The plan had been so simple: buy compost and use it for everything! So we’re obsessing about our various piles and trying to figure out when any of them will be ready and what, if anything, we can buy in the meantime. But it’s not clear that money will solve this because it seems the compost from the other main supplier is also still hot so we’ll have the same problem. With time passing and so many stunted seedlings I managed to convince Alex to buy some organic seed propagation mix. It only comes in small bags so it’s not economical but if it guarantees we have some basics like greens and beetroot in December, then it’s worth it. 

Meanwhile we kept poking our various compost piles with a thermometer and pouring various “teas” on them. The huge pile that we bought is still 45 degrees but might, just maybe, be starting to cool down. Some google-based research led Alex to add a chimney to our “fast” compost pile and that’s heating up at last. The first compost we made back in May is full of worms but also leaves that haven’t decomposed so we guess it needs a few more months. So we raided the worm farms for vermicompost – thank goodness the worms are working! We’re trying to use it strategically given we don’t have a lot. And Alex is going to double production.

There were some bright spots during the week. This week we finally decided to tackle the potatoes we’d stored in the guest bathroom (since it hasn’t been needed since February). Conditions were apparently not ideal and many potatoes went soft so we’d been procrastinating dealing with them. It turns out that our favourite potato – Sapphire, which is purple – grew sprouts over 20cm long while we were ignoring it! Another – Red Norland – also sprouted. So we’ve planted these in grow bags again and hope to have interesting potatoes early next year. And the green manure that we planted a 10 days ago is sprouting thanks to all the rain, with the uneven pattern reflecting our amateurish distribution rather than any problem.

There’s plenty of non-compost-related work while we wait for seedling success. Another truckload of shredded tree mulch arrived on Monday so we (Alex) can finish off the borders in coming weeks. The borders themselves are looking much better now that that the fruit trees have transformed from bare sticks to small trees in the space of a month. When (not if!) the herbs take off, that part of the garden should be looking a lot more like the image in our heads. And it will be helping to build the biodiversity that should reduce pests and disease… another seemingly simple plan, but until proven otherwise I really believe it can work!