A big part of our plans when we moved here was to grow our own vegetables. Back in our flat in Edinburgh, we grew as much as we could on the windowsills, but that was obviously very different from having several allotments worth of space in our garden!
We spent a lot of time learning and planning before we moved, trying to prepare ourselves for what we were taking on. We weren’t really sure how it would go. We still both had full time day jobs, so we knew we wouldn’t have the time to turn the growing into a proper business. But we did wonder whether we might end up with a bit of surplus that we could put out in an honesty box for our neighbours.
Never ones to let ‘perfection’ be the enemy of ‘good enough’, we decided to just give it a go this summer.
We put a plastic folding table outside our gate and started putting out whatever we had spare. Beetroots, strawberries, mange tout, potatoes, carrots and parsnips all made an appearance.
We were honestly blown away by how many people stopped to have a look and buy something. It was also a lovely way to meet some more of our neighbours, including people we hadn’t met yet.
It was very small scale this year and really just an experiment to see if people would be interested. Thankfully, it seems they are!
We have big plans for next summer. We want to grow more, and we’d also like to add some baked goods and little treats to the table. We are even planning on building a slightly more substantial stand this winter, so hopefully the days of balancing everything on our little plastic folding table will soon be behind us!
It has been lovely to see our little idea take on a life of its own, and we are really looking forward to seeing what next summer brings.
