Our Potager before and after

We began our potager (allotment/vegetable garden) last year from an old vineyard. We were lucky that it had a well on the land and that we were able to rent it from a local vigneron.

There was a lot of digging to be done..the ground had lain fallow for several years.

As is often the case...especially in small villages..."its not what you know but who you know"
One of the local farmers came round and cleared the whole lot with his tractor in a few hours.
This is what I love about life in a small french village...everyone rallies round to help out whenever they can. People do favours not expecting anything in return apart from the pleasure of helping.
Its a great attitude and one which we follow wholeheartedly.

The whole area was fenced off...not so much to keep rabbits out but to prevent the wild boar rampaging all over the potager.

Yet another local man came down with a digger so that we could put in pipes from the well to a large water storage tank. We then needed to purchase a pump in order to get the water out as we could not find any of the old mechanism for the water wheel.
This well is the only water source in the village that so far in history has never dried up!!!!!

We planned what we could plant in the 9m by 25m space we had...it was a lot more than I had been used to. As well as the usual potatoes,carrots etc I wanted to try aubergines, melons and kiwi.

As the potager is some distance from the house we are unable to have any livestock which is the only thing I have been sad about as we would have loved to have some chickens and a pig.

This was the allotment in the first year of planting

We made several mistakes in the first year ....we should have listened more to the locals instead of doing what you did in the UK.

At the end of a working day here there is nothing nicer than taking in the view.......

NOT BAD EH?

The view of our village..Montbrun des Corbieres ...from the potager.......and yes...its uphill walk all the way back!!!!!