magick777

I joined Folia in mid-2008, after taking on an allotment in south-west London. I am relatively new to allotment gardening, but have been growing herbs and vegetables at home for a number of years. I am currently experimenting with a variety of gardening techniques including a square foot garden, a 5-rod allotment managed on a 5-year crop rotation and a vegetable bed in my back garden managed on an ad hoc basis.

My eventual hope is to become largely self-sufficient in terms of my food requirements (in the very long term; not possible at present) and I am therefore trying to grow quite a variety of vegetables to provide an adequate nutritional balance and reduce the amount that I have to buy in to supplement my diet. My current gardening is basically about learning and experimenting for the day when I can afford a smallholding, and some failures are expected (which is just as well, ’cause they happen!).

I am interested in sustainable gardening techniques including permaculture, seed-saving, composting and otherwise minimising the external input into my food-growing (however, I will not shy away from using organic fertilisers where needed). I am also open to plant and seed swaps – please get in touch if I’ve got something you need or vice versa.