Today is exactly 1 year to the day since my first blog post and at that time the overall idea for Small Plot Big Ideas was still coming together in my head. A big idea or grand scheme is all very well but you need to start somewhere and all I had was a suburban garden, a small plot, so I made the best of what I had at the time. Looking back now I don’t think I really knew where the whole concept would lead but I always felt that I would know when I was making progress and that nothing was impossible (although some ideas have proved completely impractical!).
The internet is awash with excellent blogs from people with more growing experience and writing talent than me but I still felt like I had something to contribute. Besides a secondary purpose for my blog was always to act as a diary so I can look back on the highs and lows through the seasons. With my non-existent writing experience being roughly on a par with my limited vegetable growing it seemed an obvious solution to learn about both things as I go along.
There has been a great deal of progress over the last year with the focus on vegetable growing plus the introduction of the chickens. However I’m still very aware that we have barely scratched the surface in the world of smallholding and the knowledge we lack outweighs the knowledge we have gained so far.
Although the garden produce was always the main interest, I should confess that the blog might not have lasted so long if it wasn’t for WordPress. The beauty of blogging software like WordPress for me is that I can indulge my technical side with add ons (plug-ins) and themes for customisation if I want to but it’s always optional. As a system it separates the content from the presentation so I can change the look and feel without the need to wade knee deep in computer code or rewriting past scribblings.
So the big news on the first anniversary is that we have accepted an offer on our Small Plot and (fingers crossed) will be moving to our Big Idea in a couple of months. More by luck than judgement, it turns out that everything is still on course and recent events are roughly following the general theory – particularly the “big ideas” bit as we hope to take on 15 acres!
Exciting times lie ahead I’m sure even though the potential timing for the move will probably mean leaving some of this years vegetables in the garden at the old house (where pots can’t be used). That is a relatively small price to pay in my opinion and an unexpected bonus for the new owners when they move in!
Watch this space…