FYI

Clicking on any of the pictures will open them at full size in the browser window, which means you will have to use the 'back' button to return to the main pages, whereas clicking to the left or right of any picture will open them in a new window, if you fancy a closer look at any of the piccies we've posted! We've included a Google Earth satelite picture of our plots and this years planting plan at the bottom of the page, next to each other. If you choose the Earth view on the satelite image you can rotate the image until it is lined up with the planting plan, then use the arrows in the plan to scroll from Plot 2 to Plot 1.

About Us

So, who are we, why do we blog, and what are we blogging about?

Well, we are Lee and Suzanne Read, a married couple in our 40's, from Partington in the North West of England!

Lee is a home shopping delivery driver for a large supermarket and has always wanted to grow his own food (typical man, he wants to be able to provide for his family, in the most basic manner possible, by growing it himself!), so in 2006 after we had just about finished sorting out our home, he decided it was time to start growing veg, originally he thought we'd be able to grow in our small garden, but after a trip to the garden center (and the start of a 'seed habit') we both realised we needed more room, hence we looked into getting an allotment!

I'm Suzanne, I met Lee on Mayday in 2000, and married him exactly 6 months later after a whilrwind romance! I'm a couple of years older than Lee (which makes him my toyboy!) and work as a store manager for a large automotive accessory and cycle retailer, running a 9000 foot superstore! I am fortunate that in my childhood I was exposed to GYOing through my grandparents and parents gardens, but like most children I didnt really take to it at all (tho you dont realise how much you do pick up from them!)

When Lee first broached the subject of growing our own, I was immediately enthusiastic, I've always felt like I'd love to go totally self sufficient, even though at that time I hadnt a clue how to grow anything!

We looked online for some help and advice and were fortunate to find the Grow Your Own Magazines forum, the 'Grapevine', where we 'met' lots of friendly and helpful folks who were there to ask questions of and provide encouragement and reassurance!

On contacting the local council we were immediately offered a plot on a local site, Moss View, and on sharing the story of how we turned an untended and weed infested plot into our growing space with others on the grapevine, we found the process helped us to log our progress and acted as a very usable online diary of what we'd done, so we then took the decision to make it into a blog!

This blog is the result, detailing our progress, our successes and failures, a place to pop the piccies of the site and share what we've been up to with friends, family, other growers and anyone who shares an interest with us in GYOing, Beekeeping, organic homegrown veg, living in a sustainable manner and reducing our impact on the world around us!

I hope you enjoy it, find it interesting, perhaps pick up a tip or two, have a laugh, correspond with us via the comments boxes on the blog posts and perhaps even gain some inspiration in what we are doing!