The last entry in my blog each year has been usually one of very few posts - I am delighted to say that this year has been the exception. It is the year that I got into blogging and although I have not yet matched the prodigious output of some fellow bloggers, I am more than happy. This state of affairs is mainly due to the encouragement of fellow bloggers including all the lovely folk on Blotanical. Thanks for all your comments, suggestions, enthusiasm and great sense of humour in 2009 - it means a lot to me. I am looking forward to seeing my blog grow during the next year. I am pleased to have the chance to be involved in a new project come January at the kind invitation of Teza over at Teza's Garden. This will come online on a few days and I am sure it's going to be fun. It was also a pleasure to meet up in real life with fellow bloggers - The Patient Gardener and Veg Plotting. Hopefully we will see each other again before long and I hope to meet other bloggers in 2010.
As for the weather what can I say ? 2009 has been weird, wonderful and wet! Sadly it has bought its share of misfortune and grief in the north west of England when the inhabitants of Cumbria suffered dreadful flooding. That's only my tiny corner of the planet and as usual throughout the world the elements have reminded us of their tremendous power.
The allotment fared well. I would like to say flourished but I would be exaggerating. It benefited from having so much more of my time lavished on it, as 2009 was the first full year of me not working. I grew the usual suspects but also strangely enough some vegetables I have not grown before. Nothing exotic - carrots and peas but they were delicious. I am not sure why I have not grown them before but will be certainly be doing so this coming year. In fact next year's early peas have already germinated in the greenhouse and are fleeced in anticipation of frost tonight. I still have not got my head round the art of successional planting but hope to get nearer this year. Himself is working tomorrow so I will be spreading myself out on the carpet - seed boxes, reference books plus pen and paper in hand. Bliss.
As for the garden there is much to do. Sadly looking back on the last decade the garden has suffered - it is extremely overgrown and neglected in places. Now that work is no longer consuming my time and energy 2010 is time to tackle some of the big tasks that I have been putting off. It is going to involve the removal of one or two mature but unhealthy shrubs, reclaiming paths and a whole border which has more or less been swallowed up by some pernicious ivy. I have also got a nasty patch of vinca to sort out - I will save this for when I am in a bad mood.
New plants wishlist for 2010. Well I am going to try to be restrained (where have I heard that before ?) and wait until I can see the wood from the trees. Having said that there are one or two hardy geraniums on the list to add to the ones I already grow. You can see one of my favourites in the garden in this post. I am also sure that I will be tempted by some of the beauties that I have recently drooled over at Gardening With Grace and Mr.McGregor's Daughter. In fact I may just have to stop visiting all you bloggers who tempt me by featuring such desirable plants on your blogs.
Well 2010 is almost done and I'm off to Liverpool later to round up the year with a Chinese meal in the company of himself. Wishing you all a happy, healthy and peaceful new year. May all your plants prosper in the new decade. See you on the other side.
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