Our 21st Century Good Life at Paddington House

Hello, we are Martin and Amy!

We've been together for over seven years now and we're now embarking on a more self-sufficient way of living but this time we are trying to grow, raise and eat as much of how grown produce as we can. We have just bought a brand new home from Taylor Wimpey and  we are delighted with the blank canvas which we have in front of us which we can imprint our objectives on to.

Martin used to have an allotment at the age of 14 as well as his own chickens, quail and bees. It was all rather new for Amy when we first started on our journey but we are both excited as we start from scratch once again. We had to give up our allotment due to recently moving out of the parish, but we endeavour to grow as much in our garden as possible until we move to the top of the allotment waiting list. We love cooking and baking, so we always make good use of the food we grow. We also used to have a bee hive in the garden and we have discussed whether we could go back in to Honey production again soon. We have also just bought an Eglu Cube, so watch this space as we expand our beautiful flock of hens.

Oh, and we don't live in the countryside by the way. We live in a town with a population close to 100,000 people so maximising the space we have is essential, so we're always willing to learn about space maximising growing technique. This blog will illustrate the advantages and disadvantages of keeping a bee hive in a garden with neighbours each side of us, and the joys and challenges of keeping chickens, (which are considered as farm animals by most) in a garden. See us battle the elements and numerous obstacles we face in growing our own delicious food.

The dream is to one day be able to grow all of our own fruit and vegetables and hopefully rear our own meat too. The real 'good life'. Perhaps we will have two pigs, a goat, 3 bee hives, and plenty of  chickens.

We thank you for taking the opportunity to read and follow our journey to a more sustainable, self-sufficient way of life. If you have a similar blog that includes growing or rearing things then we really would love to hear from you.

Speak soon,

Martin and Amy