Time has flown and suddenly we’ve been here for a year. Technically it’s not quite a year (that’s on Thursday) so I’ll delay searching for deep insights until next week.

This week we had more lessons. Mother Nature taught us that wild winds need more respect. As I listened to winds lashing at the house on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning I was (again) relieved that we bought a polytunnel kit rather than attempting a DIY job. And that we upgraded with wind braces! But we did learn that we absolutely must take trays off the shelves in the tunnel when gusts of 40km/hr or more are forecast or the wind will do it for us.  And that peas ideally need sturdier trellising. And that garlic does not stand up again after it is flattened. But all-in-all, we were relatively unscathed thankfully.

A bigger event was the consultant’s visit on Wednesday afternoon. She is a former market gardener and expert in permaculture and regenerative agriculture and was full of helpful information. But somehow the exact same words made Alex happy and me sad! Essentially, what we’re doing is basically all fine but we’re having trouble growing seedlings because the compost we bought is terrible so her advice is to give up on our hope of selling vegetable boxes this season and focus on green manures to improve the soil, making our own compost and home production. Alex was happy because he wanted to give up on boxes but I really don’t like missing deadlines or goals! The upshot is that like so like many businesses in 2020 we are now attempting to pivot, as well as following her advice for improving the soil and garden design.

Plan A for the pivot is to buy some quality compost (we now have details for a reliable supplier) and try to target some crops for a stall at a local farmer’s market that has restarted. The business model for the stall is great because the stallholders want to buy produce from local small-scale farms rather than farmers standing at a stall for hours. We’ll keep selling small amounts at the local shop – we love the shop and its links to the local community. I’ll be less precious about organic and locally sourced inputs this season and just buy the seed-raising mix that my friends are using with success. And we’ll scale up our home compost production as much as we can. And try to be patient!

In unequivocally happy news, our first mainland visitors since February arrived this weekend. And more are arriving on Thursday! Slightly more low-key, but also excellent news is that I’ve harvested a first (small!) batch of chamomile, which is currently drying. Given my nightly chamomile tea habit, self-sufficiency in chamomile would be extremely satisfying even if somewhat inefficient!