I turned my urban garden into a self-sufficiency haven.

I moved from London to Kent in October 2023, from a tiny suburban garden to a tenth of an acre plot that seems huge to me. I want to show people how quickly you can establish a productive garden, so that hopefully more people will give it a go. You don’t even need to have a big garden, for years I kept chickens and grew crops and fruit in my tiny London garden, with old recycling crates full of runner beans and blueberries lined up all along the sideway and even on the flat roof. You can see results in under 6 months.

When I moved in, the whole garden was grass and paving stones. Even the raised beds were paved over. I removed all the paving slabs from the raised beds and broke them up to build a curved wall for another raised bed and some steps. This is now my cottage garden, right outside the French doors. It’s turned into a food forest, with fruit bushes, squash, cabbages, strawberries, pak choi and herbs all mixed in with the wild and cottage garden flowers that grew from the seeds I saved from my old garden. The fruit bushes produced very little, but I’m hoping for better next year. The strawberries were amazing (from B & Q!) and are producing lots of new plant runners, which I’m potting up for next year. The whole garden has gone wild and there’s not a bit of soil showing now.

In February, I bought 3 apple trees, 2 cherries and a plum, which I planted in my ‘meadow orchard’ – a no-mow area about 30×15 feet that my chickens can also forage in. My compost heaps are along the back here.

The chickens and ducklings have a run on the right hand side of the garden, and are allowed out to forage when I’m around. There are apples developing, which has really surprised me, but no cherries or plums this year. Along the back wall, I planted blackberry, loganberry, mulberry, grape and kiwi vine – all from my old garden. There’s space for 3-4 more trees or vines along the back, which I’ll fill in later in the year. I also brought blueberry and honeyberry bushes, perennial kale trees, grape cuttings, willow, buddleia and many many other cuttings and pots with me. They’ve all taken off really well, as the soil here is far better than the waterlogged, unworkable clay I had in London.

 

In between the cottage garden/food forest and the back wall, I cut out a series of veg beds. That was really hard work! I piled the turf into heaps along the wall and I’m growing squashes and courgettes in the heaps. In the veg beds I have brassicas (including my perennial kale) which are under butterfly net, parsnips and onions, carrots and garlic, broad beans, runner beans and a bed with sunflowers, flax and chia (just to see what happens). All of these are producing really well, after a very slow start. The broad beans have finished now so I’ve cleared the bed and re-sown.

I’ve just put up a greenhouse on the left side of the garden, behind the driveway. Some lovely neighbours gave me their spare tomato and squash plants, which are now filling up the space, it’s like a tropical jungle and I can hardly get in! I’m trying to grow ginger and turmeric in there, without any luck so far. I’ll have to do some more research. Next year I’ll grow chillis and peppers, but I was far too late to start them this year.

The whole garden is dotted with nasturtiums, wormwood and marigolds in the hope that they’ll deter pests and attract pollinators. So far so good – a few blackfly, but the army of ladybirds seems to have sorted this out. The garden is very untidy and wild, full of beautiful wild flowers that many people would call weeds, but there are so many bees, butterflies, dragonflies and birds attracted to them, which is what I want. Nettles and dandelions are welcome here – they are a crop of edibles in their own right. Not sure what the neighbours think though.

The garden will take a few years to fully mature, particularly the trees, wisteria and grape vines. I really miss my 25 year old vine, it produced the most amazing crops of grapes and gave welcome shade to my house. I’m completely amazed at how much it’s all taken off already though, the soil seems to be really good. It’s been a lot of work, and will continue to be, but my garden is my happy place and there’s nothing I love more than being out there with my chooks and ducklings happily scratching around with me. 

What a fabulous garden Ann.  Well done for all your hard work and ingenuity.  Would you like to show us your before and after garden or allotment pictures?  Send them with a short, written summary to info@the-pffa.org