Wednesday January 2nd 2002. Happy New Year!

Rang Marshalls up about the raspberries and found out that mine still aren't on the way and won't be until at least next week as the gardeners aren't back till Monday 7th. Ho hum. Not that I could do anything with solid frozen ground! Ordered various seeds off the web. Nearly have everything now, though seem to have forgotten to order my tomatoes!  Seed list: (*= grew last year)

• leeks, Musselburgh*
• cauliflowers, Snowball A
• cauliflowers, All the year round 
• shallots, Pikant
• cabbage maincrop, Minicole F1
• carrot, early Nantes 2*
• carrot maincrop, Autumn King 2 AGM
• French beans dwarf, Berggold
• French beans dwarf, Safari*
• broccoli, Calabrese green sprouting*
• broccoli, Premium Crop
• tomato, Tumbling Tom yellow
• marrow, Long Green Striped*
• courgettes, Squash Western Sunrise
• courgettes, Gold Rush
• Runner Beans, Enorma*
• sweetcorn, F1 minipop
• beetroot, Boltardy AGM *

Saturday January 5th

Managed to get a load more stuff. Two swathes of fleece (4m x 1.5m, each big enough for one division of the plot), two propagator lids and a pair of navy blue wellies (Christmas pressie from Mum and Dad). Probably going to put some fleece over the onions to stop them getting pecked! Ditto the cabbages. Must make the cabbage cage at some point so I can rescue the fleece for really early carrots.

Thursday January 17th

Franchi seed catalogue appeared, with, much to my astonishment, custard marrows. And called that, too. There's a new Romaine lettuce too, called Slow to Bolt. Definitely getting that after the madly bolting ones I grew last year!

Posted orders to Franchi and VidaVerde, for the marrows, lettuce, and a load of peppers (including the tiny pea-sized ones like we had in Berlin the first year we went). Bought six new seed trays on way home, as the old ones won't fit the propagator covers I'd bought.

Monday January 21st

Had Bill and Ben scattered about the bathroom, with pots balanced on whatever I could find to balance them on! And this lot's only the biggest ones… several hundred small ones still to go… but at least I've done enough to be able to do all the sowing I need to do. Could really do with getting hold of a small brush with bristles all around rather than using the old pot brush. Will certainly make the small pots easier to clean. Now if I could just manage to sort out the sweet peas...

Saturday January 26th

Mass pot scrub today. Now onto the 3½" pots, including the ubiquitous flimsy ones for the pot trays. There are still hundreds to do, but at least I'm now at the stage where I've done all the trays and modules I need for the veg. And probably most bedding plants too.