Always help on hand

Half term gave me time to spend in the fresh air without a whistle in my hand or too many teenagers in tow. It was a time for solitude and seed selection.

My lovely in-laws gave me a subscription to Gardeners World magazine for Christmas and I have gleefully leafed through the glossy pages of garden porn throughout January. Amongst the lush photos of blooming shrubs and crisp bulbs I was drawn to the recommendations for vegetable seeds which come from all the high profile gardeners who set the standards in our horticultural wish lists.  Like a fawning schoolboy I was chuffed to see a large number of my “favourite” veg being recommended by the great and the good.  So I spent a happy few days browsing the internet switching to select my perfect line up of reliable heavy croppers for the spring planting.

Out in the garden I have been clearing the Silver Wedding and the Boomerang beds looking to make space for some new perennials which I hope to establish for flowers both in the garden and for cutting.  So I’ve taken up the blowsy gladioli bulbs from the boomerang as well as moving the penstemons from the Silver Wedding.  It all looks bare and tidy – ready for planting.  Another flurry of internet activity has resulted in more boxes and envelopes with seeds and bare roots plopping through the letter box at regular intervals and I have hastily stuffed some of the bare root plants into pots in the greenhouse (after I had mended a pane of glass that had blown out of the roof).   So they are sitting comfortably waiting for the first warm days of spring, which I am sure are just around the corner.