Everything takes long with one hand in a splint. I have to adapt routine tasks, and rescuing the seedling that got neglected after the injury was a lot less easy than it would be with two functioning hands. But I adjust and manage.

The gap between my food forest and growing plot is tiny. When the golden dead nettles finish blooming, this is supposed to be a path. To get the cart from one plot to the other, I have to remove part of the very old fence.The old fence itself is no problem to remove. But there is a barrier dug in at the bottom.

I’ve been doing a lot of digging for someone who doesn’t believe in digging beds. I’ll tell you all about them while I finish the beds–and then we’ll finally solve the water problem.

My potatoes had been ready to plant for a while, and I had to get the potato beds finished to plant them. The weather didn’t cooperate, so we dug Irish potato beds in the rain. The next day was a sunnier garden day with more bed-prep and potato planting. Potatoes rain or shine!

As it is about mid-April, I think it’s time we do a little bit of a tour of the garden. Kind of a Before, though, technically some things have already happened. But just to give you an impression of what everything looks like at the moment. Now in April.

My potatoes are ready to go in the ground. But neither me nor the bed are ready. And the storms are not helping. Ironically, I built a fence to give Pepper more freedom. The potatoes moved into the greenhouse, and I give you a tour of my first batch of seedlings.

With my husband back at work, I set out to finish the greenhouse alone. I had to get it done before the wind got too strong–and didn’t like the time pressure at all. The next day, with more time pressure, I put up the rain collection system.

We are building a greenhouse this weekend. And we need to get it done before the storms. I also need to harvest some weeds before the sheep come to eat them.

The list of things to get done in the garden is growing faster than these weeds. Spring paid a visit, so I used the sunshine to make progress. First up: the potato bed.

Spring is slowly arriving in North-East Germany. This year, I want to grow a lot of food. Right now, it’s all weeds and grass. There are a few ways I want to try making these beds. This one, I’ll weed by hand. But I’ll also try traditional Irish beds and weeding with sheep and goats.