doin' it

It's now the time of year to just get on and do it - meaning the vegetable garden. It's always a bit daunting. Sowing the seeds is great; I love filling up the greenhouses with trays upon trays (HOW many tomatoes??) . Inevitably, though, the time for digging the beds looms. The permaculture folk say don't bother to weed, but after a year of neglect I reckon something has to be done. Last year's waterlogging courtesy, as it turned out, of next door's leaking water pipe and the ensuing pipe laying and trampling has meant our heavy clay soil has taken a beating. We did grow some beans, but not much else. Even the tomatoes didn't play ball. This year, armed with The Self Sufficientish Bible and DK's Organic Gardening book, I am determined to do better. It's only fair I do most of the work as I'm here most of the time and work is intermittent. I work in the garden with the radio on, unless it's "Quote, Unquote" or "Just A Minute" both of which I hate with a passion. This year I will be spurred on by re-reading "Hovel in the Hills", an account of a couple setting up in Wales, and John Seymour's "The Fat of the Land". Seymour's "five acres and a cow" self-sufficiency manuals are famous; this book, however, is about Seymour and his wife Sally and their smallholding in Suffolk. It was published in 1961, not long after they settle at "The Broom" for a rent of £25 a year, plus rates. I got this copy from the library, where it has been languishing on the county store shelves, taking a rest from the pounding it has had over the years. I like to think of it being read by generations of gardeners and allotment holders, taking a break in the shed with a mug of tea. Some people like their books to be pristine, not me.

Right, boots on.