Most kitchen gardeners dream of the Good Life - a smallholding or homestead, a traditional Victorian walled garden, or an allotment or large garden where they can Dig for Victory (whether the modern 'enemy' they're fighting is climate change, global corporations, pesticide residues or a couch potato lifestyle). The reality is that we're being increasingly squeezed into small gardens (even allotments are being split to shorten waiting lists), and conventional gardening advice isn't keeping pace. Houses are also getting smaller. Many don't boast a frost-free basement or garage that's perfect for storing potatoes or housing a chest freezer. They don't have a big kitchen in which we can shelve a year's worth of preserves, or a pantry. They don't even have an airing cupboard to germinate seeds in. Emma Cooper's vision for a smaller kitchen garden is of a beautiful and productive multipurpose space. A place in which to potter and relax, to entertain and to experiment. Somewhere to pop outside every day and find something tempting to nibble on, perhaps even to take back into the kitchen, without being overwhelmed with produce a small household can't finish. She's not aiming for feast and famine, or even for glorious gluts, but for diversity and interest. The Small Harvest Notebook: Vol. 1, is the first step on a journey to a new kind of garden, one where there's always seeds to sow, plants to tend and crops to harvest. Where there's always something new to see, and smell, and wonder over. Where's there's space for play and relaxation, for drying the laundry, for cooking meals and entertaining friends. Where the garden is an integral part of a life well lived. It's time to grow different things, or grow and use familiar things in different ways. To build a garden that is a delight to every sense, a haven for people and for wildlife and a place where success is not measured by weight or volume, but by something less tangible, and more fulfilling - joy.
About the Author: Emma Cooper is a writer and blogger based in Oxfordshire, UK. She aims to prove that gardening is a fun and rewarding activity that anyone can get involved with, rather than time-consuming, hard work or impossible without years of experience. With a Masters degree in Ethnobotany under her belt, Emma is building herself a new garden from scratch. It's going to be beautiful and productive, a lovely space in which to spend time, and full of plants that are a bit odd.