Four and a half acres and growing

Available for over a year

Charlotte Smith meets Sinead Fenton and Adam Smith to hear how they gave up life in London to fulfill their dream of growing veg and edible flowers for a living. With the help of the Ecological Land Cooperative they secured four and a half acres of land near Polegate in Sussex but like all dreams this one came with its own challenges. They moved in a few days before the first lockdown in March 2020. A very wet winter gave way to a very hot spring making growing conditions challenging. The site has no water supply, and they got to work on the land all whilst living in a static caravan that had very little insulation and no electricity. But these two are not easily knocked off course, dealing with whatever life throws at them with a mixture of determination, naive optimism and sheer hard work. Charlotte joins them as they and some community volunteers plant hedgerows in a bid to improve the soil structure and create a natural wildlife corridor that will complement their ethos on land-management and help them grow into the future. Producer: Toby Field