I'm trying something new with my diary. Rather than just publish it on this website, I'm also going to record a new weekly video, called "The gardening week'. This diary, will be the show notes for the video. I'm also publishing the audio from the video as a podcast, again with this page as the show notes for the podcast.

https://youtu.be/glPnI-4pHao

Monday

Another wet and gloomy day here is St Annes. I did manage to get out for a walk on the beach for an hour, but most of the day has been spent inside tidying up my virtual life. I think I've finally resolved the mess created by buymeacoffee.com and donations via credit card, debit card and apple/google pay now seem to be working again now at http://buymeacoffee.com/steverichards. I had a lot of redundant work to do to setup an alternative mechanism for people who wanted to pay via paypal, but that now seems to be working via Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/seasideallotment.

While I was doing this I discovered that quite a few people became members of the channel, only to get free perennial kale cuttings, which was a bit of a shame, paying a £2 subscription and then cancelling it, so as to get something that costs me much more than that ... well all I can say is that it's disappointing. For a few hours I just wanted to give up on the whole process. Then I remembered all of the lovely comments from the hundred plus people who are actually using the system in the way that it's intended and I was happy again.

<aside> 💡 That's the kind of nasty trick that a dismal day plays on my mood in winter!

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I also spent an hour or so working on my new successional planning tool. This is a key part of a set of new tools that should make it much easier to grow year round, to decide what to sow when, to prioritise sowings and to decide how to plan a garden. The whole process of sorting all of this out has entailed many hours work, on the wettest days of the year, I think it will be worth it.

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This year I'm really just laying the foundations, to be built out over next year, as the months tick by.

Tuesday

No gardening all hiking

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Wednesday

Not much gardening, but a great shot of our life boat. It doesn’t launch into the water, but rather is dragged about a mile across the sand to the sea, that’s how big our beach is at low tide!

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I did get to the allotment, but mainly to take seedlings.

Published a tour video of my plot, looking pretty good, but the brassicas are a bit weaker than usual after the very long spring/summer drought.

https://youtu.be/WBV0O4jbjjM

Thursday