The Start
In October 2007 we decided to put in a soft Fruit garden so part of the Paddock (left) was ploughed, with the help of our neighbour. In November we planted Raspberry, Black, Red and White Currents, Green and Red Gooseberry, also a couple of rows Garlic.
Holiday Growing
In the following Spring (2008) we planted the rest of our first year's crop. Onions, Shallots, Tomatoes, Peppers (salad & chilli), Pumpkins, Beetroot etc, etc.
Remember we could only work on the plot when we were here on holiday, 'distance growing' so to speak.
Although we lost most of our tomatoes to blight in the August, we were quite pleased with the crop.
First Resident Year
Our permanent move to France was made the end of March 2009. So the priority was the vegetable garden. We had had more of the paddock ploughed to double the growing area from the previous year. After all this was now to sustain us through the year. Work was needed to prepare for sowing and then sowing of crops took place throughout April and May. 2009 was one of the driest years France has seen with NO rain between the end of April and third week of October. Believe me you can do a lot of contemplating of life while watering a large vegetable area during a drought. Fortunately we have a deep well which continued to deliver water. You can see pictorially below how the year progressed, a very good year.
and the Rewards
Orchard
The soft fruit and vegetables were sorted during the year, in November it was time to start planning for Tree fruit. We decided, having traded some of our produce for fruit from the neighbours (it's a bit like that in the country side), that we must have a good representation of tree fruits. We selected 6 apples (Desert & Cooking), 2 Pear, 2 Nectarine, 2 Apricot, 2 Plum, 2 Cherry, 2 Walnut and 3 Hazelnut (as I was starting to feel like Noah!) and placed our order with the local Horticole, Vincent.
Once we knew what we were having, the Orchard area was marked out. Any further work and delivery of the trees was delayed due to the frosts during January and February. In early March the trees were delivered and all planted within a fortnight of delivery, thanks to some help from neighbours (good things to have, neighbours). We don't expect fruit until late 2011, although the young trees will need lots of care through this first year.
April 2010
As I put this page together we are very busy planting and seed sowing for the 2010 season. March was very, very wet so most of the ground prep and planting was delayed, oh the life on the land!!