At last, a nice day and I can actually do some proper gardening. I haven’t been able to do that since way before Xmas.

January is a funny time of year really, too early to do some things, too cold and wet to do others, so I decided the best thing was to do some digging. Apart from anything else I need the exercise after all these weeks of inactivity.

Last year the vegetable crops were disappointing so at the beginning of October we had 50 bags of horse manure delivered. I spread it over the vegetable beds and left it for the worms and weather to do their work.

3 months later I think they need some help, so I began to dig the beds to give nature a helping hand. The birds had also made a mess of the surrounding grass, flinging lumps of manure around in their search for food, this was a chance to tidy up their mess, and I must say things looked better when I’d finished . I managed to do 4 of the beds in about an hour, and then decided to call it a day.

The late, great Geoff Hamilton always used to say that it’s no good over doing it on your first day, hurting your back and then being out of action for several weeks. Wise words Geoff.