Up to 23 deg. in the greenhouse today. One Walnut tree planted. Two grape vines and three blueberries potted up. Dwarf French beans ('Speedy') sowed into 3' pots. Nine more assorted capsicums into the propagator.

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If the slugs hadn't eaten half my peas already, I'd be delighted.

The end of February seems like the end of a prologue. The real story gets started next month, but by then it's difficult to change the outcome.

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I've been focussing heavily on planting fruit this winter and most of the trees are in. I'm struggling with soil preparation for a couple of walnut trees at present. All I have to do is clear an area of 25 square feet for each tree - but when the appointed places are infested with brambles and bindweed it becomes a nightmare. One can go in tomorrow, though, and in a root control bag too... I'm hoping this will force a crop before I'm eighty and maybe keep any remnants of bindweed out of the root system. Last week I planted eighteen raspberry canes with all the attendant posts.

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Elsewhere in the allotments I've planted about 100 shallots. In my continuing quest to abolish maincrop onions shallots are good allies. They taste great, store better and, unlike those redundant onion sets, they divide. The other plus is that you can get busy with them in February, filling beds and time when there isn't so much else to do. I also planted a couple of rows of peas (Meteor) which had been started off in loo rolls. I've never had much joy with early peas but this variety looks strong...

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Most of that long list of seeds to sow in February are now sown. I even managed to remember to get the Alexanders and bulbous Chervil seeds out of the fridge and sow them too. Despite their negligible culinary attributes I'll be overjoyed if I can get either of these to harvest.

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I planted a few first early potatoes into plastic sacks this morning to see if I can get an earlier plateful this year. As the kale goes to flower any harvest before May is worth a shot. At present, apart from the kale, I have a few winter lettuces, lots of bunching onions, chard, american cress, wild rocket, mibuna, leaf celery, chicory, endive, jerusalem artichokes, Brussel sprouts, rosemary, French tarragon, bay, winter savory, garlic out of store...and that's it. My perennial brocolli is in full production but is tough and unappetising, and the real thing is looking mouldy and unpromising after the mild winter.

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Roll on summer.

Freezing cold - at last. My little fan heater could barely keep the temperature in the greenhouse above freezing. Despite these inauspicious conditions sowing, and germination, continues. The first aubergine seedling has appeared in the propagator at last and thanks to the heated mat the beetroot, achillea and marigold seedlings are already through. I sowed some more aubergines yesterday and the perennial pepper Tepin. I could smell how hot the seeds were!

On the allotment things are on hold. My soil won't even let you look at it, let alone walk on it, when it's frosty. But at least the big compacted clods of upturned soil in the newly created potato beds will be broken down a bit. I got my seed potato order on Friday:


Arran Pilot
Ulster Chieftain
Edzell Blue
Romano
Arran Victory
Dunbar Standard
Rooster
Kestrel
Vales Sovereign
Shannon
Roseval
Bonnie

I also have in my possession 1kg each of Bleu d'Auvergne, Red Laure and Moulin Rouge maincrop seed. The latter is a Pink Fir Apple and Desiree cross.

So egg boxes at the ready, it's chitting time. I will renew my search for the requisite cool but frost-free, bright, but no direct sun, location...

February's sowing list (deep breath):

FLOWERS
Achillea Millefolium 'Cassis'
Achillea Summer Pastels
Agastache Anisata
Amsonia Tabarnaemontana
Anemone Japonica Mixed
Busy Lizzy Stardust Mixed F1
Butterfly Mix
Cataranthus
Mediterranean Lilac
Convolvulus Light Blue Flash
Cosmos Daisy Bipannatus Mullticolor
Dipsacus Sylbestris/Teasel
Foxglove Foxy
Geranium Reflections
Geum Quellyon Superb Mixed
Impatiens Accent Mystic Mixed F1
Lavatera Mont Blanc
Linum Narbonense Heavenly Blue
Marigold Mr Majestic
Meconopsis Grandis
Mesembryanthemum Apricot Tutu
Nicotiana Breakthrough Mixed
Nicotiana Fragrant Cloud
Nicotiana Havana Mixed F1
Nicotiana Marshmallow
Nolana Blue Bird
Sweet Pea Firecrest
Tradescantia Andersonia Mixed
Verbena Moon River

HERBS
Basil Bolloso Napoletano
Bergamot Mixed
Hyssop Blue
Lemon Grass
Marjoram Pot
Oregano True Greek
Perilla
Rosemary
Savory Summer
Tansy
Tarragon Russian
Thyme English Broad Leaf
Thyme Orange Scented

SALAD LEAVES
American cress

ASTERACEAE
Artichoke Purple Globe
Artichoke Vert de Laon
Artichoke Violetto Precoce
Chicory Bianca di Milano
Chicory Orchidea Rossa
Lettuce Aruba RZ
Lettuce Barba dei Frati
Lettuce Belize
Lettuce La Brilliante
Lettuce Lizzy
Lettuce Lobjoits Green Cos
Lettuce Maravilla de Verano Canasta
Lettuce Parella Rossa
Lettuce Poulton Market
Lettuce Red Batavian
Lettuce Romana Mortarella Verde d'Inverno
Lettuce Rouge Grenobloise
Lettuce Romana Bionda Delle 7 Lune
Lettuce Ubriacona frastagliata

LEGUMES
Broad Bean Bunyards Exhibition
Broad Bean Express
Broad Bean Grand Violetto
Broad Bean Green Windsor
Broad Bean Jubilee Hysor
Broad Bean Martock
Broad Bean Masterpiece Green Longpod
Broad Bean Red Flowered
Broad Bean Stereo
Broad Bean White Windsor
Broad Bean Witkiem

SOLANUM
Aubergine Calliope F1
Aubergine Gitana
Aubergine Little Finger
Aubergine Tonda Bianca Sfumatadi Rosa
Aubergine Tres Hative de Brabantine
Chilli Pepper Piccante di Cayenna
Pepper Baby Cheesebells
Pepper Buran
Pepper Dulce Italiano
Pepper Giant Szegedi
Pepper Goccia d'Oro
Pepper Lombardo
Pepper Quadrato D'Asti Rosso
Pepper Round of Hungary
Pepper Szentesi
Tomato Cuor di Bue
Tomato Garden Pearl
Tomato Green Zebra
Tomato Marglobe
Tomato Marmande
Tomato Matina
Tomato Mixed Dels
Tomato Money Maker
Tomato Pannovy F1
Tomato Red Alert
Tomato Red Pear
Tomato Roma
Tomato Rosada F1
Tomato Tiny Tim
Tomato Totem
Tomato Tumbling Tom

AMARANTHACEAE
Beetroot Libero RZ

VALERIANACEAE
Lambs Lettuce Verte de Cambrai

BRASSICAS
Brocolli Bordeaux
Brussel Sprout Darkmar 2
Brussel Sprout Oliver
Brussel Sprout Rubine
Brussel Sprout Seven Hills
Brussel Sprout Wellington
Cabbage Hispi
Cabbage Marner Early Red
Cabbage Pyramid
Cauliflower Violet Queen F1
Couve Tronchuda Branca de Mirandela
Couve Tronchuda Portuguesa
Kale Galega de Folhas Lisas
Kale Galega Lisa
Kale Portuguese Penca Pavoa Verde
Kale Red Russian
Kale Russian Red Ursa
Misome
Radish Candela di Ghiaccio
Radish Gaudry 2
Radish Long Scarlet
Radish Rainbow Mixed

ALLIUMS
Leek Einstein F1
Leek Jaune Gros De Poitou
Leek de Mezieres
Leek Sutton's Prizetaker
Onion Lunga di Firenze
Onion Napoleon F1
Onion Red Baron
Bunching Onion Shimonita
Bunching Onion Summer Isle
Onion Cipola
Onion Owa
Salad Onion Ishikuro
Salad Onion White Lisbon
Shallot Cuisse de Poulet du Poitou

UMBELLIFERAE
Chervil
Carrot Early Nantes
Carrot Nantes Frubund (Fast Crop)
Carrot Parmex
Celeriac Bianco del Veneto
Celeriac Monarch
Celery Imperial RZ
Dill
Florence Fennel Finale
Lovage
Parsnip Avonresister
Parsnip Merlin F1

CUCURBITS
Gherkin Beth Alpha
Squash Rugosa Friulana

With the lettuce, broad beans and brussell sprouts I'll attempt a proper variety-based succession, rather than just sow them all asap as in previous years.

I stood back from a bit of weeding this afternoon. Even though it was overcast and windy, I felt pretty grateful that this was my workplace. Then I realised it was the last day of January and only half the allotment beds are ready. I've managed to cut a couple of big beds for the potatoes and to get half of the raspberry bed sorted out. The overwintering onions and the acres of garlic are all going well.

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But that's about it. The trouble with trying to grow enough basics for the family is that my allotment is starting to look like a vegetable farm. Hopefully there'll be enough room in the garden to grow something other than spuds, alliums, sweetcorn and brassicas... Oh, and bindweed.

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Unusually for me and for the end of January, the greenhouse is full of growing things! I set up my new heated mat thing and, to my amazement, it works! Two days later my radishes and lettuces were through! OK, there's no sign of the leeks yet and I may have inadvertently baked the beetroot seeds in their modules ... but otherwise so far so good. All I need now is my new cloches...

..

There's no sign of the aubergines/peppers/chillies in the propagator. But it's ok because one Wisteria and one Yucca have germinated on the kichen windowsill. I don't even know what a wisteria is ... can I eat it? And live??

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Talking about the probably inedible - I noticed the comfrey is starting to wake up and the grass is growing. The pears and quinces are almost in bud. Even my miserable cobnuts have a few catkins on them. Somebody tell Spring: 'I am not ready'.

The sweet peas are up (apart from Mollie Rilestone - which I've re-sown), the salad mixes have germinated in the cold and the onions (Long Florence), Bergamot and Chervil are showing too...

I've fixed my efforts on preparing the potato beds for some 100 plus seed potatoes. I'm cutting new beds, not least because the existing cultivated areas are being taken over by fruit: three new gooseberries (Hinnonmaki, Pax and Invicta) went in this week and the raspberries have arrived.

The aubergines and peppers have been sown and crammed into the propagator - with the heat cranked up accordingly. The forecast looks ominously wintry for the next week so I dusted off the little fan heater to keep the greenhouse frost free when they emerge...

Seeds are expensive. I've read this factoid a number of times regarding vegetable seeds.

But if just one of the 60 plus aubergine seeds I sowed this afternoon goes on to produce one decent plant and produces say 20 organic fruit, I estimate that - based on the equivalent cost of supermarket produce - the cost of the ten or so different packets of aubergine seed I have (recklessly) purchased is recouped at a stroke...

There is no allowance here for the cost of my time (ha!), compost, heat, light etc. but, by any measure, these costs can be factored out again thanks to the environmental savings engendered by home-produced fruit and veg.

Seeds are a steal...as long as you sow them...

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.

This month's sowing list:


FLOWERS

Sweet Pea Bijou Mixed
Sweet Pea Cream Southbourne
Sweet Pea T&M Prize Strain
Tree Ferns House & Garden Mixed
Wistaria Sinensis
Yucca Outdoor Mixed
Sweet Pea Apricot Sprite
Sweet Pea Fragrantissima
Sweet Pea Heirloom Mixed
Sweet Pea Mollie Rilestone
Sweet Pea Pansy Lavender Flush

HERBS

Bergamot Desert Jewel
Burning bush
Self Heal

SALAD LEAVES

Rocket Skyrocket
Salad All Season
Salad Baby Leaf
Salad Herb
Salad Niche Oriental

OTHER

Strawberry Mignonette

LEGUMES

Broad Bean Aquadulce
Broad Bean Supersimonia
Pea Feltham First
Pea Meteor

SOLANUM

Aubergine Black Beauty
Aubergine Fairy Tale
Aubergine Farmers Long
Aubergine Neon F1
Aubergine Ping Tung
Aubergine Red Egg
Chilli Pepper Beaver Dam
Chilli Pepper De Bresse
Chilli Pepper Fish
Chilli Pepper Friar's Hat
Pepper Shishitou
Pepper Tepin
Pepper Topepo Rosso
Pepper Trinidad Seasoning
Tomato Alicante
Tomato Buissonante
Tomato Rose de Berne

VALERIANACEAE

Lambs Lettuce Cavallo
Lambs Lettuce Louviers
Lambs Lettuce Trophy
Lambs Lettuce Verte de Cambrai

BRASSICAS

Mustard White
Senposai Greens No. 1
Kohl Rabi Olivia F1

ALLIUMS
Leek Einstein F1
Onion Ailsa Craig
Onion Giant Zitau
Onion Lunga di Firenze
Onion Napoleon F1
Onion Red Baron

UMBELLIFERAE

Chervil
Alexanders
Carrot Nantes Frubund
Bulbous Chervil

Everything, apart from the onions and nightshades, has been sown...some of them have even germinated.

Set off to pick elderberries, came back with Kale Rubibor and Erbette to make the filling - along with shallots and garlic - for 'sausage' rolls.

The weather has been sunny by day but cold at night (5 degrees), perhaps cold enough to wreck the elderberries. The cultivated crops haven't been dented though, although the greenhouse has seemingly frozen in time, with the reddening of the remaining fruit the only (slow) change...

The first seed order of the New (gardening) Year (is there another one?) arrived today from Nicky's Nursery:

Aubergine:
Neon F1

Farmers Long
Ping Tung

Pepper:
Baby Cheesebells

Trinidad Seasoning

Shishitou
Tepin

Round of Hungary

Choco F1

Antohi Romanian

Lettuce:
Sucrine

Followed by overwintering onion sets from Fothergills:

Radar

Swift

Electric

Bianco

It seems like no time since I was last planting them out - October 2005.

The sun is shining again, but noticeably lower in the sky. The greenhouse is now in gloom until noon - at least until the leaves fall off the apple tree...

Seed sowing continues apace, encouraged by the quick germination of many seeds sown so far. The chicory is growing as fast as the brassicas.

Large sowings of Spinach Riccio d'Asti, Chard Verde da Taglio, Pak Choi Riko F1 and Komatsuna to provide, hopefully, outdoor hardy winter crops. I'm less certain if these will survive: Texel Greens, Choy Sum Tsai Hsin & Mustard Golden Streaks, but nothing ventured...

For the staging in the winter Greenhouse: Clary Sage, Chervil and Poached Egg (Sunny Side Up) plants.

Very mild and still very wet.

The state of the haulms (brown spots, ragged) suggested it was time to cut down the main crop potatoes. I put the cuttings in with some weeds in a huge builder's sack - the idea being to pre-compost more hazardous stuff. Since I had the secateurs in hand I lopped off the unused brocolli stems in an effort to encourage even more growth. It was then back to the asparagus bed for another weeding session in readiness for their big September feed with seaweed meal.

Hasty harvest only today under a cloudy sky.

Dinner was augmented by a mixed salad of lettuce, wild rocket, chop suey greens, land cress and salad onions. Tomatoes still big, red and sweet. The chillies are now turning red rapidly - a spectacular show in the autumnal gloom.

Four large cobs of corn proved very tasty but still a bit tough after 8 minutes boiling - just too late with the harvest again. More successful was the chard relative Erbette, just like chard should be in fact, tasty but yielding in texture. A new staple crop.

A walk down Moorfoot Lane revealed a vast number of sloes and a few rosehips. I'll wait until after the first frost before taking these.

Less rain.

To the 'orchard' to dig up, very belatedly, the Elephant Garlic - not very elephantine in fact but a dozen cloves worth having...

Sowed: Cabbages Hispi and Pyramid (for spring greens); Onion Hi-Keeper (to wean us off sets next year); Mibuna, Chicory Orchidea Rossa and Grumola Rossa, and Chinese Water Pepper (Polygonum Hydropiper). The latter is cultivated in pots standing in water.

More rain.

Laurie valiantly struggled around the muddy soil as I grubbed up the last of the second earlies. Another good boxful. There's almost too much harvest to handle at the moment. The corn on the cob is ready for everyone to eat on Tuesday evening. The brocolli is sprouting away still and more squash are being discovered all the time.

Back in the refuge of the greenhouse I sowed some late Carrots (Nantes Frubund), Italian Giant Parsley, Wild Rocket, Mustard Green in Snow and a final attempt at Dog Rose from seed. (If this fails again I'll give up and take some cuttings instead). I've sown some leaf chicory (Spadona and Zuccherina di Trieste) in boxes on the decking - the idea being to get a few 'cut and come again' helpings before the first frosts...

Twenty-four hours of rain.

I sorted out my seeds: packing away beans, cucurbits and tomatoes for a few months and replacing them with lots of sturdy winter greens. Even in the greenhouse the change in season is apparent. I cut away a lot of the lower leaves on the tomato, pepper and aubergine plants to help the damp air circulate a bit. The greenhouse border remains almost completely healthy, despite closer planting and increasingly tired soil (I resolved to replace this at half term).

With the rain beating down on the glass, I sowed the following lettuces into a large grid of small cells;

Lattughino, Maravilla de Verano Canasta, Romana Mortarella Verde d'Inverno, Rouge Grenobloise, Winter Density, Rouge d'Hiver, Lattughino, Arctic King.

Six of the following into modules;

Chicory Variegata di Castel Franco, Chicory Variegata di Chioggia 'Fladige', Chicory Bianca di Chioggia, Endive Riccia, Endive Ascolana, Chard Lucullus.

All of the above will be planted in the raised beds in the garden, where they can be 'cloched' if necessary. Then, for the winter greenhouse border, a few salad onions (White Lisbon & Winter Bunching) and the following mustards:

Amsoi, Bau-Sin, Big Stem, Peacock Tail, San-Ho Giant.

I also started off some Lovage and Chinese Angelica (Dong Quai). (The roots of the latter are, apparently, a source of vitamin B12 - although I suspect this may be more to do with their cultivation). Laurie joined me at this point and, very efficiently, filled up the 3" pots with compost for the rest of the lavender and the basil.

This month's sowing list:

Carrot Nantes Frubund
Achillea Millefolium 'Cassis'
Achillea Summer Pastels
Achillea Summer Pastels Mixed F2
Burkheya Purpurea
Bergenia Cordifolia Winter Flowering Mixed
Cabbage Hispi
Cabbage Pyramid

Chinese Angelica
Dog Rose
Geranium Pratense Purple Haze
Malva Moschata Snow White
Mustard Green in snow
Onion Hi Keeper F1
Potentilla Fireball Mixed
Wahlenbergia Undulata Melton Blue Bird
Self Heal

Last chance for:

American cress
Burnet Salad
Chard Verde da Taglio

Chard Lucullus
Chicory Bianca di Chioggia
Chicory Orchidea Rossa

Chicory Palla Rossa 'Pagoda'
Chicory Rossa di Treviso 2
Chicory Spadona
Chicory Variegata di Castel Franco
Chicory Variegata di Chioggia 'Fladige'
Chicory Zuccherina di Trieste

Chinese Water Pepper
Choy Sum Tsai Hsin
Clary Sage
Edible Carrot Leaf
Endive Ascolana
Endive Bionda a Foglia di Lattuga
Endive Bubikopf 2
Endive Riccia
Horehound
Indian Mustard Amsoi
Kale Galega de Folhas Lisas
Kale Portuguese Penca Pavoa Verde
Komatsuna
Lettuce Lattughino
Lettuce Maravilla de Verano Canasta
Lettuce Romana Mortarella Verde d'Inverno
Lettuce Rouge Grenobloise
Lettuce Winter Crop
Lettuce Winter Density
Lettuce Rouge d'Hiver
Linum Blue Dress
Lovage

Mibuna

Mustard Golden Streaks
Onion Tonda Musona
Oriental Mix
Pak Choi Riko F1
Pansy Ocean Series
Pansy Pandora's Children F1
Perilla
Poached Egg plant
Radish Big Ben
Rocket Wild
Spinach Giant Winter
Spring Onion White Lisbon

Spring Onion Winter White Bunching
Sweet Woodruff
Texel Greens
Turnip Tokyo Cross F1

Plenty of time yet for:

Alexanders
Artichoke Violetto Precoce
Chicory Bianca di Milano
Chicory Catalgna Frastagliata
Chicory Grumolo Nero
Chicory Grumolo Rossa
Chicory Grumolo Verde
Chicory Red Rib
Chicory Taglio Bionda a Fofglie Larghe
Chinese Cabbage Tatsoi
Endive Romanesca da Taglio
Geranium Pratense Purple Haze
Kale Red Russian
Lambs Lettuce Cavallo
Lambs Lettuce Verte de Cambrai
Lettuce Amorina
Lettuce Arctic King
Lettuce Barba dei Frati
Lettuce May King
Lettuce Parella Rossa
Lettuce Red Wave
Malva Moschata Snow White
Misome
Mustard Bau-Sin
Mustard Big Stem
Mustard Peacock Tail
Mustard San-Ho Giant
Rampion
Scuplit
Spinach Riccio d'Asti
Spring Onion White Lisbon (Winter Hardy)
Bulbous Chervil
Pea Meteor
Chervil
Mustard White
Senposai Greens No. 1
Tree Ferns House & Garden Mixed
Winter Cress
Wistaria Sinensis
Yucca Outdoor Mixed
Broad Bean Masterpiece Green Longpod
Cauliiflower Mexico F1
Parsley Italian Giant
Lettuce Lobjoits Green Cos

A new year. Not that a circle has a start or a finish.

Horrible wet weather, but at least it's mild. Ysabel and I retreated into the greenhouse and potted on Lavender Hidcote, Lemon Grass and some Basils. The latter are very healthy at present but I suspect the blousy Bolloso Napoletano will suffer in the damp late summer, so the small leaved Fino is probably a better bet for Autumn basil. In both cases I reckoned it was best to plant them on top of a mound of compost in their pots to help air circulate.

The allotment is a mess and the 'orchard' a field: but they're both producing more than I deserve. The swedes are swelling and the kales are many and varied. Yesterday there were three types of endive waiting to be shredded into a salad. Which was fortunate because there's a two week hole in my lettuce succession. Lots of greenhouse tomatoes to dice and cover in a simple balsamic vinegar and basil dressing. The Autumn crops in the garden beds are thriving in this weather. It's definitely a plus to have herbs and salad crops near the house as the weather deteriorates.