That may seem a little optimistic, but I have always been a glass half full type. Its only 6 days until the shortest day of the year. December 21st marks the day when we get the least light, that means on December 22nd the evenings will once again, very slowly, start to get lighter, and the mornings wont be quite so gloomy.
One up side to the longer hours of darkness means I have been getting a bit of a lay in, both the dog and the chickens have been sleeping later as it is still dark. Now they will begin to get me up earlier, but you know , I really dont mind.
Thats because the increase in light means things will once again start to grow.
I have great plans for my little plot this next season. With the help and advice of lots of people I have met online through this blog, and various other gardening sources, I have been hatching my plans.
I need to sit and write a proper list of things I will be growing in the beds. Two things I shall not bother with again are Carrots and Parsnips. The disaster that was my carrots, is well documented in previous entries, and my parsnips are still in the ground and still taste of absolutely nothing!!
Chillies seem to be quite high on my list this year. I am very partial to them, and had some limited success. I have accepted a challenge from one friend, to plant on 1/1/13 and see who gets the first chilli. I have also joined a chilli trial another friend is running. I got a nice envelope in the post yesterday containing this..
Five little envelopes with three seeds in each. It looks like I shall have to take a bit of care not to mix them up. Not knowing what type of chilli they are is quite exciting, and I know I will probably bore you to death over the next 6 months with tales of my chillies.
My other project is my ongoing attempt to get a wildflower bank growing next to our stream. I sowed Yellow Rattle seed at the end of the summer as the first job, so watch this space ..
Elsewhere in the garden all is very very quiet. I am still harvesting leeks, cabbage and Sprouts but thats all..
In my last blog I mentioned we were going on another of our adventures. We had a beautiful walk around a place a called Hengistbury Head. The beach there is home to some of the most expensive beach huts in the UK. In the summer we wouldn't dream of going anywhere near this place as it is usually packed. But on a crisp december day, we were the only people there..
Well thats about it for now, thought I had better just put on a quick update ..
Christmas is fast approaching so here are a couple of festive pictures of the Christmas cake and door wreath I made and our Christmas Tree. To all of you that celebrate.. Happy Christmas, and to those of you that don't.. Happy Holidays.
It's a pity that you have given up on carrots as you can't beat the flavour of home grown ones. Did you find a beach hut to put in a bid for? :)
ReplyDeleteI wish!! shall be wheeling one of my small sheds down on a trolley next summer :)
DeleteGot more chillies than window sills now, let the competition commence in less than three weeks, and may the best Man win ;-)
ReplyDeleteI count time like you do, too - it's almost Christmas, which means it's almost January, which means February break, and then a month of storms in March and then - spring! :) Meanwhile, I have some cosy evenings to plan what I want to plant so that I can hit the ground running, once I can see the ground, that is. :)
ReplyDeleteYou can give up on parsnips!!! Especially after this year!
ReplyDeleteAs far as I'm concerned, spring starts with sowing seeds... So that's right about now!