The importance of labelling

This year I "successfully" (as in the plants have yet to die) grown 4 varieties of chillies - all of which have fruited to some extent. When sowing the seeds/planting them on I labelled them each with "chilli" and the initial of the variety - J=Jalepeno, PT=Purple Tiger, T=Twilight and C........

For the life of me I cannot remember what the C stands for, I have searched back through my posts on here and on The Grapevine to no avail.

Lesson for today children - label clearly and comprehensively.

Anyway, probably wondering why you haven't heard from me for a while? No? Well, I'll tell you anyway.

A combination of badly timed weather and a slightly dodgy back (yes, again) has mean that I have not been on the plot for soem weeks now, and I haven't really been able to do anything productive in the garden either - so little point on reporting if there's been very little going on.

I've been off work now for 2 and a half weeks, and I'm going somewhat stir crazy as a result. Been to see my osteopath several times - who in the past has managed to solve whatever problem I've been having. This time however, we seem to have drawn a blank. I'm on a cocktail of painkillers and still I have bouts of severe pain down my right leg (sciatica) which can keep me awake at night. I finally managed to pluck up the courage to ask my GP to refer me to a spinal specialist (something I'd been avoiding for fear of having to have a second operation which could result in fusion of vertebrae). My GP reassured me, stating that it's very unusual for them to operate a second time.

Anyway, I'm currently waiting to hear back (2-3 weeks wait apparently - and that's private!), and I've been referred to the same specialist that operated on me last time - which does give me some confidence as he fixed me in the past.

I'm now looking forward to just getting myself fixed so that I can make a bit of headway on the plot and get things ready for planting out plenty of fresh veg to help feed our new arrival when they get here in February - I'm planning to grow plenty of baby-friendly veg, and hopefully make the plot more productive.

LadyWayne has suggested that she may help out a bit more next year - she's suggesting going to the plot during the daytimes with Bean to potter about. Time will tell of course.

I'm not going to lie - my back has really been getting me down of late, and I am actually looking forward to getting back into the office tomorrow to hopefully take my mind of it for a while (with the aid of painkillers). Fingers crossed.

Timing seems to be the biggest factor in this gardening lark - some will tell you compost in the most important thing, others will suggest hard work etc, but in my epxerience timing is everything. Timing is the one thing I seem to be unable to get to grips with yet - my garlic is still as yet unplanted.

2009 should be better - there's always hope!