I really did mean to write a progress report to tell you what’s been happening, but I haven’t actually made a lot of progress.

The tea is looking a bit better, though it’s in a mixed condition – some glossy green leaves and a few scorched brown ones.

The hollyhock growing from the compost bin is looking taller, though it’s an accident rather than something I can take credit for.

The blewits still haven’t shown any inclination to form mould so I’m wondering whether to wet them again or to stick them in the fridge to try and jump start them. The grey oyster mushrooms are still in the fridge because the polytunnels have been so hot most of the time I thought I’d delay trying to grow them.

The experimental bed, also known as the accidental permaculture bed, showed the benefits of organic matter in the soil as the fat hen grew quicker and taller in that section. The beans, meanwhile, don’t seem to show any benefit from it. The trouble there is that cutting winds just after planting the beans out set them all back and killed several so I’m not convinced we’re seeing a true result.

Failed bean experiments – note lack of fat hen in the bed on the right!

Same goes for the experiment with saved runner bean plants. After planting,the cold winds caused havoc, as with the other beans, and seemed to do more damage to the old plant than they did to the new ones. The old ones have recovered and are looking a bit better than the younger ones but there’s not a lot of difference. I’m going to try and measure the yield, but as someone has already helped themself to some beans we might struggle to get a proper figure.

We also lost the fat hen out of the accidental permaculture bed when some mystery gardener weeded it all out and we’ve had a bay tree taken from one of the polytunnels, which is extremely annoying, to say the least.

There’s probably other stuff I should report on too, such as the willow water (er…haven’t actually done anything about that), the calendula hand cream (er…ditto) …you get the picture….

So, no progress, enough good intentions to pave a fair-sized road and still no Lapsang Screveton.

I will just have to take comfort from the words of George Bernard Shaw.

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.

Possibly…