101 selfsufficientish things to do in the winter

[Andy Hamilton]

It is that time of year when the C word starts to take over for many people (christmas that is). - The long dark nights mean that the allotment is less visited than during the rest of the year. So what is there to do at this time of year??

1. If it is not too cold turn over your plot.
2. lift the last of your beetroot and pickle them.
3. Protect swiss chard and perpetual spinach
4. Plan your spring planting
5. Homebrewing

[red]

6 order your seed catalogues
7 fix the fences the storm brought down
8 chop fire wood
9 gather kinderling
10 make paper logs and dry in empty greenhouse
11 spend a lot of time dreaming of what we will grow next year
12 spend time trying to fight your way around defra website (if you keep animals)
13 repair garden tools you broke cos you left them outside in the rain
14 buy water butts, cos you wont be able to get them in the summer
15 borrow and read lots of books from the library on all your future plans
16 knit/sew/crochet/weave clothes.
17 repair old clothes

[pskipper]

18. Pickle all the fruit and veg that is sitting in the freezer because you didn't have time to do it in the summer.

19. Mull wine/cider and relax

20. Plant your garlic

21. Insulate the loft, put in energy saving bulbs etc if you haven't done it yet

[Shirley]

22. Post on Ish!
23. Put thicker curtains up at the window (and close them at dusk) to try and keep the cold out and save a bit of dosh on the heating. If you haven't got thicker curtains why not line the ones you have with a sheet, throw etc.
24. Make some draught excluders - sausage shaped filled with old rags.
25. Plant trees!

[pskipper]

26 Make gifts and decorations out of salt dough.

[shiney]

26. Make some pickles
27. Think about wrapping your charity shop and homemade xmas pressies. I am using old maps to wrap mine in this year!

28. Do something thoughtless like poke hundreds of cloves in a orange. (see pic on left) They smell lovely.

[Millymollymandy]

29. Weed the veg patch and spread manure over it.
30. Ditto the flower beds
31. Get on with redecorating jobs you never had time to do in the summer
32. Go horseriding (no flies!)
33. Make mince pies
34. Make pumpkin pies
35. Make pumpkin chutney
36. Check those stored apples and stew up any that are going soft.
37. Start feeding the garden birds
38. Try desperately to get on with those Xmas letters that need to be posted to Aus and NZ, and try not to get sidetracked and come on this site instead because it's a lot more interesting!

[shiney]

Pumpkin chutney....recipe please MMM!

[Millymollymandy]

Oh Shiney, it's in a book! Would take some typing out which I haven't the time at the moment. I'm sorry.

[shiney]

Oh Shiney, it's in a book! Would take some typing out which I haven't the time at the moment. I'm sorry.

Not a problem...I'll hunt a recipe down on the net.