We’re expecting around 300mm of rain in the next four days. Very little has fallen since November last year but all our water storage tanks are full, so I pumped them out this morning in anticipation of a deluge. About 8000 litres have gone and now we await the storm.

Last week I sowed wildflower seeds in all the bald patches left after we moved the hens to new spots. I also planted out the seed potatoes I sowed in the greenhouse a little while ago. They’re covered in straw in case of frost. I didn’t know about the storm then.

I’m due to have a group of people here next Wednesday to learn about no-dig gardening. We may be up to our necks in mud. The garden looks like a scruffy oik at the moment. I’ve lost so much time since my Christmas gift of Covid left me with a dicky spine. My super-brilliant osteo, Katrina, has worked magic but I still have to remember I’m not Superwoman. Too much resting has to happen. An alien concept.

Plants in the greenhouse are racing on apace. Tomatoes, aubergines, celery, peppers, chillies, kohl rabi, multitudinous lettuces, mustard cabbage, spring cabbage, cucumbers, gherkins, melons, squashes and much more are all vying for space. I have potatoes growing in buckets, and salads in the raised bed.

We picked the last few tomatoes from the vines I planted last September in the greenhouse raised bed. These were side shoots taken from the ageing plants in the potager before they gave up for the autumn. The late planted tomatoes were astoundingly successful, giving us plenty of tomatoes all winter. A very successful experiment.

I’ve planted three new season’s tomatoes in their place in the greenhouse and from one of the winter plants new sideshoots have come from the base so I’m letting them grow to see what comes. They already have flowers.

The potager is still full to bursting with every kind of brassica including a ton of purple sprouting broccoli. That’s not a thing you ever see in this part of France. It’s taken a full year from sowing to picking but I’m thrilled and will let some go to seed for posterity.

Strawberries are growing well in the greenhouse, in cute black and green felt hanging bags. Others are growing more slowly in the potager. Rhubarb is growing at the rate of knots now that it’s wet and warm-ish. Hoping for lots to marry with ginger. My favourite coupling.

The hens are all fine and all three of the babies are now producing the most beautiful, if small, eggs.

There’s at least one fat toad in the pond.

Gave a talk to a group about no-dig gardening. They stayed awake and we raised a bit of dosh for UNICEF Ukraine. So a modest success.