Missing: Winter Weather

I've got bored of waiting for Winter to arrive.   Wet is most certainly has been - the floods have been devastating for many in Somerset and along the Thames - but cold, no.

Of course we may well have a cold snap ahead, and frosts and maybe even snow; but the nights are lighter, the birds are singing the snowdrops have been fabulous and the crocus' and daffodills are now bursting out all over.  I even heard a woodpecker in one of our local parks the other day.

What does that mean for the plot?  It means that until it dries out a bit, there's not much happening, bar digging up parsnips, leek and celariac to use in the kitchen.

But it is the first week of March, and I've had enough of looking at chitting potatoes, so last week I spent a merry evening with all the seed packets out to see what I can get underway.  I rescued last year's compost from the mini greenhouse and some pots and trays from the garage, and off we go.

I've chosen six varieties of tomatoes to grow in buckets again at home in the courtyard garden, sown a trough of miscellaneous salad leaves to cut and come again and some sweet peas, saved from last year.

I've also finally podded out all the broad beans from their dry and blackened pods.  Broad beans don't come true year on year, which is a shame as the crimson flowered variety is the absolute best in the world in appearance and taste.

I can't stop them cross pollinating, but I can take a good guess which out of all these saved beans are likely to be the most similar to the crimson flowered/green beaned parents.

The season starts here.