After the domestic confinement that is Christmas, it's suprising how much brighter January feels than dull old December.

I reckon the new gardening year probably starts in October, and by any reckoning on 21 December...but there's no resisting the feeling that the completely arbitrary 1 January is a new start. And it is the first opportunity in wet, windy North Yorkshire to sensibly contemplate the glorious prospect of eventually planting things out. So, having puzzled over a leaking window seal and generally dusted the place down. I was ready to begin sowing in the greenhouse.

Space in the propagator is so limited. Therefore everything has to run in a particular order according to the preferences of the seedling plants after germination. Sweet peas need a cold , but not freezing, toddlerdom so they're first in...namely: Bijou Mixed, Cream Southbourne, T&M Prize Strain, Apricot Sprite, Fragrantissima, Mollie Rilestone And Pansy Lavender Flush. There's a real mix here - old and new, tall and short...they'll end up in amongst the climbing french beans or around the garden - even in the window boxes for the shortest ones. In an effort to shorten they're stay in the propagator I chipped a few of the seeds.

The remaining space was given over to a new onion (to me): Lunga di Firenze. Which should end up as a bigger, fatter spring onion. I'm aiming to find some allium which will be ready for harvest after the leeks are used up and before the overwintering onions are ready in June. So this is a kind of onion audition.

I also managed to squeeze in four strawberry Mignonette plants and a couple of chervils - both great for pots here and there in shady places. Fortunately all these sowings should co-exist happily at a gentle heat. Next up the Solanums (Solanae?) Aubergines and Chilli peppers...

Elsewhere in the greenhouse - the seeds which aren't fussed: broad bean Supersimonia and hardy brassicas: kohl rabi Olivia and vitamin greens, which are green and, no doubt, full of vitamins...I also tried planting some spring planting garlic, Solent Wight, into 3" pots. I don't think the pots are deep enough though to give the plants a useful headstart so I'll probably sow the rest direct.

I used some deep wooden boxes to sow a mixture of hardy salad - coriander, mustard, lambs lettuce (three sorts) and rocket Skyrocket - in the hopes that I can at least get some useful leaf salad in March. Looking around though, it was clear that I wasn't going to grow much at all if the greenhouse glass didn't get a wash. A horrible job on a cold(ish) windy day and it was alarming to
see that the inside of the windows were even less clean than the outside..! I did get the benefit of seeing geese overhead, getting into formation in the clear blue January sky, heading first west then veering off to the north.

Elsewhere in the garden, I planted two quince trees (Vranja and Meeches Prolific) in containers next to front door.