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Thanks Helen! I hope you and the family had a wonderful Christmas too, and best wishes for 2025!

Thanks! They're both marigolds, with slightly different coloured flowers, with tomato plants behind them.

Many thanks Ali! Have a wonderful Christmas and a fantastic 2025! Best wishes, David

Many thanks!

Thanks Helen! I hope so too! Even with our free-draining, sandy soil, we lost several during the recent winter that dipped to -10C. But they were new that year and hadn't grown well, so their tubers were pathetic. All our established dahlais seem more robust, but you can never be 100% certain with will survive. The gamble of gardening! 😃

Cheers Michael! 🙂

I made the mistake initially of buying cheap membrane, which started breaking down after a couple of years. I didn't remove it. I simply put another layer of membrane over the top. It was only last year that I spent a bit more money and got the thickest horticultural membrane I could find, which I've put down the central path. So far that's lasting well. I'd hope to get 5+ years out of it.

Thanks Ali! 🙂 Both the blueberries and strawberries have been a bit temperamental for us through the years but I'm hoping they're over the worst. Enjoy your week too and happy gardening! All the best, David

Many thanks Peter! It's certainly a lot of fun to do. Good luck with your plot and have a great 2025 season!

Long may that continue! 🙂 Although the dahlias, cosmos and marigolds are looking quite tired now. I'll be glad to get them chopped up and in the compost!

Cheers Michael! 🙂👍

Thanks Terry! I certainly find that seeing flowers on the plot lifts my spirits, especially in a year when veg has struggled to do well. All the best, David

@@SoilToilAllotment 👍❤️🍁🍂❤️👍

Many thanks!

The squirrels are a pest. I'm hoping the netting I put over the planters and troughs will be enough to keep them off. Don't you find that the problem with planting more bulbs at this time of year is remembering where your existing ones are? I'm forever forgetting, and digging some up as I try to plant more. My plan for next spring is to mark gaps in the ground where I want bulbs, then when the new tulips and daffs are finished in the toughs, I'll transplant them to the spaces for spring 2026. I say that now.....but I'll probably forget! 😃 All the best, David

@@SoilToilAllotment 🤣🤣 that made me laugh because I do that but as I use a bulb planter sometimes I also split old bulbs in half 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ I try to use a specific small area of a bed on the edge so I can ha ha remember better and then in summer I plant perennial or something in the same area. Happy gardening David

😄 Do you have nerines? I was thinking next year I might spot the spaces between the spring bulbs and shrubs and pop in some nerines. They can put on a lovely display in the autumn when I could do with a bit more colour.

@@SoilToilAllotment I have tried to find pink ones here because Jessie at 37 😉 grows them and they are stunning but so far I have only found a plain white one. But I will keep looking 👍

Yes, Jessie's look fantastic. We have a taller version of the pink one at home but the shorter variety Jessie has would be ideal for the plot where it's more exposed to the wind. I hope you manage to find a pink example! All the best, David

Cheers! 🙂👍

It sure is! It's going to look weird when I remove it and replace it with the cutting, which is less than 12" high.

@@SoilToilAllotment but you'll have lots of lovely rosemary to harvest for the kitchen!

True! We'll need to wait a while to be able to harvest from the seedling. It will have to be taller than a fox before we do. It's on a corner, and you can be certain that the foxes scent mark it. Can't say I fancy pee on my rosemary! 😁

Thanks Ali! It's been a challenging year. It's interesting how similar our growing season has been given the distance between us. For most years it's a good policy to grow a wide variety of things because there's always going to be some failures. Mother Nature never favours everything. But we've already started planning next year with our usually optimism. It's going to be the best year yet! 😁 All the best, David

Many thanks!🙂

Thanks! Yes, those courgettes are out. We'll be growing the 'Defender' variety next year, which sat beside a courgette with the mosaic virus last year but didn't succumb. Sometimes it's best to stick to a reliable variety rather than experiment, even if experimenting is part of the fun of growing. 🙂

Thanks Helen! It's definitely a year to forget. We got our first sweetcorn cobs today, which was a bonus, but so much stuff has failed or been sub-par. Roll on 2025!

Thanks Ali! Hope you're enjoying the weekend too, and have a lovely week ahead! David

Many thanks! It certainly has been a difficult year, but next year will be brilliant! I can feel it in my bones! {forever the optimistic gardener 🙂}

Thanks Helen! 🙂

Thanks Ali! I debate the word 'change' in the term 'Climate Change'. To me is should be 'Climate Flux' or 'Climate Random' or 'Climate Has-no-idea-what-it's-doing'! 😄 Fingers crossed your slugs behave themselves! Hopefully your plants as well enough established now that they can fend them off. All the best, David

Thanks! Sadly not as busy as we should be. The growing season is so poor it's very off-putting going to the plot and seeing how badly the crops are doing. Thankfully the flowers cheer the place up. 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!

Thanks Ali! You too! 🙂

It's always a pleasure, even if it gets a bit too hot!

Thanks Nick! I share your same hope for better weather. Maybe when Wimbledon starts, it might actually bring some sunshine for once! 😁

@@SoilToilAllotment I wish I had a roof for the allotment 🤣👌👍🙏❤️

We're hoping the birds leave us some! 🙂

Thanks Ali! Gosh, 4c is very low. We might drop to 9c, which isn't great for outdoor tomatoes but they ought to pull through. I hope you haven't got the UK's slug and snail problem to go with your cold spell! They've been quite rampant this year, even eating things they wouldn't normally be fond of (like tomatoes). All the best, David

@@SoilToilAllotment sadly too late for 90% of my outdoor tomatoes the slugs were rampant last week luckily I have loads of spare ones 👍👍

@@myrustygarden This is what we learn as gardeners - have lots of spares. 🙂 If it's not the pests then sometimes the seed fails to germinate. I hope things improve for you and you end up having a good growing year. Mother Nature is a fickle pickle these days but I feel like she owes us a good one, perhaps 2024 being the year!

🙂🍑🍑🍑🍑🍑🍑🙂

Thanks Ali! I'm doing a little rain dance for you in my mind. Here in the UK we've had a tendency in recent years to have a drought period in the spring, and it wont surprise me if it happens again this year too. It can catch me out for things like watering the potato pots when hardly any foliage is showing yet. Mother Nature keeps us on our toes! All the best, David

You're welcome! Thanks for dropping by! 🙂

Thanks JB! Those darn cover crops! This time last year they had the excuse of not surviving a bitterly cold winter, but not this time! Hopefully the germination in the meadow wont be as bad. As for the peach, I think it's had the perfect storm of a milder winter combined with better pruning last year. Unfortunately all the fruit that's set is above the top of the pallets, so they'll probably get blown off during our frequent storms, if a late frost doesn't get them first! I'll protect them with individual Organza bags if they reach a reasonable size, just so the birds don't get them. All the best, David

@@SoilToilAllotment good luck with them!

I hope your garden survives! It turns out I was doing the video this morning in 3C, so perhaps we're not as clear of the frost as I'd though!

Thanks Helen! 🙂

Thanks Ali! Sorry to hear about your elephant garlic but I'm glad your normal garlic is doing well. Hopefully the rain will ease up soon! All the best, David

Thanks for the comment Helen! I've added in more things since the video - a new rose, four varieties of hemerocallis, ajuga and more heucheras. It's getting a bit crowded! 😁 All the best, David

Cheers Michael! 🙂

Many thanks! Once you've redefined a 'weed' as an 'essential living root in the ground to help with soil biology', life gets soooo much easier! 😁

Thanks Ali! Hopefully your freezing weather wont last much longer. There's definitely a sense of spring in the air. I have a feeling it's going to be an excellent growing season this year. All the very best, David

Many thanks! 🙂

Many thanks! Have a wonderful growing season! All the best, David

I hope you never catch it! Unfortunately, without free vaccinations for the under 65s and non-vulnerable, people like us are becoming more vulnerable. And there’s a much more care-free attitude going about, which is wrong because COVID has been far worse than the last flu I had at the Millennium. I caught COVID off someone in their early 70s who had been out at a Hogmanay party. He’d had the COVID vaccine. It was only when I turned up to see him that he said “Oh, I’ve got a bit of a cold”. Unbeknown to him this was COVID, but because he’d had the jab it was only presenting as a cold for him. Personally I feel people who are still getting the COVID vaccination need to become more consider and avoid the non-vaccinated if they feel slightly under the weather (or at least give them the choice not to see them!). Stay well and all the best! David

Thanks Ali! It's just the lingering cough that I could do without. Glad to hear you're on top of things with the seeds and plans. Hopefully nothing will get washed away and you'll have a drier spell soon. Have a great growing season! All the best, David

Thanks Angela! We're connected! Sorry for the delay in replying. I've been struck down by a New Year virus. Thankfully there's no urgent things to do at the allotment! All the best, David

I'm sure they forget about a lot of the acorns they bury, hence seeing all those new sapling oak trees in the spring. We certainly don't want an oak growing in the compost bin! 😁