Given that I have extra space in the garden this year, and some vouchers to spend, Pete took me to Homebase on Friday to have a look around. Outside in the garden centre I spotted a pair of Elaeagnus x ebbingei, a shrub that is very popular in forest gardens because of its edible fruit (one of those things you just can’t buy!) and its ability to fix nitrogen. They had two, so I bought two. They came in natty purple pots, indicative of a special offer – shrubs in purple pots were £7.99 each, or £18 for three, so if you’re looking for shrubs it may be worth going to see what your local branch has in stock.

I also bought a pack of garlic that had been reduced to £2 because the contents should have been planted by the end of December. Since I started gardening I have been replanting my own cloves, of Thermidrome, but they have been badly hit by rust in the last couple of years and back in the autumn I thought I should replace them. Then I looked at the garden plan and decided not to plant garlic this season. Now, with the extra space, I have changed my mind again. For my £2 I got a big bulb of Iberian Wight garlic and one of Purple Wight garlic, plus a gigantic elephant garlic clove.

Pizzo

Finally I bought a new packet of Mustard ‘Pizzo’. I tried it last year and it makes a lovely baby salad leaf. The one shown above is the current crop in the Grow Dome, grown from an autumn sowing that emptied the packet. My ‘new’ packet is one from last season, reduced to £1, but the germination was good in the autumn so it should be fine.

Over the weekend Pete and I have spent 2.5 hours outside, despite the freezing weather. We have dismantled the chicken run and moved the metal posts to the other side of the garden where they can support the same chicken wire mesh and climbing plants.

We uprooted the two doomed fruit trees (the cherry and the plum), and I winter pruned the remaining apple and pear. Then I cleared the leafy perennials that I was going to grow for the chickens out of the wooden raised bed and planted the garlic in there instead. A late planting may not give the largest harvest, but given the wonky weather it might!

There’s a lot left to do, and the Elaeagnus will have to stay in their pots for now until we have finished laying out the new beds and decided on the planting plan.