17 acres of brambles, sorry, land

Well over in the French house diary you will discover that we have taken the plunge and put in an offer on a French farmhouse and 17 acres of brambles, sorry, land. It is going to mean that gardening in both countries will be a challenge; but I’m keen to try. I thought that I could plant trees and shrubs in France, and get on with the allotment as a food factory for a year or two more.  And even perhaps put in asparagus over in France. It will take three years before I can harvest properly. And who knows? Maybe we will be able to live there more often in a few years time too.

Getting a decent night’s sleep has been almost impossible since we agreed to buy the house. Finally I get an ambitious garden. But the poor London allotment will not be neglected; and I will try and keep this diary for this year’s food and flower production going.

Today it was too wet to even think of doing the peas up there. So I contented myself with inspecting the boxes and boxes of potatoes we have about the house: they are sprouting  – sorry chitting – nicely. The little first group of tomato seedlings are getting their exposure to the air. They call it hardening off, I call it wind burn. We shall see if they survive this cold spell.  I always find that this first group of seedlings are more an experiment than a serious planting exercise. It’s just our way of saying we are impatient for the growing season and want to get on. I remember last year all my cabbage seedling were well leggy and straggly as I planted them so early. They did survive mind you – but grew at very rakings angles.

I may ask Rino to use his greenhouse to grow tomato seedlings for me this year. Right now I’m off to the Royal Horticultural Society library to learn how to survey my potential 17 acre plot.  It’s a shame it’s pouring with rain, I was looking forward to the 45 minute walk.