I can’t quite believe it is May already. April seemed to fly by, with the busy-ness of all the spring sowing, pricking out, potting on, planting and, of course, weeding! The highlight has been promoting the launch of my new book The Productive Garden, which was published on March 26th. What a joy this is.

It is an exciting time, thinking of the crops to come over the year and beyond, and also rather exhausting too. Spring energy means that growth is abundant. Seedlings that look so tiny one day, seem to be begging to be planted out a few days later.

I am a bit behind where I would wish to be, thanks to coming down with the lurgy for a few weeks. This left me feeling very washed out, and gardening tasks took longer than usual.

back garden beds, late April

Every morning in the spring I work out what I can do that day. Some days, there’s only time due to work commitments for some necessary watering and the daily ritual of covering and uncovering tender plants on propagating benches in the polytunnel and greenhouse. Some days I have the time to garden, but nature decides otherwise.

Other days, I decide what the priorities are. If seedlings need pricking out, then that must be done first so that they don’t get too leggy. Then, I check what seeds need to be sown that week. Often at this time of year, larger seeds that are sown into modules have to wait until other plants have been put in the ground, or potted on, because I always run out of the larger sized module trays. Every available surface undercover, and outside, seems to have something growing on it. In May every year I can often be found wandering the plot with a tray of transplants in one hand, and a dibber in the other, wondering where I am going to put the plants, as suddenly the empty outside beds start to fill up.

clearing the smaller polytunnel to make space for summer crops

This week a priority is mulching the two polytunnels ready for the first plantings. The tomatoes need to go in the ground now. There’s still a lot growing in the larger polytunnel, so for now the new plants will have to be popped in between these. I have plenty of fleece in case of cold nights, for extra protection. I have compost ready to spread, and also wood chip for the paths. This was a welcome donation from the village tree surgeons, who kindly delivered several loads of wood chip to my driveway.

I also need to get some strimming and mowing done. I don’t do “no mow May” here, but I do leave some areas uncut until late autumn. It seems wrong to me to let a grass area flourish, with lots of creatures moving in, and them cut it down a few weeks later. Also, long grass is great for slugs, so I don’t want that next to the veg beds. I always cut the grass on a high setting, and the grassy areas are rich with different plants including daisies and clover, all growing at a low level. These provide excellent habitat for a lot of wildlife, and also forage for many creatures.

I’m making new beds too. Some were already planned, including some raised beds on a sunny part of the parking area beside the house. Others are being squeezed in wherever I can find a sensible place, so that I can grow more staples for later in the year: potatoes, squash, beans for drying, etc. There are more pots too. Anything that could hold soil and be used for growing is being utilised this year. The main reason is, of course, the ever increasing prices of food and pretty much everything else.

one of the new beds made this spring

Unfortunately, I had the bad news in February that the insurance company which insured my home was no longer offering the cover which enabled me to run courses here. Most regular house insurance does not allow business visitors, which includes course attendees, so I had a smallholders insurance. This is not personal to me, it is a national issue affecting a lot of people and has been raised as a concern in Smallholder Magazine.

I had just 4 weeks to find an alternative policy. I tried insurance brokers, a lot of insurance companies including the farming ones, as many smallholding insurers as I could find…. no luck. In the end I had to go with a regular house insurance policy, because of course I can’t not have insurance (it’s a legal requirement of my mortgage). So, I sadly had to cancel all of the courses here for 2026. I refunded everyone who had already booked, of course. So this is why they have disappeared from the website.

This is a huge financial blow because the courses are a key part of my income as a freelancer, and I am the sole wage earner here. It’s also very disappointing because I love running the courses! I know we’re supposed to go all “self help book-speak” about this kind of thing and say it’s an opportunity, and it may well turn out to be so, but it’s actually been rather demoralising and stressful.

The timing was especially rubbish as it came at the same time as the notification of a huge leap in the cost of the monthly mortgage payments. Loads of people who took mortgages in 2021 on a five year fix are experiencing this horror. And of course everything else has gone up too: heating oil tripled (much of rural Wales has this), petrol, food, etc. The cost of living is an issue affecting a huge number of people.

Llandovery Literature Festival

I am insured to teach everywhere else (PLI, etc) so events I am working at are still going ahead. I just can’t run workshops here. I’m currently discussing running workshops at different venues across the UK (and beyond), so hopefully there’ll be some dates to share with you soon. If you have, or know of, an event space that may want to book me, do get in touch. This month, I’m speaking at Llandovery Literature Festival on Saturday 9th May and on 26th May at Trinity College Oxford.

Also, I have started some online webinar masterclasses, which you can find out about here. The next one is tomorrow evening (Wednesday May 6th) – a Growing Edible Flowers Masterclass. I’m working on other possible plans to earn an honest crust! And have planted an awful lot of potatoes, because you’ve always got a meal if you have some spuds 🙂