Wednesday is my usual day to do some shopping. I drive to a group of shops not far from us and as the parking there is limited I go quite early. That seems to work, today was no exception. I came back nice and quickly and as the weather was reasonable I went to the allotment. My garlic order came yesterday and I wanted to plant it as soon as I could. The two raised beds were ready so the time was right. I planted three different types of garlic – Thermidorme, Rhapsody Wight and Maddock Wight. All this almost filled the two beds, there is only a small area left but that doesn’t matter, I’ve got one more garlic order due to come.

What I won’t fit in there I can plant in my large grow bed in the greenhouse at home, let it grow and then in the spring transplant it in the ground on the allotment. That will  give me time to get the ground ready. I had basil growing in the grow bed but I decided to harvest it for the last time to make some more pesto. It is amazing how delicious home made pesto is. I have got a fool-proof recipe for it.

It makes quite a lot but I freeze it shaped like a log wrapped in grease-proof paper and when I need some I can just slice off enough for the meal.

When the grow bed was empty I enriched the soil with some double strength peat-free compost from my favourite place in the Lakes – Dalefoot peat free compost.

It is ready now for the garlic planting.

About two weeks ago I saw in a restaurant review article a mention of Sichuan pepper. That intrigued me, I did a little search and the result is I have got two little plants, which came today. I potted them into larger pots and will live in hope.

I was looking to buy these plants and found them in a nursery I never knew before – Jurrasic Plants Nurseries. They offer a large range of unusual plants and mine arrived well wrapped and secure, very efficiently done.