3 January 2010 - Happy New Decade Folks!

Happy New Year and Decade to All Our Readers! We hope that your year and decade will be productive and fruitful - and that ours will be rewarded by less slugs and more crops. We post a celebratory picture of our pumpkin's dramatic demise at Mr B's bonfire party event.

Since we last posted, we went on a trip to Canada to celebrate N's mum's birthday with all the family. Great fun to see everyone. We gave a jar of our chutney to N's mum and sister respectively as a reminder of the plot. So the allotment was never far from our minds. After we returned at the end of November, winter had well and truly struck and indeed has not let up much since. All we have done in the last few weeks is to tidy the last summer plants away (RIP the noble Autumn Broccoli only yesterday), harvest (leeks, chard, cabbage and kale) and stroke our chins a lot about the plan for next year.

We were somewhat hacked off to find that the shoebox we kept our seed collection in had got damp. So we threw the lot out and K spent an hour ordering on-line (around £120 worth - ouch) - including potatoes and garlic. We have kept pumpkin, squash, runner bean and climbing bean seeds from last year but have had to start from scratch for everything else. So what did we order?

Garlic : Elephant Garlic - 12 cloves - Spring Planting
Garlic : Spring Planting - 4 large bulbs (to be supplemented by some of our existing harvest)
Aubergine : Black Enorma F1 - 1 packet
Basil : Basilico Genovese (Ocimum minimum) - 1 packet
Bean : Climbing : Borlotto Lingua di Fuoco ( Firetongue) - 1 packet
Bean : Dwarf French Bean : Purple Teepee - 1 packet
Borage : Hardy Annual Herb - 1 packet
Brassica : Petit Posy Mix™ - 1 packet
Cabbage : Savoy January King - 1 packet
Cabbage : Spring : Advantage F1 - 1 packet
Carrot : Autumn King 2 - 1 packet
Carrot : Carrot Fly Free Collection - 3 packets - 1 of each
Calabrese : Aquiles F1 Hybrid (Summer-Autumn) - 1 packet
Chili Pepper : Meek and Mild (Poblana type - Mildly Hot) - 1 packet
Chili Pepper : Collection - 3 packets - 1 of each
Courgette : Soleil F1 Hybrid - 1 packet
Courgette : Defender F1 Hybrid - 1 packet
Cucumber : Cucino F1 Hybrid - 1 packet
Rocket : Apollo - 1 packet
Oregano - 1 packet
Kale : Scarlet - 1 packet
Leaf Beet : Duo - 2 packets - 1 of each
Leek : Autumn Giant 2 - Porvite - 1 packet
Lettuce : Culinary Collection : Nice 'n' Spicy - 1 packet
Lettuce : Green Hearting Mixed - 1 packet
Mangetout Pea : Oregon Sugar Pod - 1 packet
Melon : Tigger - 1 packet
Onion : Bunching/Spring : Performer - 1 packet
Onion : Red Baron - 1 packet
Pak Choy : Purple F1 Hybrid - 1 packet
Parsnip : Gladiator F1 - 1 packet
Pea : Garden : Kelvedon Wonder - 1 packet
Pepper : Chili/Moderate : Padron (The Tapas Pepper) - 1 packet
Pepper : Sweet : Gypsy F1 - 1 packet
Radish : Flamboyant Sabina (Cylindrical) - 1 packet
Spinach : Palco F1 - Organic - 1 packet
Squash : Winter : Festival F1 Hybrid - 1 packet
Sweetcorn : Honey Bantam Bicolour (30) F1 - 1 packet
Tomato : Balconi Collection - 2 packets - 1 of each
Tomato : Ailsa Craig - 1 packet
Tomato : Blight Resistant Duo - 2 packets - 1 of each
Sweet Potato : Twin Pack (T65 & Beauregard Improved) - 10 slips - 5 of each
Potato : Sarpo Mira - 20 tuber pack
Potato : Orla - 10 tuber pack
Onion Set Santero
Potato Blue Danube

You did ask.

I see now that we have omitted celery which we wanted to have another go at properly this year. You will also note that we have included peppers, cucumber, aubergine and melon as well as tomatoes for the greenhouse - this will be our first growing year with the benefit of the greenhouse. Indeed, we already have mange tout, red cabbage, pansy, spinach and sweet pea seedlings in the greenhouse, shivering away. So plenty going on.

I rather like the end of Christmas and the beginning of the new year. Although we cannot perceive it yet, the sun is setting later - spring will come despite the current cold weather. Why it is being referred to as a "cold snap' by weather forecasters beats me - it is far from being snappy. We've had snow, frost and below freezing temperatures over the last two and a half weeks, and it isn't even February.

The new year means getting your seeds, shed and plans sorted out, and your tools cleaned and sharpened. It means looking back at the things that went wrong as well as celebrating the achievements (which reminds me - I have to complete the harvest spreadsheet - no, seriously). It touches me that every meal we still have something from the plot (potatoes, garlic, squash) - and yesterday brought back a full carrier bag of produce (leeks, carrots, cabbage, kale, chard). Even during the winter, we can eat fresh veg and if we fancy a touch of summer, we have some locked up in the freezer. What's not to love about having an allotment?