There’s nothing more money saving than growing your own vegetables and cooking from scratch.  You get a little exercise whilst you’re tending your garden, then get to eat all the goodies you’ve grown, plus you save a whole load of money as well.  However, if you’re the gardener, it’s important to look after yourself and to make sure that you don’t overdo the digging.  Take small spits of soil with the spade, straighten up frequently, try not to bend your spine and don’t dig for more than 20 minutes at a time.  Once you’ve done all the hard work, treat yourself to something simple as a reward, maybe put your feet up and read a good book, or have a soak in the bath.

Whenever I’m in the garden, or out in the countryside, my little Jack Russell tags along for the ride.  He’s not much use at cultivating the garden, but he does like to dig – great big holes where I don’t want them, so I quite often have to distract him with toys if I don’t want my efforts to be ruined.  However, he has his uses.  He’s always on pest control regarding the rats that come down from the Moor looking for a nice warm compost heap to hide in.  He sees them off pretty quickly.

This time of year there’s not too much going on in the garden, especially with dark evenings and wet days, but it’s a good time to plan ahead for next year’s planting.  There should be plenty of green vegetables to harvest still, as all the brassicas will last in the ground over winter, such as brussels sprouts, kale, cabbage and the like. I tend to harvest them when they’re young and tender, as I prefer this to trying to chew my way through fibrous, bitter greens.  The winter months are also a good time to burn rubbish and have a general tidy up, getting rid of any dead, diseased prunings.  Other than that, it’s back to sitting by the fire with a good gardening book – happy gardening!