A New Year

So it's 2010 now, a new year, a new start.

My health has improved and I'm feeling a lot more positive about things. Still suffering financially from the recession, but hoping for a good growing year and to make the most of the veggie patch and allotment.

Did hardly anything over the winter - took a long break from it all. I did pull up the onions and they're strung up in the kitchen in a pair of tights. I did have 3 pumpkins on the allotment, but when I went to get them for my friend at Halloween, the big one was gone - looks like someone pinched it.

I didn't dig up the rest of the spuds though - a whole 8x8 bed full of spuds - will get them dug up sometime soon and find out if any are still usable. I still have 8 cabbages at home and there were a few swedes on the allotment too.

This week I've sorted through my seeds and good to know got most of what I need for this year. I will need to pop down the garden centre to pick up a couple of packets, plus of course, seed potatoes and onion sets. I'm also going to pick up loads of canes and netting to keep the pigeons and butterflies off the brassicas this year.

A friend has about 90 paving slabs to be lifted from her back garden, so that will do brilliantly for the pathways on my allotment. I'll have to help level her garden and seed it or turf it.

I'm also hoping to scrounge a good sized chest freezer this year. Whenever I mention something I want, there's always someone who says "I've just got rid of one", so fingers crossed that this year I'll actually get one before everyone gets rid of them. I've also been saving up the jam jars and wine bottles, so should be making lots of pickles, chutneys and wines this year (need more wine racks too, so before you chuck them away, offer them to me!).

I'll need to build some decent shelving in the garage for the wine racks / jars etc, and hopefully more so that I can grow mushrooms in the garage too. Still need to pick up pallets for compost bins at home and on the allotment. Will build a wood store so I can collect and store firewood for next winter. Also need to build some frames to support peas. I've probably got a zillion other things to make, but one thing at a time .....

So it's time to make a start .....

It's below freezing outside, snow forecast, not likely to go above freezing this week, so not much I can do outside. However, I have a spare room and can sow indoors.

I have Winter Gem lettuce - can be grown in a cold greenhouse throughout the winter. Also have Thompson cauliflower and Early Nantes carrots that can all be sown now, so I'll make a start on them all today.