Once again it poured with rain at the weekend, so my heavy clay soil was too wet to be worked. Instead, I made for the greenhouse, to do a spot of cleaning.

I spent a thoroughly productive couple of hours, jet washing the glass inside and out and removing algae from between the panes, using a combination of strong water jets and a slim piece of plastic cut from a margarine tub. Then, having finally cleared the last of the tomatoes from the bed, I removed any lurking traces of grey mould from the pepper and aubergine plants in pots. I spread them out on the benching, where they could enjoy the increased light levels coming through that sparkling clean glass.

A friend recently gave me a trailer load of manure, so, once the ‘housekeeping’ tasks were done, I forked a barrow load into the now-empty greenhouse bed and began seed sowing. First, I direct-sowed lamb’s lettuce, then sowed ‘Arctic King’, ‘Winter Gem’ and the greenhouse lettuce ‘Rosetta’, which I’ve not tried before, into modules.

Next, I planted some miniature daffodil bulbs in large pots, and finally, sowed some rocket (I couldn’t resist growing some more, even if it does grow rather slowly from such a late sowing).

So, not a bad day’s work: I sowed some lunch ingredients for the family, some lovely greenery for the geese and hens, and I managed to stay dry into the bargain!