I’m Joanne and I’m based on the North West coast of Lancashire, England.

I’m a Software Engineer by day but I’m passionate about sustainable, one planet living.

I live in a 3-bed semi-detached 1930’s house and garden, with my husband, daughter, step-son, 7 cats, 1 idiot dog, 2 snakes & many thousands of bees. After living here for the past 15 years, we are finally in the very slow process of renovating the house and garden.

I am well known for being a bit of an obsessive when it comes to growing tomatoes, chillis and peppers. The huge variety of colours, shapes and sizes utterly fascinate me. It’s like collecting pokemon but they are edible and delicious!

I’ve grown things from being very small. One of my earliest memories is sowing (well more like throwing) a packet of lettuce seed in the greenhouses at home and I was astonished when it grew. I’m a child of the 70’s & 80’s so I grew up with my parents growing a garden, foraging along the local canal verges for blackberries and elderberries to make wine and cooking everything from scratch. I also loved shows like The Good Life and can remember wanting to live on a farm from being very young.

I’m far from being an expert, and I’m notorious for forgetting to water stuff but I’ve learnt quite a bit over the years about how to grow food. An imperfect garden can still provide you with an awful lot of produce!