It was my birthday on the 21st, I had a wonderful day musing around garden centres with my birthday cash burning a big hole in my pocket and just couldn’t resist the desire to buy a rhubarb forcer, although I cannot inflict it on my young rhubarb crown just yet. It’s sitting cheerily in the bare rhubarb patch and shortly it will be framed by the lovely leaves of my Timperley Early.

I received some fab presents – gardening and allotment books, packs of veg and flower seed, new Dean Koontz novel (my fave author), a beautiful bouquet of flowers, chocolates, wine and quite a bit of money – some of which will be put towards treated timber to make new raised beds for the veg garden. I want to expand my veg plots this spring and also include more wildflowers and wildlife areas. I’m already working on a new wildlife project thanks to some of my much-needed birthday cash, I will post about that soon.