About Me

My Tiny Plot is a diary detailing my adventures in gardening. I created my first garden in England in 2005 back then it was just a few pots on the patio. But soon I got the gardening bug and applied for an allotment (or community garden). I was on the waiting list for while but when I finally got the allotment I started growing on a bigger scale. When I was pregnant with my first child we moved to a bigger house and that offered me the opportunity to create a garden in my own back yard. In 2012, we moved from the UK to Portland, Oregon.

It was a big move and now my tiny plot was not so tiny. I inherited established trees (some more than 150 years old) and many, many shrubs, a few ponds, and a resident coyote (he didn’t stay long). I created a large kitchen garden, built a greenhouse and planted an orchard.

I lived the homesteading dream for 10 lovely years. Then in 2021 after much soul-searching (didn’t we all do that?) we decided to move to the east coast of the US. Mostly for a change of pace but also to be closer to family in the UK.

Despite the list of changes over the years, My Tiny Plot is dedicated to one thing; enjoying and celebrating the beauty of plants and reveling in the peace that comes with puttering around your garden and growing beautiful things. Eating fresh produce and generally living the good life is just an added benefit.

I have a few rules about growing vegetables. Here’s my top ten gardening commandments …

  1. Plots should look pretty as well as feed you
  2. Gardening is not an exact science, do what works for you
  3. Recycle – it’s just polite
  4. Do organic until it becomes a pain
  5. Only grow things you like
  6. Put a bench in your garden – but know that, alas, you’ll probably be too busy to sit on it
  7. Snails, slugs and caterpillars are your friends until they become your enemies
  8. When they do mourn their death
  9. Buy decent tools
  10. Grow some flowers – or the bees won’t come!

Enjoy the site and pop back regularly to see what’s going on down at My Tiny Plot.

Feel free to e-mail me.

A Little Bit About Me

I’m a British mother to two (boys). I now live in Connecticut. I spent over 10 years working in magazine publishing as an editor. I left publishing to start a business with my husband, Ryan Carson.

Now, I am a full-time mum who also writes about gardening. Aside from My Tiny Plot I have written for Horticulture magazine, and Gardenista.com. I qualified as a Master Gardener in 2013 and enjoy helping people make more of their gardens. I also have a small shop selling my handmade jewelry, Carson & Co.

For many of the historical shots on this blog I used a Canon EOS 550D camera (named a Rebel T2i in America). I used an EF 18-200mm kit lens for general stuff, EF 50mm f/1.8 for low light situations and 70-300mm Sigma macro lens for those super close-up shots.

But now, I just use a good ole iPhone.