21st November

Potted on 19 cauliflower plants sown at the end of October. Also planted 20 cells of lettuce and Lamb's lettuce, it will be interesting to see how well they do.

The garlic bought from Marshalls are well through. The first row which is all home grown cloves are only just coming through.

19th December

Brought 6kg of Foremost early potatoes for planting out in the polytunnel as early as possible next year. Have put them out to hopefully start chitting. Potted on 22 lettuce plants sown 19th November into 4" pots, I will have to protect them if there is any risk of frost, but if they continue to grow we should have some leaves by mid February.

26th December

Probably the last act on the gardening front for the year is sowing onion seeds for next year. I have never tried growing onions from seed but this last year we had so many onions from sets going to seed that it must be worth a try. I have sown 40 cells of Ailsa Craig, Bedfordshire Champion, Brunswick and Red Baron. This year I planted 160 sets and have just sown 160 cells so I might sow another tray in the next day or so of 10 of the above varieties. (27/12/04 sown another tray, left to right Red Baron, Ailsa Craig Bedfordshire Champion and Brumswick, tape on the left side).

The potatoes brought on the 19th are chitting very well, they are small in size, so I might plant an extra bed to use them up but I shall not plant them until the new year.

31st December

Last act of gardening for 2004 was to put propagator lids on the onion seed trays. As always the year has had its ups and downs, carrots have been better with an excellent crop out of the polytunnel. The pumpkin although we only had three good ones was interesting but I don't know whether there is room in the garden for them in future.