A happy feature of winter is that even though mornings are chilly there is genuinely indoor work to do while waiting for the day to warm up. And another window later when it’s getting cold and dark. I’ve finally finished my most important indoor jobs: a first draft of the upcoming season’s harvest plan and the associated seed orders (well, hopefully the appropriate seed orders). The orders had become more pressing because seed stocks are lower than usual and some varieties were becoming harder to find the longer I took. That’s also because we want seeds that are locally grown, organically grown and open pollinated (not a hybrid). Sometimes the first two are not possible but we’ll grow the plants organically, which is more important to us and hopefully our customers. Fortunately, even though the orders are done there are still more indoor jobs to do on chilly mornings!

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Work outside continued in the middle of the day, with Alex making three more beds, leaving only six to go. There’s some talk that the beds might be finished during the coming week. I offered to help with the last one but it might be a little like finishing someone’s jigsaw puzzle. In any case it’s time to start thinking about what needs to be done next. The borders, which will be mostly perennial plants, still need to be finished. But the berry patch that’s going in the triangular space is more useful. And we need a space for washing and packing produce by September at the latest. Maybe I should help with those beds.

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Although the berry patch is closer to being realised I moved the strawberry seedlings that were outgrowing their cells to bigger pots, just in case. Growing strawberry from seed took some patience but was otherwise very easy and we have a lot of plants for the price of two seed packets. The herbs – coriander, dill and parsley – had also been looking a little sad in their trays so I planted most of them outside. It’s hard to know how the outdoor herbs will cope with the frost. I’ve put some the coriander beside the fence where I can throw an old sheet over them if a frost is forecast. We’ll see if that works but I’ve also put some seedlings in pots in the tunnel as insurance to make sure we have herbs. The frost definitely hurts some plants more than others: broad beans continue growing from seed into healthy-looking plants but today I noticed that all the marjoram have died. On-the-job learning continues.

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