I haven’t posted of a couple of years. I don’t know where the time went, but here we are. I thought I’d fire this record of my garden up again.

It’s all looking rather a mess at the moment. Health problems (not me) have robbed us of quite a lot of time when I would have been quietening down the vegetable garden for the winter. As it was I weeded a bit, ‘though not enough, and slapped down some cardboard when it all looked too much. On top of that I’ve added ash and chicken house litter.

Until yesterday we had little or no rain since last spring. Everywhere is in a dire state of drought. Nevertheless I sowed brassicas last summer and now they’re providing us with purple broccoli, cauliflowers and cabbages. I also slammed in some carrot and beetroot seeds. The carrots have been wonderful and I continue to harvest them.

Yesterday, aside from the rain we had a good fall of snow, which has all but left us now, but looked pretty for a while. The hens refused to come out, preferring to stay in the warm in their Eglu.

Five days ago I collected a trailer load of horse manure from my pal Gilles in the hamlet. I then loaded half of it into the hotbed in the greenhouse. Within 36 hours the temperature was up to 70℃ and it’s still the same four days later. So today I started sowing seeds for the summer. They will germinate quite happily on the hotbed. Then, in a few months the manure will have turned to compost which I can use on the garden.

So far I’ve sown two types of aubergine a couple of varieties of sweet peppers, a tray of mixed salad and some agretti. My fridge in the greenhouse is choc-a bloc with seeds. I won’t need to buy any for ages.

Meanwhile some bees are tucked up in the small bee hotels on the side of the shed.