I have the confess there hasn’t been a great deal going on at the plot, which is different to there isn’t anything to be done.

There is still much to do in the house and garden and that is going to be my focus for 2022. Even I have to accept that I can only be in one place at a time, so for the first time since having a cultivated plot vast areas will be covered so that I can make best use of the limited time I will have to be there.

Eventually, I will move to a site closer to home but in the meantime my lovely neighbours have offered to water the polytunnel and greenhouse on the days I can’t get there and that makes everything seem a bit more manageable.

This weekend I spent most of Sunday there and although there isn’t masses to do this time of year, the tasks are meditative and soothing.

I love how a bit of pruning and tying in makes the raspberries so tidy. Autumn ones in a few week’s time. Since discovering that raspberries prefer acidic soil, I mulch with ericaceous compost.

I grow very few potatoes mostly as I don’t have storage space for the harvest but these pink fir beauties might change that. These are great used as salad potatoes but also make the best home-made oven chips – crisp outsides and fluffy innerds. I cut the tops back at the end of October and have harvested one or two plants at a time. This is the haul from the last two plants – a few of the potatoes have been frosted but those deep underground are perfect. I store with the soil on them in a large thick paper bag and so far, no rot or sprouting.

The new cabin aka bat cave in the garden arrived in a kit form wrapped in black plastic. It will have another life on the plot this season – I do know that covering the soil like this isn’t great but time, options and resources are limited.

I’ve left space at the front for some low-maintenance crops. Here’s the 2021 squash and courgette bed.