Best Laid Plans!!

It's Wednesday today and I am actively making plans for the weekend:-

• Some more digging (of course )
• Clean the green houses (not as grand as it sounds but we have a beautiful wooden one my husband built and and a smaller glass one by the chicken run)
• Clean out Chickens and Rabbits
• Convince husband that after fixing four fence panels that blew down last week, that he'd really like to build me a new cold-frame – smile sweetly and run!
• Make said husband a few cups of tea then ask again about cold frame
• When he's finally said no to building cold-frame, smile sweetly again, and start building it yourself (with certain knowledge that the sheer frustration of watching you wield a hammer and nails near an old window frame will mean husband will have built cold-frame by end of day!)
• Better do some more digging!

All intentions of digging the allotment and being the perfect gardener during the last few months of 2011 just didn't happen – I can't even blame heaps of snow and ice to hide behind the fact that the allotment was left totally unattended and in sore need of digging on the 1^st January.

The temptation of having my first Christmas not working for a large corporation and being able to indulge the whims and fancies of my six year old daughter meant that I may not have had the perfect allotment, but I did have the perfect Christmas.

The new year is now here and I can say that my head has been turned and I am back into the motion of turning the earth and desperate attempts to remove as much mares tail as I can before it takes its firm grip again! Little and often seems to be doing the trick – even half an hour after the school run turns enough earth to make the effort of donning wellies and picking up the fork worthwhile and as we hit week two of 2012 I can see that my rewards are beginning to show.

My latest copy of “Grow Your Own” plopped onto the door mat the other day and to my delight it was an issue with FREE seeds falling out of it. Tomato, Leek, Brussels and Pepper. All staples of the growing season and always seem to taste that much sweeter when they come with the magazine as a freebie. I seem to have a determination in my soul this year which means I really will get seeds sown, repotted and growing at the right times this year. It's so easy to miss the window of opportunity and not quite get every ounce possible out of the growing season. I'll report back soon (and honestly) to let you know if my “best laid plans” do get fulfilled.

Well my time is up for writing tonight – the small person needs picking up from Street Dance lessons and a cold glass of wine awaits me in the fridge (the advantage of working from home for yourself is that you can have a glass even on a school night!)