With the misplaced jet stream, this year has been somewhat of a torrid affair. Nothing, has quite come off. It is all well and good making plans. Above, you can see the paper and ink plan of what went where. The wendy house, as you’ve already gathered is a shadow if it’s former self. It is an ex-wendy house, it has more or less ceased to exist. In the most simplest sense, the plan does say what went where. I think I drew this about eight weeks ago, I was still feeling buoyed that the there was possibility of the over wintering garlic, onion and shallots coming off.

Now, I do hope that you have enjoyed the festivities. There is always a great deal of anticipation, a chance to rest, reflect, harvest your Christmas dinner.

Alas, the third and final point didn’t quite come off. A lofty ambition, but unrealised. If ever that was realised, one might have to make a song and dance about it.

The run up the Christmas Festivities, has been damp, deluge after deluge, diabolical if such a strong word could be used as adjective for the weather. Already demoralised, this has not helped. I am yet to go wander down to the plot. I may well need super strength wellingtons. Though the ones that I have, will have to suffice. In the next few days, that will certainly be an endeavour. There is most definitely some plot withdrawal symptoms setting in. One must remain positive. All the tellers of the world, suggest that the misplace jet stream was in fact a freak, anomalous occurrence. No solace, in being a first year allotmenteer, but the key there is anomalous. It happens, from time to time.

In addition, there a eight raspberry canes and a blackberry to be sunk. The latter is driving Mama H potty in having resided on her kitchen sill for far longer than she would like. I must remember to ask her to make paper pots. One has acquired the wooden contraption to manufacture them. The purpose of such an exercise?

To sow seeds, and propagate on the window sills of the classroom next to the cacti. The cacti, that you see below, would be their neighbours.

You will have seen how Pops and I have managed to get some horse poop. This won’t fill all the beds, oh, how I was hoping! No, it won’t. It is a start. I will have get some more at a later point. There is off course the builders bags of leave mold. I am rather proud of that! That is the value of taking advice, of learning, Things start to fall into place, and generally for a reason. So those bags can be used to some extent, to fill the raised beds.

Above, are the classroom cacti. Most of which, are rescued from a garden centre. Each one was named by my students, some of the names are from textbooks, some are named after students! They add a bit of colour to the classroom, beyond the green, the flowers are what we all eagerly anticipate. Quite a collection, has been amassed. I can honestly say, that I am not really a fan of the spiky ones. The ones you see here, with the Santa hats. Not sure how long they will reside in the classroom. The removal of the hat, requires the stick that runs straight through the cactus to be  pulled out. So that, and the propensity of the cactus to bit you, my well be the death knell. Only time will tell.

Think I will avoided more cacti in the classroom. As mentioned above, I would like to sow some chillies, tomatoes, peppers perhaps on the window sills. That means rummaging in the seed stasher!

Yours in anticipation,

Horticultural Hobbit