Well the clocks change tonight. Tomorrow we will be a)up late or b)up on time and grumpy. Twas ever thus. Today, however, is the planting of the food crops. To be fair the rhubarb stays out all year and garlic gets planted in November but all those delicate veg need to go outside now. Today we plant onions and broccoli and peas and beans, beetroot and carrot but only for the tiny shelter/greenhouse (only it’s not a glasshouse) with just a few things directly into the earth. Lettuce, this year, is going in the chest height herb bed to attempt to avoid slugs.

Last years food crop was amazing considering we only completed the raised beds in late April, so this year we have organised a bit better and hope to have more food available. We also took the opportunity to put some fruit bushes in February, though I doubt those will fruit this year. A gooseberry and a blackcurrant. Hopefully the last frost has been and gone but in the UK who knows.

The compost has been fed through the winter. We have a vermicompost system buried into the raised bed thanks to Subpod (no money has changed hands) a New Zealand based company. The nice thing about worm based compost is that it doesn’t smell. You don’t need to spread it either because this system has holes for the little fellows to wriggle in and out taking the nutrients with them.

I’m not a garden expert, I’ve just realised that we can make more from what we’ve got… cost of living… pension.. blah. Between last years jam, sell by date boxes from the supermarket for soup and pickles, even marmalade. We compost anything that’s too far gone and use ash from the wood burner to add carbon to the soil. It’s all going rather well.