I had hoped to spend a bit more time on the plot yesterday, but it was such an awful day. The kind of day that you only get in the middle of winter - dark, cold, wet, grey....you name it...

They say it is to be cold all week. It certainly is today. It is all a bit of a surprise after the mild winter this year so far!

I was on the plot for a short while on Saturday. I finished off a third raised bed for the allium family! The other two beds are one for asparagus and one for carrots/parsnips.

I will swop the onions and carrots each year, but the asparagus bed is there to stay so it needed a really top notch weeding. I was trying to get every tiny scrap of couch grass root out. There is a lot on my plot.

In the allium bed I started to put in some garlic. I had left the cloves in the shed to get a good chilling. Apparently this helps them to split later in the season.

However, at this point, my youngest son got too cold and fed up. It is hard to concentrate on garlic bulbs and entertain a one year old at the same time, so I left half of the garlic for another day.

My comfrey roots that I planted in pots have started to grow. Six out of ten so far. They say comfrey roots very easily from root cuttings - must be true!
The variety I have is called Bocking and is apparently strile - which should prevent it from spreading too rapidly and swamping my plot.
I love the idea of the various kind of green manure. It is a great way for me to make good use of the shadiest part of my plot. Rather than struggling to grow something that will not be happy there, I can grow something that is both happy, productive and of great use to the rest of the plot.
The weather has turned colder again, but it is still milder than the last two winters.
February is nearly here, another cold month, but the days at least are getting longer. It will be no time at all now until the little greenhouse will be stuffed full of young plants.

I can see bulbs poking their heads up everywhere already this year. I remember two winters ago, there were no bulbs at all till March. It has been mild and when I was doing a little work on the plot today I stuck my hand in the soil and it felt quite warm. Very strange for January!
I tidied out the shed today> I have not done that properly since I got the plot two years ago.
I found all sorts of old seeds that I never got round to sowing. I tend to by seeds quite impulsively. Perhaps my new years resolution should be to try to plan ahead properly and only buy what I need.

I posted some pics of my early days. It looks lovely and clear of weeds. I started off with the beds going across, then another plotholder suggested I should run them down so that part of each bed is shady and part in the sun. This year I think I will make beds in a sort of grid pattern and mix them up a bit too... we will see how it turns out :-)

I saw some cabbages that I tried to grow in my first season. They got trimmed off at the stem by cabbage fly grubs and that was the end of them. Apparently fixing squares of carpet around the base of the plants can help, or dousing them in water made with rhubarb leaves. I will try these this year.

I have also started an experiment, of sorts. When cleaning out the cupboard under the sink I came across three old pakets of seed: Leeks from 2010, Kale from 2009 and red cabbage from 2006.

Out of interest I sowed a few seeds from each just to see if they are still viable.

The results are in - and yes - all three germinated and are growing. It is very early to be growing from seed, but as I have only sowed a few of each I should be able to keep them growing until planting time once the soil warms up.

I have a small planthouse next to the house. I built it with an old double glazed window and some left over wood. Because it is small, it has been easy to keep warm with a thermostatically controlled heater. I think this is quite economical too - I only want it to be around ten degrees or so. I have an indoor/outdoor thermometer that records the temperature inside and the plan seems to be working well so far!

Well well, things are looking up! I ordered myself an extra treat over the Christmas break - some comfrey roots. I have potted up seven out of the ten that I ordered and hopefully they will get growing very soon.

I have put them in pots to give them a good start and I will probably pop them outside at the end of February. I am making an area to the back of my plot for green manure. The comfrey plants will be the main feature but I also plan to grow other green manure plants.

Comfrey makes a wonderful natural compost and is also great for making liquid feed by soaking the leaves in a bucket. (Smelly though!) I got my roots from ebay - a seller from a nursery.

Apart from that, it has been a windy couple of weeks. I have had to re-cover my beds a couple of times as the weed proof membrane had started to blow off. It is better to catch this happening early, or you could lose your valuable sheets altogether!