Hi I’m Sarah the Gardener and I live on a small 3 acre lifestyle block in the Waikato in New Zealand, with my family: Hubby the Un-Gardener, Tim the Helper and the Joeyosaurus, Toast the Cat and 13 chickens and a rooster called chicken, two goats - Sweetie and Snowy and a seasonal flock (is two a flock?) of lambs for school calf club. We are smack bang in the middle of dairy country and our land used to be a swamp. It was drained in the late 1800s although when they had a whole new country to explore; why they would drain a swamp seems to defy logic! The upside is the soil is awesome for growing stuff in, the down side of is it tends to flood after heavy rain in the winter. I’ve seen carrots float away before! We are slowly transforming our land into our paradise, but good things take time. The first priority was to get the veggie garden and orchard up and running. While it is also still a work in progress its gives a great food to eat! I also love to make wine and jams and generally finding all sorts of ways to preserve my crops. I have discovered a love of writing about the trials and tribulations of my garden and my world through a national blogging competition, and as a result I now have two published books: The Good Life - four glorious seasons in my country garden, which was a direct result of my early blogging and the recently released Play in the Garden, which is full of fun projects to get kids outdoors. My ever expanding garden doesn't have a fence because I'm not ready for that kind of commitment and so there is always lots to do in my garden and as a result lots to say. Come again soon – there will be fun and laughter and heaps of gardening related adventures! Sarah the Gardener : o )