And a Happy New Year to all our readers! We have been very busy planning for our growing year. In the midst of internet searching, seed packet reading, spreadsheet construction and chasing of mushroom compost, we had an unexpected visit from Mr B, our friend from Suffolk and the donor of the raspberry bushes. He was, we think, impressed with the size of the plot and commented on how much work we had put in. Seeing as his original gifts are doing so well, he has kindly offered to bring us some more on his next visit. Woo hoo!
After a less than sober New Year's Eve celebration with The Neighbours, we eventually 
staggered to the plot and made two exciting discoveries - (a) that digging in the fresh air is an effective hangover cure and (b) the carefully piled up piles of grass upon which the pumpkin had grown and which had to be distributed from the final raised bed had formed the most fabulous loamy topsoil stuff - the definition of friable. This is exactly what they said would happen in the book, but it was a revelation - on how soil could be improved and on the easy patient natural process which produced it. We finished that bed thinking that this may well be the seed bed due to its superior quality.
staggered to the plot and made two exciting discoveries - (a) that digging in the fresh air is an effective hangover cure and (b) the carefully piled up piles of grass upon which the pumpkin had grown and which had to be distributed from the final raised bed had formed the most fabulous loamy topsoil stuff - the definition of friable. This is exactly what they said would happen in the book, but it was a revelation - on how soil could be improved and on the easy patient natural process which produced it. We finished that bed thinking that this may well be the seed bed due to its superior quality.
N dug the second of the small parallel beds for the potatoes. We have to prepare the trenches with cardboard and potato fertiliser, exactly as we did at the very beginning - but this time in advance so it can rot down. We anxiously await the mushroom compost. The delay is - mysteriously - attributed to a dodgy gearstick in a white van. Hmmm.
We'd like to share with you our detailed growing list but unfortunately the technology is a bit beyond us at the moment. If we cannot find a way of linking to our planning spreadsheet we will list them in another posting - but it won't be as cool.
Some things we have ordered via the interweb, others we already had and others we bought recently (e.g. raspberries and strawberries). We do not intend to grow everything on the list, for example the raddichio which failed to come up last year, but thought it best to list in case we change our minds. The things we like best there are two varieties of - potatoes (Sarpo Axona - blight resistant!), peas, carrots, broccoli, french beans, onions, garlic. We are rather impressed by the macho names of some of our potential harvest - Ironman F1 broccoli, Napoleon and Red Baron onions - and hope they will get along. Other things will be grown in pots in our garden (tomatoes, salad) and still others as accompaniments on the plot (marigolds, sunflowers). Very pleasingly we managed to find comfrey seed which will be great for the compost; it grows fast and makes perfect green manure.
The process of choosing what to grow is interesting in itself. There is no particular rationale. Some varieties were chosen because we saw them in a gardening magazine; others because we had them already; and still others (internet ones) because we liked the look/description. And we will have to dig and prepare the space for the raspberries and strawberries (the beginning of the fruit cage) purchased this afternoon from the excellent nursery up the road - this weekend! The New Year has begun with a vengeance. Let the growing begin.
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