Three little words that hide so much: Grow Your Own

A snowy start to March

Grow Your Own - promoted as an easy way to save money and eat healthy food, but actually three little words that hide so much pain and anguish, as well as joy and jubilation. A bit like Married With Children!

This week we've mostly been wondering if our seeds will ever grow. The unseasonable snow stalled our digging plans, so we watched and waiting as our seed trays sat motionless on the kitchen table. I've been worrying all week: is last year's seed compost too old? Do they need more water? Or did my three year old dig up all the seeds when I wasn't looking? 

And my poor seed potatoes don't look like they're very busy 'chitting', ie getting a head start before being planted out next month. After accidentally leaving them outside for a few nights, risking death by frost, I compensated by cuddling them up to the seeds on the kitchen table. I've now read that they don't like to be inside, so I may have killed them with too little, and then too much, tender loving care.

Our new polytunnel warming up the soil

After the snow melted, we did manage to get the new polytunnel up. My three-year-old helped, in between whooshing around on her broomstick and stirring up her cauldron/bucket of weeds. The cover seemed too small for the frame, and I ended up ripping the plastic, breaking the zip, and straining a few muscles. Got there in the end though (thanks hubby). I dug in some well rotted manure (picked up from a local farm last year) and fixed the polytunnel over the top, ready for any potatoes that do survive!

I love my gardening books as much as I love gardening

That night I fell into bed and had five minutes with my gardening books. It turns out that I shouldn't have dug the manure in, and the polytunnel should be warming up the seedling/onion bed, which I haven't prepared yet. Grrr! There's just too much to learn, and so little time. Maybe Grow Your Own is just for those lucky retired people after all.

I felt disheartened until the next morning, when I came downstairs to discover all was well with the world. Our first seedlings had come up, growing towards the sunshine. Whatever the books say, I just have to be patient and keep going, learning with my children as we celebrate our successes and laugh at our mistakes.

The french marigolds look really keen. But should I be pinching them out? Now where are my books...