Its a bit mad to be buying compost from Germany but that is the only certified organic stuff available locally, so we have been making some of our own. Here is Mike sieving a mixture of composted farm manure and soil from the polytunnel together, to make a potting-on compost. We will still use the imported compost for small seeds as the home made stuff is a bit weedy. Maybe we will work out a way of killing the weed seeds but time is a real limiting factor at this time of the year.

The peas in the photo are growing in our home made compost in the polytunnel. We are experimenting with several varieties to see which perform best as cut and come-again salad or stir-fry pea shoots. The Winterkefe, were quickest to emerge in the low, early February, temperatures and look almost ready for cut. I predict that cut-and-come again peas are going to become fashionable.

A mention in the Irish times.

Jane Powers writes the gardening column in the Irish Times on Saturday, the main reason why I buy it, (although I'm also a bit curious as to how Roisin Ingle gets on with the twins). I was thrilled to open the paper last night and see that she had mentioned Brown Envelope Seeds and that we were top of her list of seed companies. It never occurred to me that having a name beginning with B would be such an advantage. If I ever start another business, I will call it Aardvark laundrette/cinema/toy-shop. She mentioned Firecracker chilis which we find our earliest most reliable hot pepper. Hungarian Hot wax is a terrific, mildly hot and very productive pepper, but Firecracker is the one to put a bit of kick into that bedtime cocoa.