I've missed Christmas. Again.
This time last year I'd been gardening "seriously" for about 18 months. I say serious, it wasn't. The first three months were dotted with naive planting frenzies. Every episode was always followed by impatient foot tapping and wondering why my garden hadn't yet turned into the oasis I longed for.
After that I realised that I would actually have to do a little gardening if I was going to have a garden. This realisation paved the way for a something resembling an earnest attempt. If any time could be called serious, this was it. Cautious to the point of being prudish. Matching pots, matching colours, sweet contained little bedding plants, blah blah bleurgh.
Anyway, after some gentle mockery from my mother I gave up trying to make things neat and tidy - it didn't really suit me in any case. With my newfound freedom came new found creativity. I was planting hebes in bathtubs, basil in buckets. Anything and everything goes.
It seemed to work. My little roof terrace had been transformed into a veritable vegetable patch that allowed me to be semi self-sufficient. Then one day, while at at work it hit me, what better gift could there be? I would disregard my family's wish lists and grow all the veg for Christmas day. Wonderful, wholesome, organic, home grown veg. Yes Mum, I know it's mid November but never mind, that doesn't matter.
It did matter, of course it mattered. It was mid-November.
By March the following year my sprouts were still growing upwards like magic beanstalks with little sign of fruiting any time soon. They did however have the most beautiful waif like yellow flowers… silver lining and all that. The cauliflowers yielded one solitary head - it was the size of a peach and entirely inedible. The spinach did ok, but there's only so much spinach one can eat.
So this year I thought I'd be really prepared for it. Empty out old pots, prepare the soil, work out exactly when I'd need to get things in the ground to make sure they'd be at their prime for Christmas.
To my dismay, it turns out I'm too late for my sprouts. Mid-spring they should have gone in. Who'dve guessed it?
The spuds did well earlier this year but are long since eaten. So spinach and cauliflower it is again then. Yum.
What vegetables are you looking forward to growing and eating this winter?
