Gardening in December... or not.

There's not a great deal going on in the garden in December hence no postings for a little while. It has been freezing the past few days, but no actual snow...yet. I did manage to get out and tidy up my strawberry bed and plant out some new runners a couple of weeks ago. After my lack of fruit this year, someone told me that they need a bit of frost in order to produce the flowers and subsequent berries so a cold snap is not always a bad thing and I won't be protecting them so much this time around.

Parsnips also taste much better after the frost has got to them. I dug up this prize (in my opinion) specimen last weekend as a welcome addition to the roast dinner and it tasted fab.


There are still a few more in the ground waiting to be pulled up for Christmas day. We have eaten all of the frozen veg I had stored in the freezer (not very good planning... must do better next year) so the parsnips and green tomato chutney to go with the cheese board will be the only home-produce on my Christmas table.

This inludes shop-bought sauces and jellies... next year I want to be making my own. Hence the delivery of two cranberry plants this morning. They may not look like much now, sat on the windowsill in the dark, but this time next year I am hoping that they will have produced enough berries to make cranberry sauce and redcurrant jelly... I already have the recipes, just need the fruit.

So, as there's not a great deal going on in the garden in December, I spent this evening going through my seed packets, looking over last year's journal to see what I sowed and when, and planning for next year. Bring on the new season.