)
We were townies (well, apart from me living on a farm for about 6 months when I was a child) until we moved down here 6 years ago ( how time flies!!). It was a (very) steep learning curve, but now I couldn't imagine ever living in a town again - nor would I want to. We don't have a smallholding, just a normal size garden, with 2 small polytunnels and several raised beds. We have 5 fruit trees (all young as yet), lots of fruit bushes and grow loads of veg. We are aiming to grow (and then freeze/store) enough produce to feed us all year round.
I'll have a look at your blog later, I have one also. I look forward to reading more of your posts.
learning to love veg…..except celery :-O
Hi Sooliz, nice to meet you.
Slow wifi is a curse, when we were looking at houses several were ruled out by my other half because of the slow wifi. I suppose there is no financial incentive for BT where the users are sparse.
Would be interested to read your blog (is there a linky?) - your garden sounds great. I think I may have inadvertently made my own patch sound bigger than it is - it is definitely less than an acre, so could well be described as a garden too.
Dreaming of one polytunnel, so two sounds like heaven!
"A pretty face is fine, but what a farmer needs is a woman who can carry a pig under each arm"
Building the dream while chained to the desk...my blog The Part Time Smallholder
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