About Me, And Why I Chose to Make This Website...

My name is Rick, and this website is the ongoing story of how I am trying to grow my own food, and now medicine, and learn about the hands-on realities of trying to be as self-sufficient as I can, with only my tiny urban patio garden to work with.

I live in the suburbs of a large town in central southern England.
My garden consists of a very small patio area, just 13 feet by 14 feet, with a small area to the rear where I keep a tiny potting shed and a workshop.

My only blessing is that I'm fortunate enough to have a south-facing garden, and in the summer, parts of it can become quite a sun trap, provided the British weather is obliging, which, sadly over the past 3 summers it hasn't been.

Recession
I first conceived the idea of growing my own food when the recession hit my printing business quite hard, and inspired me to start looking into ways of cutting down on spending, and becoming more self-sufficient.

Preparedness
Like a grown-up boy scout, I am, and have always been, a fan of general preparedness, and with what looks like hard times ahead for everyone, I figured now was a very good time to expand my preparedness repertoire, and learn how to grow food.


I found myself asking this question;
"With such a small garden, could I generate enough fresh food to the extent that I wouldn't need to go out and buy it?"

I guess there was only one way to find out, so I decided to take the plunge and go for it.

This website?
Container-Gardening-For-Food.com is now in its second year of existence, and has become the focal point for my challenge, acting like a journal as I set about trying to prove to myself and to others that you don't need acres of land in the countryside to grow the things you need, and what better way to take-on that challenge, by engaging it with no garden at all, just a tiny patio area.

During the growing season, I put to the test the different theories and methods of growing foods, as preached by the advocates of these techniques, to try to find out whether growing your own food in any meaningful quantity is possible within a small urban space.

My garden as of mid-July

Resuts
The results of last year were mixed. I had successes in some areas and some failures in others, but the whole venture was extremely educational and I came away with so much knowledge and experience.

The video below is my conclusion video from last year

The Experiment Continues....

As always, I shall continue writing articles for the website, and as I make videos for a hobby, there will be lots of new videos of my progress this year as well.

I do hope this website can inspire others to try their own 'urban farming' projects for themselves, and I encourage those that do to write of your experiences in the global gardening blog, and other "Have Your Say" interactive pages I have provided throughout the website. (Click here)

Be sure to subscribe to my blog (and newsletter) as this is an on-going project website, and is continuously updated.

Thanks for reading.
Happy gardening!

Rick

PS People keep sending me emails asking how I made this website, and how I get the high visitor numbers that I get.
My secret is an idiot-proof company called sitesell! They are fabulous at helping people like me (who don't know the first thing about building websites) not only build a website from scratch, but also to make it turn a good profit. I genuinely couldn't have built this site without them.
I've put a link here in case you want a quick look at what they do.

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