Happy New Year

I would just like to start by wishing everyone who reads this blog a HAPPY, HEALTHY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR.

The snow has gone but it is still very icy and cold. Too cold for digging at the moment. I did manage to go up to our plot in the snow and dig up some carrots for our festive meal. The hardest part was getting the netting off (we need it covering the carrots because the pesky baby rabbits are having a field day eating them). It was heavy with snow that then became ice. I also managed to to pull up some Savoy Cabbage, also for our festive meal - in stead of Brussel Sprouts! I took a couple of flasks of warm water with me that I had to use to was the snow and soil away from the cabbage roots. They were too frozen to cut. I took them all home and left them in the garage to thaw out. I have to say that they were rather nice and tasty.

I was very mean to Michael and I made him go and dig the rest up whilst it was raining, as I needed carrots for our Turkey stew. He is such a good sport though and went without a moan.

I also checked on my Aquadulce Claudia Broadbeans that had been sown in November straight into the ground and covered with cloche. Another year where there is absolutely no sign of any germination at all. I am now left with a quandry - do I leave them and hope that they germinate when it gets warmer or shall I buy some more and sow them into yogurt pots on the conservatory window sill? Will have to give that one a bit more thought.

Planted up some Garlic and some winter Onion sets. They seem to be doing OK. I also set another row of Autumn King carrots for the new year, but they too seem to have gone to Australia just like the broadbeans.

All the christmas decorations are now down and I have started to get the odd seed catalogue delivered, so it is now time to look forward to Spring with warmer weather and very many jobs in the garden and on the allotment.

Thank you for looking.