It all started with the death of my mum in July 2010 at the young age of 63 years. My mum was a keen gardener and had just spent a large amount of money having her garden landscaped so she could use it after being diagnosed with Cancer. She knew things would get hard and so wanted a manageable garden. She loved her vegetables and had 2 large raised vegetable patches put in.

At the time I had no intention of becoming a gardener but was happy to have some of the produce grown by mum. Unfortunately she on got 1 years use out of her garden before she left us. People cope with death in different ways and I myself have to admit I have fallen into depression and am still there although I refuse to get help thinking I can work my way out of it and only time will heal my pain. But along with my depression my health going down hill, I have put on weight since having my 3rd child and spend everyday in pain with my back and fibromyalgia. I had to make a choice to get better and work through these problems.

Our local council then decided to change their recycling policy and make everyone recycle their food waste. We were provided with small black bins and biodegradable green bin liners and were encouraged to compose our food waste. Funnily enough, although I had no intention of growing my own we had bought a compose bin a few years earlier and had started to composed but then given up because of the steps leading to the first level of the garden where the bin was. But now we started to use it again instead of making the council have to dispose of our food waste, but I still had no intension of growing my mainly because I believed I would not be strong enough to cope with it.

As finances became tight we started to look for means of making extra money, and I finally thought about growing my own. Mums home grown produce did taste so much better. I knew it would be hard work but thought I could do a little each day. So I went hunting for my vegetable growing books. Dad had plenty of wood left over from his raised beds which we used and made one big frame.

Our Back garden goes up at a steep rate and was covered in meadow grass which was very hard to control. We had had an office built on our 3rd level and a large patio but due to the steps to get up there these were not being used so I decided to straighten out the front. Thus for about 3 years now the most of our back garden had been covered in builders plastic to stop things from growing and to make it a little more manageable. The top level had become a mass of bracken and blackberries, the poor apple tree had been taken over with bracken so had most of the side of the garden. With 3 kids, running your own business and having health problems there wasn’t time for gardening.