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| Tidy the Shed! |
GARDEN AND ALLOTMENT TO DO LIST FOR FEBRUARY? I HATE TO DO LISTS!
Yes I make To Do lists myself, I am a great list-maker, I have a collection of old notebooks littered with mouldering To Do lists which still need doing, from years back - sometimes I use the empty pages of old diaries.
I also try MIND MAPS, thinking this would be the answer to my lack of time management, but they don't work either.
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| JANUARY CROCUS |
TO DOS
You see I can never make the supreme effort to tick off all my To Dos, at any time of year, let alone in February.
Garden writers love putting lists of what to do, in the media on or line, just to make us guilty, I guess.
There is a What to do this Week, in The Sunday Times. Today we are instructed to:
1 Start chitting potatoes (I think this is much too early, unless you like egg-boxes full of dusty potatoes littering up your living area). I think outdoors in a greenhouse or shed is too cold.
2 Sow broad beans outside unless ground is too wet (well, it is)
3 Protect plants that 'pop up early' with fleece or an old sheet (should look very fetching in the back garden, this)
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| VEGETABLES WERE HERE! |
ALAN TITCHMARSH, in Waitrose Weekend, suggests:
1 "Take time to make a potting tray now" (no, not potty, potting, as in plants)
2 Cover "rhubarb with a large tub or special rhubarb forcer" and insulate the outside the the 'forcer', which you previously insulated inside with straw or other material.
3. "Prune wisteria….check the support and repair as necessary"- good idea but you need to get the step ladder out, which is possibly in the shed which you have yet to tidy.
4 "Harvest Brussels sprouts, leeks, parsnips and turnips" (unfortunately I had some parsnips but they are now lost in wet soggy soil, and the pigeons are finishing off the sprouts, and the leeks, well they never really got going last autumn, so that lets me out of this particular To Do.
TIDY THE GARDEN SHED !!!
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| The shed on the plot |
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| Inside the shed shown above |
I hate being told to tidy the shed, suggesting this is a good time of year to do it, as you are not very busy. Of course everybody is very busy in February, just like at other times.
Probably this is because you can catch up on stuff, stuff that never gets finished in the nice weather, like, well, in my case its looking for a very cheap and wonderful holiday bargain. Or worrying about interest rates.
Or tidying the accumulation of newspaper cuttings about very cheap and wonderful holiday bargains, or equally wonderful recipes for delicious cheap meals.
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| Allotment shed to store everything |
SHEDS
So I resolve every autumn to tidy the sheds, during the winter when I am not so busy. Do I do this? Not on your nelly. The weather is cold, windy, wet and the days are dark. Much nicer to stay in the warm.
FOUR SHEDS TO DO,
TWO LITTLE ONES, TWO A BIT BIGGER
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| Allotment shed, tiny one |
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| Little garden shed |
You may be surprised to see that a mess they are in. Wait a moment, what does the inside of your shed look like in February?
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| Inside the striped shed for garden stuff only! |
Are you one of those admirable people who wash out and stack all their empty flower pots and trays in the autumn? Someone who clears out the overgrown plants in the pond, just when the water is freezing cold? Who cleans and oils the handles of their spades and forks? And washes down the glass in their greenhouse, so as to let in as much light as possible?
Well, joint the club, I don't do these things either.
Please let me know about the state of YOUR shed this month.
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| The shed for everything |
