I have lurked on the site for a while, but its time I came out of the woodwork 
My husband and I are retired living on the outskirts of Leicester, we have an allotment where we grow all our veg and fruit, we have a garden but the back is gravelled so use it to grow salad, herbs and some flowers in containers, the front garden is for show.........
We have never had the cash to be able to be completely self sufficient, but the restraints of living on a very limited income has meant that we have developed a way of living we are happy with. We recycle as much as we can and we also subscribe to the Leicestershire freecycle, we have just picked up a lean to plant house for the allotment, we are going to fix it to the back of the shed.
We took over the allotment at the end of last season, we had it ploughed and harrowed and left it over the winter, we have just dug it over and put the spuds in for the summer. We have always grown our own veg, had an allotment before but it was too big, this one is half of a full size one, enough for us. We moved all the fruit bushes we had in pots in the back, gooseberries, Raspberries, apples, plum blackcurrants and stawberries, and they all seem to be doing well. The allotment is surrounded by a conifer hedge and is slightly sloping, so its very sheltered and during the summer is a real sun trap..... we are looking forward to spending days up there when the weather is better.
I would love to have been able to do what Dick on its not easy to be green has done, afraid we are too old now, so we do the best we can with what we have.
