Finally, after finding every excuse not to and chasing the resident wagtail out, we have an update from Doug.
I appreciate that creating a video is not helping develop my writing skills, but seriously folks, if I wrote it, all it would be is a list of crops, a moan about the shady slug and 5 million photos. Which I am also going to indulge you with, without the pics.
The peaks:
Thriving crops include, peas, strawberries, tomatoes, cabbage, lettuce, false rocket, chard, Chinese leaf, mizuna, courgette, cucumber, some flowers.
Did I mention strawberries - we’ve eaten about 5 already 🍓
Planted 20 hawthorn which will create some lovely shelter for our chickens within a few years.
Water - Erik plugged us into the mains last year and oh wow does this make a difference. I don’t think the plants would survive if I had to walk back to the shed to fill up the watering cans!
The pits:
The shady slug. So far he, of course it’s a he, has eaten his way through FIVE of my very late aubergine seedlings. I think he hides in the soil at night and rampages at night. He’ll only be minuscule because all he seems to manage is one seedling a night. I’ve heard copper round the base of the pots is good but he’ll have probably eaten the lot by the time it arrives. Plan is to repot them in virgin compost & bring them indoors.
The chaos. Oh I do like to create chaos. As an untidy person who likes to collect and keep stuff, Doug is overrun with cardboard, plastic pots and tubs, random seeds picked off random plants last year, books, dust, tools, everything really. The plan is to create a rightful place for everything and then keep Everything In It’s Right Place. Not Radiohead’s best work but still it takes me back!
Lack of planning. Basically I sowed what I had then looked at Real Seeds and bought what I liked and now I have no idea where it’s all going to go.
Still it’s all an experiment. Life is an experiment and I learn best from my own mistakes. Ever the contrarian I struggle to take advice and would rather fail and pretend it was all part of the grand plan…I think pigheaded is another term for that!
On a side note, my Mum always called me contrary and the last name she ever called me was Mary (the cancer had made it to her brain and she was fried on meds), so if the shoe fits and all that.
Added to that, her middle name was Mary and she had an Aunt Mary and so saying that rhyme to myself always brings me comfort. And yeah you guessed it, while she might have been born in Addiscombe (Croydon) she was 100% Irish, her sister did the test and everything!
Have a great weekend
Han 🌱
PS. Not to self - this is not an Instagram reel, videos on Substack should be recorded in landscape.
Mary Mary quite contrary