Along the retaining wall we have a lavender hedge. Usually at this time of year I remove the dead flower heads and then February/March time I cut back the plants quite hard. The plants have been there several years now and are getting quite woody so it's time to replace them. I have taken a load of cuttings from the existing plants and pushed them into a space in the garden. It's a little bit late for the cuttings but as we're on the south coast and it's quite mild I am hoping that enough of them want to root to enable me to replace the plants we currently have.

It's a tidying up the garden time of year. As some space has appeared with the end of the runner bean's and turnips I have been able to reposition my compost bins. For many years we had a couple of wooden slatted bins but when they rotted beyond use I aquired a plastic bin. I now have two of these and I have to say that I don't find them as good as the wooden ones. It is nearly impossible to turn the material in the bin. I've tried using a fork but you end up with bruised fingers. I recently bought a plastic contraption that you push into the compost to aerate it but I'm not impressed with that either. I also find that it is not very easy to get the compost out of the little access hole at the bottom. Hence the need to reposition the bins. I have now positioned them so that the access holes face directly out on to the vegetable plot to see if that works better. It does mean however that I will not be able to get compost out during peak growing time.

As I was in a tidying up mood I finally got around to dealing with the two remaining bags that I had been growing potatoes in earlier in the year. A couple of months ago the plants were begining to show signs of blight and so I removed all the foliage and destroyed it. As I didn't empty the compost soon after I was expecting that any tubers would have rotted away. So when I slit open the first of the bags I was delighted and suprised when beautiful, clean tubers emerged. The second bag had a fewer tubers but enough for a feed which was more than I had expected. Interestingly the bag with the smaller yield contained more soil based compost than the first but that may just be a coincidence.

I am pulling young carrots from the pots. They are really tasty and just need a rinse off before popping them into the pot. A few have a tiny bit of carrot fly damage. I think that the flies must have got in the last time that I thinned out.

I have planted some hyacinth bulbs in bowls for the house in the winter. I love their fragrance. I have placed the bowls in the dark in the garage and will check on them from time to time.