Having so much land available it would be a shame not to grow some of our own fruit vegetables. The gardening programmes and magazines make it sound easy (subject to some hard digging and a bit of weeding) but each time we have tried we have struggled against our natural competitors. Occassionally we have succeeded but mostly the birds, slugs, snails and insects enjoy more of our labours than we do and I swear the weeds grow many times faster than the crops. As for the grass, it re-occupies the cleared spaces in the blink of an eye. 

Maybe one day we will have something we can write about in this section, after all weekend magazine gardeners manage to write a column a week. Who knows we may become experts in pest control and watering melons.

Update. Now I have retired we are able to spend more time in the garden and the vegetable patch and greenhouse are starting to take shape.