Clearing the Cobwebs

Whilst I haven't been posting on the blog since late September, I have been enjoying the fruits (actually, mostly veg!) of last year's labor.

A fiery string of dried chillies still hang in my kitchen window, containers of dried thyme still flavour my Sunday roasts, and some enormous parsnips graced our plates on Christmas day.

Still plenty of heat!

Unfortunately, I ran out of my garlic stores early October, my butternut squash went moldy (bad storage technique I am sure) and we finished off the Strawberry Jam in January.

For both the allotment and the blog, now it is time to clear out the cobwebs, apply some minor design changes, and make sure nothing left over from last year smells too terrible!  On the blog, I am going to keep a semi accurate sowing diary, publish harvesting results and hopefully add a few reflections on why things worked or in some cases didn't.  On the allotment, my main priorities are going to be; successional sowings to keep me in my favourite foods all year,  experiment with companion planting to keep pests down, and as always enjoy being outside with whomever decides to join me on the plot (even if it is just a few worms and frogs!).

I thought that my excitement for veg gardening was waning this year but now that I have browsed all the seed catalogues and spent the winter reading cookbooks, I am indeed very excited to get growing all my old favourites and will definitely try some new ones too.  In the next week or so, I will be getting some chilies, tomatoes and aubergines on the go to kick off the new planting season.