It has been said that you shouldn't plant/build anything in your garden/plot before you have observed it for a year. Not before you've observed the way the sun travels throughout the year, where it rises and sets; where trees and buildings cast shadows, the direction of the prevailing wind, where the frost pockets are, where snow lies the longest, where the rainwater puddles or drains.............and so on.

I'm sure there are few of us who would have the patience to wait a year before doing anything but, at this time of year, when the sun is at its lowest in the sky and there's overnight frost and plenty of rainwater, its worth taking some time to evaluate your plot. 

After many years of living here, I thought I knew my garden but I was wrong.  There is a low point, in the south east corner, where the frost lingers all day. The frost is on the grass but its also on the beetroot and leeks which are the last of the overwintering crops in situ. When I planted them there it was a bright sunny spot, where I also grew beans and peas, but they, of course, are long gone and unaffected by the frost.

The higher, north-east corner is the opposite - its shaded by a couple of ash trees in summer, but, at this time of year, they've lost their leaves and cast no shade. Its quite open and sunny in January.

Solution!! This year, I'll plant the overwintering crops in the north east corner and the courgettes and summer stuff in the south east.

You grow your beans 
We all know how this is done. If we don’t there’s a whole other thread to discuss it   .

you dry your beans 
I may need to start another thread in legumes department for this . I have questions. 

you store your beans 
Jars, other containers, bags? Airtight? Out of the light? 

You’re about to use them in a recipe. Now what do you do? Rehydrate them ? How ?

The only experience I’ve had with dried beans was a 1kg bag of kidney beans. No matter what I did to them they were still like teeth braking bullets! I tried soaking them before cooking, cold water & hot. I tried different lengths of time. Anything from 1 hour to 24 hours. I tried pre cooking. Change timings and temperatures on this method as well.  Nothing worked. They ruined so many meals.  It kinda put me off dried beans. But thanks to Scarlets bean seeds in the circle and her wonderful photos and descriptions of all the different varieties and what you can do with them, I’m willing to give the dried beans another chance. 
Educate me please    .

As usual, I'm looking for the Other Way of growing things!!

1. Conventionally, Potatoes are planted in trenches.
2. As the potatoes show above the soil, they're earthed up.
3. Earthing up is done to stop the potatoes seeing the light and turning green and poisonous.
4. No dig gardeners lay the spuds on the soil and cover with compost/straw. 

My questions - after earthing up, do more spuds grow higher up the stem above the original soil level?
............Or. do the spuds form deeper in the ground?

Why am I asking?
Could you grow spuds in a very shallow bed, say 4" deep on a solid base or in a shallow planter, rather than in a bucket?
Earth them up with cardboard or perforated plastic?

Just asking?

Hi Folks

Probably a stupid question but it's never stopped me before

What's the difference???

Having a different thought re potatoes. 
I'm wondering about trying to force some extra early new potatoes. I have no green house but do have a couple of thoughts. 
Option one - potato grow bag tucked against sunniest south facing house wall I can find, filled with compost. Wrap in a couple of layers of fleece. Water compost well with hot water to get some more warmth in then plant spud in centre of warm compost. Cover top with fleece.

Option two - grow more normally in our detached garage, its not heated but I've never seen any frost in it. Light in garage is mainly from east facing obscured glass garage door and south facing pedestrian door, all are half glazed only. 

The potatoes I have are Nicola and that's all I'm planning on using this year. Anyone any thoughts?

A local Recycle group is offering sheep fleeces but I have to decide quickly whether I want some!

Has anyone used  them in the garden?
I've read that they can be used as mulch, in the bottom of bean trenches, to line hanging baskets, soak in water to make liquid fertiliser.............

My real concern is - would they attract animals, like mice, to nest in them or foxes to dig them up?

Every year I forget to sow Sweet peas and I nearly did this year too!! 
This evening, I've sown Wiltshire Ripple, Old Spice, Old Times and Athena.
I started with good intentions, meaning to label each variety and grow them separately until I dropped some seeds and they got muddled with the rest!!
It'll be random Sweet peas this year.

Who else is growing them?

Fascinating website with plenty of information about seeds/plants/growing. https://store.experimentalfarmnetwork.org/
Unfortunately its in the US so buying seeds may not be easy but some of them are sold by Real Seeds, maybe others.
I'm fascinated by the Landrace seeds - they look a bit like some of my random assortments!

I have last year's small shallots saved for planting.  Last year they went into pots on 1st  Feb as the ground wasn't ready.   They took a month to pop and were finally planted out 23 March.  The crop was harvested along with onions etc when they had died down and was quite acceptable. Are they like garlic needing a cold spell?

Would I gain much by setting into pots  earlier  or do you think they would just stay dormant til it warmed up?   If that's the case I might as well wait till later.

This may be a sensitive topic. 

I was very surprised to have our GP contact me today. I have been given an appointment for getting my vaccine next week at our GPs - I am  happy. I am CEV Shielding group in Wales, and didn't think we had even rolled out to our group yet.

I have been so aware of my own mortality the last year, this feels like there is light at the end of the tunnel finally.