Potting time!

Le Jardin de Salade Project

 

 

This arrived last Friday, with three hundred of these inside:

 

 

Bought from the UK because I could not find a source to buy from here in France,

this package took six days (including a weekend) to get here.

I was impressed.

The pots are 9cms square, and quite sturdy, not thin and crumbly but not thick and heavy duty,

but they are substantial enough to last for quite some time, and at 9p a pot are well worth it despite the cost of postage. If that was included in the cost per pot, this would come out at  14p per pot, which I think is still worth it. We shall be buying more of the same. We have a lot of seeds to get planted.  

 

We have been rethinking the purchase of a poly tunnel, and are thinking about building one with poly carbonate sheets, whatever that is, which means that we can have a greenhouse which will fit the space rather than having to have major clearance work done.

We have also had a re-think about the 'shop' environment and think that instead of buying a chalet type hut, which is going to cost upwards of 2000 euros, which would look attractive in itself but would not blend in with Labartere's rustic farm look. So thoughts are travelling towards building a  sort of rigid market stall, with rough cut planks of wood at the back and on one side which will give shelter to rain and sun, and will be in keeping with the farm. It will be quite a size, not small as in the stalls found in local markets, and will give a good display area.

The downside is that the area would have to be emptied out after each day because there is no way of locking things up, but if we do alright with this market garden project, then Lester is going to build a lockable shed behind it so we can put things in there at night instead of bringing them back into the courtyard. 

We like this new plan, because passing cars will be able to see what produce we have for sale, rather than everything being inside out of sight.

Most of all, it will fit the look of the property, and be more people friendly.

 

I have also started looking into getting some signs printed for our little van,

and we shall also need signs for the fences, plus flyers, leaflets, etc

Plenty of time to do this, as we haven't got anything to sell yet!

 

Lester is also on the move with getting the chicken house built, and I have sourced some young chickens which we can buy in when the chicken house is ready. We have been frequently asked if we sell fresh eggs, so feel encouraged to get our egg production started. One thing, though, and that is that we do not want to look like a commercial operation, which would not suit us or our thoughts about how we want to live at all.

 

I have been slow in ordering the seeds for this year, mostly because I kept dithering about what to order, but I have finally got the order done and sent off. Ordering for ourselves is easy, but ordering with a view to sell to the public is entirely different.

 

We think that we shall focus on herbs and baby salad vegetables, if possible on a year round basis, with some standard type vegetables when available, but we do not have enough land to do large crops of potatoes, cabbages, etc..... and neither do we want to grow main crops because there are plenty of people doing that already here. We don't have an interest in that type of produce anyway, apart from growing for ourselves. But what we do have an interest in is the baby veg, salads, herbs, and eatable flower, so this is what we are going to grow. Time will tell if we are on the right track in regards to selling to the public.

 

Anyway, enough of my rambles,

there is a huge hunk of cooked pork waiting to be cut  up and put into the freezer,

there is milk waiting to be canned / made into butter,

the cheese fridge needs attending to,

etc....etc....etc....

and Lester is trying to mow the grass in the courtyard with my hand mower so I need to go and rescue him. Bless him, he has such a lot of infrastructure work still to do, while all I do is stand by and wait to get planting!

 

Bye for now,

just going to give my husband a hug and take over the lawn mowing task,

 

Vx

 

PS. the sheep are continuing to do a most efficient job of keeping the grass mown, but the cows are moaning because they want to go out into the field but must stay in because the grass on the fields is still too slow growing.

 

x