Our Frugal Summer In Charente

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

February

The foundations of our new lifestyle dug quite literally.

The work begins to create a garden suitable to grow vegetables and to keep some small livestock, namely chickens. Since October 2012 we have cleared the rubble, brambles, bushes and small trees which have taken over the garden during its years of vacancy. My romantic imagery comes to the fore again as I name this my secret garden. My secret garden, littered with the scars of neglect, will be brought back to life. That is where the romantic imagery finishes; because it will not be the host of flowers and shrubs instead it will accommodate vegetables, fruit bushes and a variety of animals. I have drafted out a plan of action for planting, well a crude pencil drawing which is not to scale and as such Nigel is not impressed with it.

“Unrealistic” is how he described my action plan saying, “Is that really how a woman perceives feet and inches!”  

Nigel accepts the challenge of completing the first dig which will be no easy task as this garden has clearly not been dug for many years. We do not have a mechanical digging machine or rotavator, like our French neighbours. André even has a tractor and plough, which is a bit over the top, although he is 85 years old, so I think he has earned some help with the way he prepares his soil. We have just a garden spade and a fork, but undeterred we are going to dig all the way from outside the barn to approximately 2 feet away from the brook the end of the garden. In total, this is about 50 feet! The garden is now forming into two sections. The area behind the barn is becoming the vegetable garden and the area behind the house will house the animal enclosures. I know it will appear strange and irresponsible, although we have no choice in reality, but we need to house the boys, our dogs, Dave and Buster, in the enclosure closest to the house. However, this will mean they are adjacent to the chickens. I am sure we have fun times ahead dealing with that.

Our boys; Dave on the left and Buster on the right.

Dave and Buster are Australian cattle dogs. They joined the Butfield family in Alice Springs; Dave in 2008 and Buster in 2009. In a twist of fate we found Buster at an RSPCA centre in Alice Springs and later found out that he came from the same litter as Dave.

In our garden, month by month, new seeds will be sown. New areas will be cultivated, and as spring becomes summer, the crops will be harvested in earnest. Well, that’s the plan. As an amateur gardener, I was attempting to grow plants from seeds bought in France. Seeds that came in packets and which required the translation of the instructions using my trusted French to English dictionary. For anyone who has ever tried this, many of the words on the packets don’t appear in the dictionary. As we didn’t have access to the internet at this time I didn’t have the option of using Google translate to help me, so in all honesty mistakes were made.

Sarah Jane’s Secret Garden Action Plan

Here is the month by month planting and harvesting schedule, although other vegetables did end up being planted when we were given plants or seeds by friends and neighbours:

February - Plant onion sets and garlic (tomatoes were started indoors.)

March - Plant early new potatoes, courgettes, egg-plants (aubergines), cabbage, cauliflower, beetroot, lettuce, spinach, peas, leeks and pumpkins.

April - Plant sweetcorn, more pumpkins, leeks, lettuce and radishes.

May - Plant broccoli, strawberries, lettuce, radish and peas.

June - Plant haricot verte (dried beans from André from his successful year.)

July - Plant the second batch of new potatoes.