Preparing the ground

It's amazing what a bit of sunshine can do to lift the spirits and give you a bit of enthusiasm to get out in the garden.  We have had weeks of rain  here in Lancashire, the days have been so dark and dreary, but this weekend we had sunshine and I couldn't wait to get outside and do a few jobs in the garden.   It was quite cold and frosty so there was some doubt as to whether we would be able to do any digging.

My daughter and I went  to the garden centre first and bought our seed potatoes. We bought Foremost,  Maris Peer and Arran Pilot. These will be grown in tubs, potato growing bags and old compost bags as we don't have enough space to grow them in the ground. We  find this a good way to grow them. I've got plenty of egg boxes in the shed ready for when we start chitting the potatoes and we'll start on that soon. When we've harvested them all the old compost goes on the beds, so nothing is wasted.

At the allotment we picked some brussels sprouts and pulled up the rest of the beetroot and parsnips. There was a pile of manure left for the allotment holders to help themselves to so my husband  filled several bags of it. My daughter and I dug over the cleared areas of the  raised beds and manured. At the end of the summer I had dug over the areas where the vegetables had finished and covered them with membrane.  So despite the frost this weekend I found that when we took the membrane off that it was quite easy to dig over. The soil is now exposed so that the frost can do its work on breaking up the soil and killing off any bugs.

 I'm feeling quite pleased with the work that we have done this weekend.  It  looks well prepared and tidy now ready for the spring when all the work will commence.  Now we need to think about what we are going to grow this year and start buying seeds.