My love of gardening started in the late seventies when our first small house came with a large plot. I found the best way to manage it was by growing fruit and vegetables, with the help of a small flock of chickens to clear the weeds and fertilise the ground. We very quickly became self-sufficient for a good bit of our food, and have been so for over 40 years. I started speaking about my experiences to clubs and societies in the Cambridge area over 15 years ago with a talk called 'self-sufficiency from your garden' which is still very popular. Other talks, all from personal experience, include pruning techniques, keeping chickens, gardening history, growing for shows, and more recently a talk on the effects climate and how to modify our gardens to cope.