Grow it alone is my online diary of my family’s journey toward self sufficiency. Hopefully it will be an eye opening, enjoyable, entertaining, and indeed educational one too.

Our goal?

To make the most of everything we’ve got! Our land, our money, our very precious time, and our resources. The ultimate goal being to provide our own food for as much of the year as possible, initially in terms of fruit and veg, but we might venture into the world of keeping animals for meat… who knows!

Why?

The first incentive to start on my road to self sufficiency is the increasing lack of quality in supermarket food. Stuff used to taste better when I was a kid. Everything is grown for speed and convenience now… there’s non of the flavours, the textures anymore. Tomatoes have no flavour, strawberries have no flavour. It’s time for me to get those basic, very enjoyable things back in my life.

The second is increasing prices. We were in Tesco the other day getting a few salad items and I couldn’t believe the prices. Nearly £1 for a lettuce and not far off that for a cucumber too. It can’t be that hard to grow a lettuce, and they’re not that big, so you don’t need a huge allotment to fill your plate with salad.

Thirdly, both sets of Grandparents did it to varying degrees. My Mums father more so. 75% of his garden was dedicated to providing food for his family, and he managed it on a very tight budget indeed. I spent many hours with him in the garden when I was growing up and I think I picked up a few hints and tips along the way. My other Grandfather was less of a gardener, but he still grew potatoes, tomatoes, gooseberries, pears, apples and a lot more, with very little knowledge. My Father to grows a large proportion of his fruit and veg for him and my Mother and gets some exceptional results.

So now it’s time for me to have a go. We’ve got a reasonable sized garden at our disposal, and it’s time to put it to use.