Into the teeth of the wind.

One of my aims for the year, is to use what I have. It's part frugality, and part shedding of un-needed stuff.
I've always wanted to grow herbs, and this is one of my big things this year, but I had an entire Ziploc bag full of seed packets - some of them a decade old! - and each year I've thought, they may be too old to germinate ... oh wait. They may not.



So today I sowed thirty herbs -each of them in a small square 7cm pot - thus chancing only a handful of compost, one small pot, and a few minutes of time for each herb. They will grow, or they won't. I've got 15 hardy perennials in a tray in the polytunnel, roughly speaking all these need some cold and will pop up when they're ready. I've also got 15 mainly annuals who might need a bit more warmth, and are probably really waiting for spring, on the kitchen window sill.



In the garden, despite a bitter cold wind, I decided to tackle the black plastic - roughly half of my open ground has had silage plastic over it this winter, and now needs to be open to the frost and the cold for a bit, before I want to use it. The other half has had plenty of frost and snow, and is growing a coat of weeds, so it needs the black plastic, to kill off the weeds and warm it up for planting.

A half hour onslaught on the woody nightshade, now dead and needing to be pulled up and burned before it starts up again, provided some healthy exercise and actually warmed me up a bit! Still a lot to do out there, and tomorrow which is usually one of my house and paperwork days, may have to turn into a work day.

This evening -marmalade preparation really had to begin! Got them juiced and the peel shredded ready to go tomorrow.


Tired but pleased at progress. Just now need to get this sorted so that I'm done before 10pm ! This is winter. I should be knitting by the fire by then!