Friday February 15th
At long last we are off. Small person was tucked up into a car seat and transported to the conservatory and we sowed the first seeds of the year. Now have a large propagator of chillies. OK so they aren´t going to make it to the lottie but they´re still food. Well perhaps spare ones will get put outside... In the afternoon, made it to South Heath GC and found they´ve not got any shallots left (something about last year´s atrocious weather rotting half the harvest). Sob. Oh well, at least they had some small bags of seed potatoes, so bought a couple: one of Ratte and one of Charlotte.

Saturday February 16th
An early start with me relying on the Horticultural Society hut having some shallots. This usually means a very early start on what is traditionally one of the coldest days of the year, queueing for hours and hoping they´ve still got what you want. Turned up at 9am (baby in tow, as well as flasks of boiling water, milk and some teabags!) and found the queue was actually quite short. Got my golden gourmets and also a couple more bags of potatoes (Kestrel and Picasso). So despite not being able to go to the potato day, I´ve got most of the ones I wanted (bar the Sarpos, and I might just have a few dozen of those in the ground from last season!).

Took some thoroughly depressing photos of the plot. Heck of a lot of work to do.

Thursday February 21st
Went up with the secateurs to prune the raspberries and start on the other soft fruit. And discovered the fairies have been! I´d mentioned on Saturday that I was looking for (paid) help in getting it all going again, and four beds are now magically clear! I am pretty sure I know the name of this particular fairy, and I shall now have to dream up a suitable recompense. Managed to get the rasps done - poor summer ones are looking a bit sorry for themselves, and have escaped the line yet again. All the autumn ones are now at ground level (hadn´t really started to grow yet) and then I had a bash at the bramble. Argh. I´d forgotten what a git it is. Didn´t really hack it back last year before everything went mad, so it´s even more of a battle than usual. There´s now a pile of briars and still lots to go... oh well, Rome wasn´t built in a day! Pulled up a few weeds that would come up without a fork, and hacked the verbena in the blueberry pot back a bit. Must try and get it out, especially as the blueberry, which I´d hacked back to a stump, has grown quite a few new little stems. The main plant has got a decent number of flower buds on, and I hope to get the final two up and in place before too long, to maximise pollination.
Decided to investigate the daffodil bed, and there seems to be fewer than in previous years, but enough to pretty things up a bit. Pulled some creeping grass off it, and picked a handful of the miniatures for a vase as I left for home.

Saturday February 23rd
All spuds chitting, shallots ready to plant, four chillies, two aubergines and a cucumber up!