Resurrecting blog

Resurrecting this blog to stop me blithering away in the Chatback thread. Plus, it'll be easier for me to look back and see what I did this time this year next year, when this year will be last year. For anyone who doesn't read the Chatback thread, that's a prime example of my typical blithering.

Got my potatoes chitting. Amandine, BF 15, Mandola and Ratte from Baumaux. Very small, but that's not unusual for French potatoes. They're in great condition: all firm and most have small chits at just one end, so they look to have been well stored prior to delivery. The Amandine have virtually no chits, but as these are the very early first earlies, I'm not too worried. In theory they're for harvesting anything from 55 days onwards if conditions are good. So I might as well wait till the conditions really are good and they'll suffer no checks due to cold. Supposedly ten of each, but got eleven. Perhaps because some really are small. But I've grown very successfully from similarly sized French seed potatoes in the past, so not worried.

I tried Baumaux to see what dealing with a French supplier would be like, as it's possible seed deliveries post-Brexit might go back to the way things used to be: not permitted. Not so urgent now a transition agreement has been reached, but anyway, worth trying. Packets of seed are more expensive but much, much bigger. And the selection at Baumaux is impressive. F1s and heritage varieties, plus lots of choice. The shallot sets are beauties. Delivery wasn't too problematic either. Will definitely use Baumaux again.

Need to get a move on with the beds, though. Mr Snoop told me to stop taking on so much work (I'm self-employed - it's hard to say no because I worry they won't come back again) to give myself time. He's right. But as it is, I have work till well past Easter already and that includes working at the weekends.

New inverter should be coming today, along with the regulator for the solar pump. Pretty well got the irrigation design sorted for the fields. Now got to ponder on the winter huerto (veg patch), which is far more complicated as the beds aren't standardised. Might have to be a bit ad hoc this year, using bits of pipe Mr Snoop has retrieved from the tip.

And also still to come: more seeds from UK and Warré hives from Austria. My cup runneth over this year, that's for sure. Feel like I've been very greedy, but it's the first time in maybe 15 years I've had any money to spend on luxuries. And that's because of the availability of work. So I'd better get on with it.