Allotments 4 All

Hello I used to post on here quite a while back but ended up giving up our allotment due to family trouble (my dad was very ill) and so stopped posting.

After losing my father just before xmas 2007 we decided a total lifestyle change was needed and sold up, packed everything we wanted, sold off unnecessary things and moved ourselves and kids to Bulgaria! We bought a 5 acre small holding with a house that needed total renovation and a few other properties mainly to knock down.

We've been here almost 2 years now and love it, not managed to get the whole place planted yet but have some plans to grow more next year, house renovations still coming along but we're warm, watertight and comfortable so have no complaints and best of all we're mortgage free.

Hoping to catch up with some posts and the banter on here which I've missed, plus the handy tips etc that are essential!

Suzy

What a remarkable story. How about the language and making friends?

The language is very difficult, although I can just about carry a conversation now as long as the person I'm talking to doesn't speak too fast!

Learnt all of the essential things and keep adding to that all of the time, I doubt I'll ever be truly fluent but the kids are doing great and attend the local school without any problems.

The Bulgarian people are lovely, warm, welcoming, generous and helpful on the whole and we've made some lovely friends here, there are a lot of ex-pats in Bulgaria too although we don't socialise with many of them as we're quite busy looking after the land and animals plus OH is working here renovating houses for other people as we can't afford not to work.

It sounds fantastic!
One of our plotholders has a daughter who lives in Bulgaria and the plotholder has bought a house there too so they can go to see her often. 
Her daughter and son in law both teach English and they love it there.

What sort of things can you grow there?

Welcome back BTW. 

MB, this sounds fantastic, well done!  Glad that it's worked out well and you're all happy with your decision.

What sort of things have you started/planned to grow?

Is there a huge cultural difference at all?  

And .... any chance of some pics?  ;D

We've grown all sorts of things the last 2 summers but it's been hard and slow work as our land was left untended for 5 years.

Grown the usual peas, carrots, beans (multiple types) cauliflower, squash, melons, radish, lettuce, garlic, onions, tomatoes, cucumber and so much more it's hard to remember everything!  There's probably tons more that we could grow but we have tried to see what the locals grow as we know that will be tried and tested. We have plenty of fruit trees here too - apples, pears, plums, peaches, cherries, quinces, medlar fruit plus raspberries, blackberries etc so I'm finally getting into jams and preserving.

Right now I have garlic, lettuce and black radish overwintering and some red cabbage still growing too. Weather still not bad here although we're forecast for snow tomorrow! It can get as low as minus 25 here in January but March is when our growing season kicks off and the good weather usually lasts until late November.

We're also rearing our own livestock for our own use and have concentrated on turkeys so far but have our first litter of piglets hopefully due in about 6 weeks time!

Will hunt out some pics and post them if I can find any interesting ones.

wow sounds great although i am sure its all very hard work!

Keep us posted :)

Well done to you what wonderful experience for the kids as well.
Tell me do you suffer the same pests and diseases as the uk ?slugs,carrot fly, leek moth ?

how exciting

tell us about the food too, when you have a minute. I Googled Bulgarian cuisine and I got a picture of a girl in a bikini  :D

I am completeley bowled over.  Bloody hell it is so good to hear of someone getting off their backside and getting on with life - a different life - but good for you. 

I was always a ditherer and could not pluck up the courage to take the leap.  I am too old now but it is really good to hear how well you are doing and the fact that you are happy as well - what a BLAST.

Good for you!   Well done!

;D

 Hiya  Bunny, so glad you are back . Congratulations you have done so well
pleased to hear you are happy & everything is going along fine, good on you girl. Keep in touch now let ua know everything  ;D ;D ;D.
All the best to you all. Rosebud xx.

Welcome back, what a wonderful and brave thing to do. Reminds me of my late husband's great niece and her husband who packed everything up along with 2 young children. They bought a derelict barn in France 3/4 years ago and turned it in to a beautiful home. Such hard work but like you such an achievement. We visited in June for their wedding, the (now) 3 children just love it there. Matt does the same as your husband to keep the wolf from the door. Good luck.

Soundsfantastic- well done you for taking the plunge! Looing forward to the before and after pics!

Welcome home Bunny, blimey Bulgaria, most jaunt off to
Spain or France, what made up your mind to choose Bulgaria, I know a few people who've been there on holiday and loved it there, good luck to you girl and hows the OH getting on with his injured hand when renovating.  ;D ;D ;D

Thank you all for the nice messages, it's great to be back.

I'll try and answer some of your questions but forgive me if I miss some out as it's late here (2 hours ahead of UK).

OH lost half an index finger after his work accident and has trouble with the hand during cold weather, compensation took a long time (and wasn't much) but helped towards some renovation work here.

Bulgarian food is mainly quite simple, seasonal produce cooked peasant style and usually yummy, we've tried so many new things here and liked majority of them. I don't understand why the women are so thin when there's all the lovely food here though! And the national drink - Rakia, hmmm some good, some bad but completely legal to have a still and brew it yourself!

Garden pests - well I've only ever seen 2 slugs here, the usual green and black fly are around though but my trusty marigold plants seem to help with that. Lots of blossom end rot on our tomatoes unfortunately but we weren't as badly affected as some. Our biggest problem is the kids keep letting the donkey in reach of the veggies and she's great at eating everything!

We learned that allowing the chickens and turkeys free run of the whole garden isn't a great idea, bulgarians do not do any form of staged planting or companion planting and rely on chemicals to help with pests and diseases, some of which are banned for sale in the UK so I now tell white lies and let the neighbours think I've sprayed my veg when in reality I have no intention of ever spraying!

Confusingly the Bulgarians shake their heads for yes and nod for no! Although my bulgarian isn't too bad now an odd misinterpretation of what someone has said sometimes lands me with more than I bargained for.......The first big mistake I made landed me with approx 200 tomato plants and no cleared garden to put them in, the last mistake I ended up with 19, 1 day old chicks!

Promise I'll sort out some pics (will have to fire up the old pc and save them to disk first) but in the meantime feel free to have a read and leave any comments on my blog which can be found herehttp://blog4bulgaria.blogspot.com/

Sounds brilliant!

It is my dream to do a similar thing one day. Life in the rat race isn't for me.

How fantastic and exciting-welcome back!

HI MB,

I really enjoyed reading your story and its so good to know that it all worked out for you and your family, it all sounds so idyillic.
Sun, gardening and cooking the produce, what more could a girl wish for? :)

I would really love to see some pics too, if you can manage to sort some out?

Keep in touch and good luck with your new life  :)

Quote from: cornykev on December 10, 2009, 19:44:47
Welcome home Bunny, blimey Bulgaria, most jaunt off to
Spain or France, what made up your mind to choose Bulgaria

To be quite honest we couldn't afford to move to Spain or France! House/land prices in Bulgaria are very cheap (and cheaper than estate agents tell you) and the cost of living isn't too bad either.

Quote from: Money_Bunny on December 10, 2009, 20:46:02
I don't understand why the women are so thin when there's all the lovely food here though!

Probably all the coffee and fags  ;D . Well that's only based on knowing 1 Bulgarian so not exactly representative ;D  ::)  :P

Anyway - hello and lovely to read about your life and adventures. Looking forward to hearing more about your garden. Black radishes - yum! I have some seeds to try next year