Outside a hanging gale blows; the cold bites, winter is on its way. And all I can dwell upon is aubergines. That’s eggplants by the way.

How soon after Christmas could I sow seeds, where shall I put the seeds to germinate, and will they be okay in the poly? All questions that have me thinking. The poly is of course a huge toy to play with next year. As well as aubergines, there also chillies and bell peppers to think about. Thing is I won’t have any warm window sills to use. This year chillies were sown in January, and then again later as the first batch keeled over with poor light. Mother advises me not to sow so many. A scary prospect when there are so many in the seedstasher; and there is never any guarantee that each and every chilli or sweet pepper seed will actually germinate. I actually want to find some Naga seeds, incidentally, to experiment. Might sow a variety of seeds but just not many. That is going to be difficult.

Melon.

I would rather like to grow one in there. I managed to grow a butternut; so I am somewhat encouraged to try a melon.

Squashes too. More winter ones. On the hunt for a Turks turban. Purely because of beautifully ugly they are.