Finally getting started

I'm a big fan of the Kitchen Garden magazine and I have a subscription to it but it does annoy me that it is always a month ahead of itself. The March edition arrived right at the beginning of February and just as fresh snow was falling. I tried reading it but when it was busy telling me that it was time to get sowing as the soil was warming up, my soil was covered in 4 inches of snow. The "big freeze" lasted for 2 weeks and for the whole of that time I couldn't bring myself to pick up the magazine.

But, good news, the freeze is over (for the time being anyway!) and I have now got myself stuck into the Kitchen Garden magazine. And I now feel more in the mood to get things under way. At the weekend I got all my seeds out and sorted them out, putting the old seeds left over from last year together with the new seeds I bought for this year and various ones that I'd been given. It really got me in the mood for getting out on the plot. But I'm not that hasty - there were still patches of snow in places and where it had thawed there were puddles of standing water. It'll be a while yet before anything will successfully grow out there.

Still, when the bug bits you have to do something. It's the perfect time of year to sow some leek seeds inside so that was my starting point. I also sowed a few mixed salad leaves in a small tray on the window sill so we can have a few fresh leaves in a couple of weeks. I'm also giving peanuts another go this year. I tried them for the first time last year and they did really well until they got mealy bug and then the wash out of a summer finally saw them off. It was a learning experience. Of course, every day I peer at my freshly sown seeds looking for signs of germination!

Then today the seed potatoes arrived in the post so it's time to get them chitting. Yes, slowly, very slowly, things are beginning again.