A Little About Me, My Family...
...And This Website!

I'd like to tell you a little more about me, my lovely family, and this website.

My name is Ashley Cotter-Cairns. I'm a website guy by trade, and I'm lucky enough to be married to the lovely singer and screenwriter Carolina Pla. We live in a small town in Quebec, Canada.

Our family has grown in the ten years since my wife and I met, and we're blessed with Jasper (7yrs) and his younger twin brothers, Declan and Julian, who just turned 5yrs old.

We're delighted to have three lovely little boys: no more though, please!

Three boys and two adults eat a LOT. And that's why we love to grow our own vegetables and herbs.

We're trying to eat organically, and the best way to ensure you're getting the best, purely organic food is to grow it yourself.

Our First Containers

When we moved into our little house, it was bordered by a badly-made board fence. Sagging, neglected, it really didn't do the house any justice.

As soon as we could afford to, we replaced it with a white picket fence (built with hemlock and painted with organic paint). When we demolished the old fence, we ended up with quite a heap of planks.

Carolina decided to reuse these and so, one warm sunny spring day, we bought some hinges and ordered some topsoil, and built our very first containers.

In the three years since that day, we've enjoyed hundreds of pounds of produce from our little containers! Planting heirloom seeds and cultivating them under lights indoors before the late Quebec spring, Carolina has successfully transplanted and grown:

  • Tomatoes (some of them very weird and wonderful varieties, and every one tastier than the plastic-wrapped things you can buy in most stores)
  • Beans (several varieties)
  • Peppers
  • Herbs (some, including Korean mint, which threaten to take over the entire garden)
  • Pumpkins
  • Squashes
  • Zuccini
  • Sunflowers
  • Lettuce
  • Greens (including the delicious collard greens)

Every year, we give up more of our useless, ugly lawn space and dedicate the new areas to more delicious produce.

We supplement what we grow with a share in a local community supported agriculture project (CSA).

More About Me and My Website Work

I'm really delighted to be a stay at home Dad, and to work and live together with my family.

Stressed? I never have to commute anywhere, and while working from home has its challenges, I wouldn't swap it for another lifestyle.

When I discovered the simple way to build web businesses, I was hooked. Since then, with the help of my lovely wife, we've built a mini-empire of websites on all kinds of topics, from board games to beer!

See my online portfolio here. I'll be happy to help you achieve your dreams of working from home. Don't be a wage slave for a day longer than you need to be -- life is really too short.


Return From About Me to Container Gardening Home Page