Cold and damp

Yesterday I spent a lovely couple of hours pottering in the garden.  I have created  another pipe tube frame at the end of the veggie plot and have covered it with a light mesh. In truth I am just playing around with different ideas for crops at the moment.  Half the fun of a veggie plot is in the planning.  I've covered the winter lettuce and my last sowing of radish with a bit of heavy fleece. With a bit of luck it should help  bring them on a little bit. I will take it off on warmer days to allow for more light and air around the plants. I've also made up my mind about the size and shape of the potential new shed.  It will be 8ft by 6ft and will be pretty much a garden shed for storage though I do hope to put a cupboard in there to use as a pantry for all my jams, pickles etc. next year. 

Look at that short hollyhock leaning a bit but still flowering

Winter lettuce and radishes.

Tony and I had a walk out this morning and I had planned to potter in the garden this afternoon but it's cold and damp so I haven't bothered.  I've cooked a gammon joint instead and then made soup with the stock. It's bubbling away as I speak. It's lovely being able to wander along the veg plot picking a bit of this and that to throw into the soup.  I added a couple of big leaves of chard and a couple of leaves from the curly kale.  The carrots though a bit small have been added too along with the leaves.  I chopped a big handful of chives into the soup so that I can hang on to the onions in case we aren't able to get to the shops for some. It's not worth a supermarket shop for a pound or two of onions.  We did buy a small sack of them last year but the quality wasn't great and a lot of them went soft and nasty before I was able to cook them. I intend to buy some from the farmers market as soon as I am able as the quality is superb.  Next year I hope to have grown enough to last us for many months. I am eyeing the fish pond and thinking that the space would be better used as a veggie plot.. I could grow an awful lot of veggies in that space.  It's kind of a watch this space moment.