La Maraive Farmhouse
and kitchen garden
​Introduction
Hi! I'm Kelly and I am happiest when I'm wearing wellies and tending to my veg gardens or renovating our beautiful Guernsey farmhouse. "La Maraive". La Maraive is located along a quiet back lane in the northern parish of Vale (on the Island of Guernsey). We moved here in 2023 full of lots of ideas for making it our beautiful family home.
​
My love of gardening
​I have been growing fruit, vegetables and flowers since 2014 in my back garden and later, when I was lucky enough to secure an allotment. I am passionate about food and the health benefits it can provide and love nothing more than sharing that passion with others.
​​A new beginning
I had a lovely vegetable garden in our old house in St Martins, which we had built up over 12 years or so. The patch was full of fruit and veg which grew abundently in the rich soil we had put so much work into building. The new house had previously been a rental property, and whilst it had been very well looked after by both the landlord and previous owner, there were only a few plants and a small patch of front lawn to tend to. Desperate to continue growing our home-grown produce, Tim and I set about creating a temporary vegetable garden at the front of the house using recycled cardboard and leftover materials from the building work that had commenced on the house.​
A wonderful community
As time went by the veg started to grow and the flowers bloomed. I was so suprised to discover that we wernt the only people that were insterested in wathcing our little kitchen garden develop. One of the things I love about living in Guernsey is the amazing sense of community... neighbours, dog walkers and passers by would stop outside or peek over the wall to see how things were progressing. Folk would stop and chat - some to tell me that they loved the garden, others would discuss their own veg progress (or lack of it!) and lovely conversations and new friendships developed. The garden became a real talking point and I met many lovely people who would stop to see how the garden was progressing and to pass the time of day.​
Why start a blog?
So for 2025, I thought I would start documenting my growing progress which will mainly serve as our own growing record but will also hopefully also provide some additional information and updates for anyone who wants to see what we have been up to. We are delighted you have taken the time to stop by and look forward to saying hello to you in the front garden soon!​​
La Maraive farmhouse renovation
For anyone interested in La Maraive Faremhouse, we also plan to document any progress and development. Again, this will primarily be for our own record however it will also be made available for anyone who would like to follow along with us on the journey!
