It’s our first growing season with a propagator, shed and a greenhouse, and it is so exciting to see so much life starting to take shape. We have been planting peas, cucumbers, tomatoes, lots of lettuce, nasturtiums, spring onions, beetroot, chilli, purple sprouting broccoli and loads more! Hopefully the shelves won’t fill up too soon and we can keep going.

In fact, we have already harvested and experimented with microgreens, (sunflower, basil, radish and rocket) and look forward to growing plenty more for our plate and yours. They’re densely planted and cut within a week or two, at their most tender and nutritious stage.

Spring is sooooo close, we can almost taste it, and our veg beds will be formed and planted with all these goodies. There have been a few hurdles however, the most serious of which is that the green waste compost supplier ran out of ready compost, just as we were geared up for an intense period of groundworks, track laying and compost spreading! So, the plant hire (mechanical, not organic) was postponed and the compost is due in mid March. Never mind, these setbacks are to be expected. We are going to move about 30+ tonnes of compost this year, which is quite an undertaking to say the least! It’ll all be worth the effort when the harvesting starts.

Along with the excitement is a sprinkling of fear of the unknown, and a knowing that things will become ever more challenging as this year progresses. Still, the seedlings don’t seem to be phased, so I’ll try and take a leaf out of their book and just keep chipping away at it. Even the old packets of seeds I’m trying to use up from previous seasons are going strong, surely a good sign.

Well, it had to happen sometime. I’ve been wanting to start blogging my project and what I get up to for yonks, and lots of friends have said I should, so here we are.

So, instead of a detailed description of “how to do xyz”, which if I’d have done x, y or z, might have been actually useful for someone, I thought I’d post something that is useful for me – a reminder of what’s important.

I took a few baby steps today on this journey towards creating the market garden and the project as a whole. Just a few weeks ago, I was telling myself that there’s just the compost to put on the veg beds, then a bit of raking – and the market garden is away! But no. There are so many hurdles to jump and plates to spin, that what I did today felt like procrastinating, when in reality it was a series of vital steps and lessons.

So what was I doing? Nothing to do with compost, or veg.

I attempted to shove a cable through a big long pipe. It got stuck, so I pulled it out.

I also started to put a cable through some trunking in the shed, but realised it was way too thick, and had to re-design the electrics.

None of this seems to have anything to do with market gardening at first glance, but when I fill in the blank, you’ll see what I mean. The borehole pump which will provide the water, needs to have power going to it, and the power needs to go through a protected cable (hence the pipe).

See, I was getting partially frustrated with myself, and the lack of progress, and the hurdles in the way, but then I had an important realisation: it’s the challenges that teach us. Especially when it feels like we’re hitting our head against the wall.

Through the process of my cable not fitting through the pipe, or anywhere for that matter, I searched for and found solutions that moved me forward in other ways, and taught me lessons such as choosing the right wires (and designing the whole system) correctly, how to pull a wire through pipe (thanks youtube), and that I actually benefit when things don’t go to plan.

So this first blog, is a gentle reminder for me to take a step back sometimes, with patience. Breathe, and look for the silver lining instead of feeling the panic, frustration and pressure that occurs when I bite off more than I can chew. Just keep chewing.

Next time, I’ll blog some progress on the market garden, milestones, updates and probably quite a lot more rambling thoughts and ponderings.

Now where will this blog go when I click “Publish”, I wonder?