As newbies to market gardening we know we have a lot to learn. Alex might be perfectly content watching YouTube but I prefer real-life teachers and talking to people. But of course that was complicated this year. The “Small-scale Profitable Market Gardening” course I enrolled in was cancelled, as were all local networking events and workshops. So it was a genuine relief as well as a real treat to finally attend a Huon Producers’ Network event this weekend and meet local producers I hadn’t managed to meet in person.

The event was a tour of a local permaculture-based farm and was full of insights. For example, it’s not true that “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago and the second-best time is now”. Dave showed us young trees had caught up to the older ones because they were planted in better ground. To paraphrase: the best time to plant a tree is next year and the best time to prepare is now. (There’s probably analogies for education systems in there.) So much for the trees that we’ve already planted! But I have the impression that everyone made the same “mistake” in their first year. I also decided we needed to overcome our embarrassment and hire one of our local experts (who was at the tour) to look at what we’re doing, give us some advice and pull us up on the rookie errors we’re almost certainly making.

The consistently warmer weather seems to be making a tangible difference. Some seedlings that we had all but given up on are now surging upwards. I don’t think the lesson is to neglect our plants but it was a happy surprise to notice that previously sad spring onions are now tall and bright green. Two straight rows of peas are emerging in a bed with beetroot seedlings that we thought would die (from our compost issues). One of the asparagus plants that we bought as a crowns and buried in winter has sent up a purple spear that is taller each day. It’s not even a meal for one, but we’re happy it’s not dead! At the beginning of the week I was fretting about not having enough pumpkins so Alex tried two different methods to sprout more. By the end of the week we had almost 20 plants, so that problem is solved! This coming week we’ll take stock of what’s growing and try to make sure that we’re back on track in January so that we can try to sell veggie boxes.