Yesterday we bought our seed potatoes and onion sets. This is an annual ritual which for me represents the start of the gardening year.

We usually get 3 varieties of potato, 1st early, early and main crop, but our choice was a bit limited this year, despite my telephone call earlier in the day to the shop, who assured me they had plenty of stock. We got Pentland Javelin, Arran Pilot and Desiree, 3 x 3kg bags at £3.00 each. Good old Wilkinson’s their prices have barely increased on last year, just 20p more over the three bags.

We got our normal consignment of onion sets, 2 bags of red shallots and 2 bags of white onions. These have increased in price since last year by 25p per bag. I would have liked some red onions too but they were twice the price of the white ones.

It’s over a week now since I posted my order to Suttons Seeds and I haven’t received an acknowledgement. I don’t even know if they are supposed to send one, but as the plants won’t be delivered until April, I’d really feel happier if they did. I know they must be busy at this time of year, but I still get impatient. I’ll have to check my credit card bill next month. That should give me a clue.

Well it’s snowing again today. Nothing major, just steady wet stuff. I think we’ve been lucky (or un-lucky depending on your perspective) the rest of the country has been hit pretty hard. They’re saying it’s not the amount of snow that’s unusual, but the fact that most of the country has been affected, rather than localised areas which is more usual.

Either way it’s giving the media something to moan about, and it certainly makes a change to hearing about the credit crunch.