A late start to an ongoing process

Well, here I am. At last. I've been sort of thinking about doing this for a while and, as I've spent the day in bed with a cold and don't have the kids, I can afford the indulgence of staying up late on the computer. Now all I need to decide is what to blog. I have the idea that it would be really useful to blog about the garden - so I can retrace my steps next year and work out what worked and what didn't this year...and besides somebody might even read it and I always like talking to fellow gardeners.

On the other hand, there's my ongoing travails with coming to terms with my ex and the issue of pd. Perhaps it's better to stick with sowing dates. So much less complicated.

On that basis, I can now tell you that my tomatos have survived thus far, although those outside may have the beginnings of blight, despite me spraying them with bordeaux mixture. However, I am putting Plan B into operation and stripping the affected leaves off. We shall see.

To my delight, I realise that I not only have chillis on my chilli plant, but also peppers - I didn't even realise that I had a pepper plant. Good old Alistair down the farmer's market. He pretty much insisted on giving me those plants - plus some onion sets that I wasn't at all sure I wanted. And now I have my first onions..and chillis...and peppers. Really exciting.

The broad beans have gone over, but not without leaving a legacy of chocolate spotted pods that I'm wondering about seed saving. I've always been a haphazard seed saver - mainly squashes - but I'm trying to get my act together on that front, like so many.

I've got a great book - the four season harvest - that would inspire me to aspire to implementing an extending growing season were it not for the fact that apparently we're too far North at the 50th parallel and beyond to get enough light in the winter - greens become high in nitrates, which Aren't Good For You. That said, the concept about extending the harvest, rather than the growing season per se, is a good one. I wonder about kohl rabi and how that might do left in the ground. Or even in a root cellar of some kind.

Jobs for the week
As soon as I shake off this cold, I need to sow Kohl rabi, and maybe more chard, plant those onion sets that I impulsively bought and the leek plants that are languishing. Tidy up generally as well, would be a good idea - and make some comfrey liquid to feed the toms etc. Plant the pineapple guava.

Not to mention all the flowers. I really want to rearrange my English Roses in the front garden. I've got some really dark ones that I'm no longer at all sure about. I'm switching to strong and pale pink. God knows what I should do with the dark ones (Falstaff and the Dark Lady) - perhaps plant in my raised bed at a sniffable height? But then I'd have to move the oriental poppies...

But first of all, I must go to bed, then I might make it vertical tommorrow...