Only weight lifters with cars can get potting compost

My strawberry plants arrived yesterday from the Organic Gardening Catalogue.

I didn't have enough potting compost so trundled off with my shopping trolley to Homebase. Remembered when I got there that the bags Homebase sell are usually too big. Too heavy for me to lift and likely to damage my shopping trolley beyond repair. But thought I would check. They had very little selection, and all huge bags, except for some growbags.

Who uses growbags in winter?

So off I trundled to B&Q. They had some peat-free potting compost but in 50 litre bags. They had a bigger selection than Homebase but all 50 litre or 60 litre bags. So I got a growbag instead - which I could have got 25 minutes earlier!

I got "Alice" which the catalogue said had sweet fruit. The ones I got from a garden centre this year were virtually tasteless so are for the bin!. I noticed in the Organic Gardening Catalogue that their best seller "Cambridge Favourite" had no mention of what the fruit tasted like!

Ramson puzzle

My order from the Organic Gardening Catalogue arrived at work and I have been bringing the contents of the box home in stages.

I ordered some Ramson (wild garlic) bulbs. The packet told me how deep to plant them and they preferred quick draining soil (good, I've got that) and full sun (not so good, I'm short of that). However, there was nothing about when to plant them.

I googled and found a site that said they should be well watered and they will start to appear in February. Watering over the winter????

I've planted them, mainly along the back of the flower bed where they will get morning sun, and a few in the bed that will have the leaks next year.

Hoping for the best.

As snug as a bug in a rug

It's an old camping trick to keep you warm, to have as much underneath you as above you at night. I apply the same tip to keep me warm in bed as I don't have the heating on overnight.

I have a thick sleeping bag opened out, then a fleecy underblanket on top of that, then the sheet. Then I am as snug as a bug in a rug.

I told this tip to a friend who was complaining of being cold at night in his cold bedroom. He has folded up two blankets and put them under his sheet and says it made a big difference.

Leaving leaves

Had a day off today and spent some time clearing ash tree leaves from the concrete path and the concrete at the bottom of the garden for the leaf mould bin (a large, old birdcage someone had dumped by a lamppost several years ago).

All the leaves on the long flower bed and the vegetable plot I left. It is cover for the soil over winter and saves two lots of carting, to the leaf mould bin and then back on to the beds. This left-where-it-fell leaf mould is all the fertiliser the flower bed gets!

I notice how leaves just left where they lie on the soil rot down much, much quicker than piles of leaves.

I then went to the end of the road and collected several buckets of sycamore leaves for the bed in the front garden. This is for hibernating animals - a couple of autumns ago I saw a large toad, so I want plenty of insulation for her if she is still returning to spend the winter in my front garden.

Pleased to see no sign of ash die back in my neighbours' ash trees - long may that continue.

night shirt becomes a cushion

This was a night shirt that had seen better days so I turned it into a cushion cover for the desk chair,

The chair has a broken seat where I stood on it to reach something one day. I'd like to get it mended, but it would need to be someone within a reasonable taxi ride as the chair is an old-fashioned office chair rescued from being thrown out where I used to work. It is very heavy and not on casters. With a large cushion the chair is still usable.