Looking back at my 2011 New Year’s Resolutions post, I was pleased to see that I had accomplished some of my ‘resolutions’ for last year, although lack of time and job hunting made sure that I never had the time to get round to doing all of them.

This year, I’m going to take more of a relaxed approach to things, and if they happen, they happen. More ‘plans’ than ‘resolutions!’

One of my goals for this year is to do more writing. I’m about to see one of my articles in print for the first time in Great Food Magazine, which will hopefully become a regular column. I’m also still writing my cookbook, but have still to find that elusive publisher!

I’m also going to be doing some guest blogging, and I have some plans to expand and revamp my own blog. More details about that soon!

Also, now that we have a larger allotment, it will give me more space to expand my chilli empire, although the freezer and larder are groaning under the weight of last year’s harvest, both frozen and pickled. Even though our growing space has been tripled, I’m still going to have to scale back my current seed order for 2012, as otherwise I’ll run out of space in April, never mind by the summer!

I know that I’m a little late to the party with this, but after seeing this on other people’s blogs, I thought it would be good for me to share my allotment based resolutions for the year, and also for me to look back in a year’s time to see how many have been achieved.

So far, I have decided that my resolutions are:-

1. I will bake bread at home more often. and also build a bread oven. I have always tried to bake bread at home, but last year, people were kind enough to send me some sourdough starters, so that has spurred me on to be more creative with my bread. Also, the ‘BBQ Man’ in me wants a bread oven in the garden!

2. Make my own sausages, salami and chorizo. I have already taken a step forward in this by taking delivery of my mincer and sausage maker! However, the local butcher looked at me like I was from planet Zog when I asked whether he could get the sausage casings for me, so I’ll have to order those online before getting creative.

3. Although I am writing a cookbook of my own, I now have enough cookbooks. I tell myself this every year, but I am now running out of shelf space, so this is one resolution I will have to keep to this year, otherwise I will be tripping over them.

4. Hatch my own chickens. After reading about other people’s exploits on Twitter, and also converting my wife so that she has now fallen in love with our ex-battery chickens, we have decided that we want to hatch our own. However, I think a little bit of reading and getting advice from other people is needed before we start on our chicken empire.

5. Plant lots of wildlife friendly flowers. This was a plan for this year, but time and other things meant that it was put on hold. However, we need to attract more bees and wildlife to the garden. Which nicely leads us onto ….

6. Keep bees. We have a hive on our allotment site, but my ultimate aim is for us to have a hive on our plot.

7. Forage for wild food. My allotment site has a plot where sloes are in abundance, and for some reason, the plotholder has no interest in using them. I’ve always made sloe gin and vodka, but after seeing what is out and about, I want to use more food from our wild larder in my cooking this year.

8. Get better at composting, feeding and sustaining my crops this year. I made a start on composting this year, but could definitely try harder this year.

…. and finally ….

9. I will not get seduced by the exotic sounding seeds in seed catalogues. So many times this year I have found myself saying ‘oooh that sounds nice,” just as I hit the send button to order the seeds. Then, later in the year, I found that I had run out of space to plant the stuff I originally wanted to!

So, that’s my resolutions for the year, and I wonder how many I will stick to?! Have any of you come up with food related resolutions for the year?

Falling autumn leaves can become a nuisance, especially if you’re constantly raking them off the lawn, dredging the pond or picking up handfuls to prevent them choking up flower beds and borders. But rather than pulling your hair out in irritation and consigning them to your wheelie bin, turn leaves into leaf mulch – a wonderful compost that can be used as mulch or dug into the ground as a soil conditioner.

The goal in making mulch for your spring garden is NOT to decompose the leaves into compost. Rather, you want them to break down only slightly over the winter months so they will become an effective mulch for you in the spring.

First, pile your leaves and keep them dry if you haven’t shredded them. Shredding wet leaves is difficult. Next, shred your leaves either with a lawn mover or a leaf shredder (wood chopper). Leaves need to be chopped or shredded before being turned into mulch. Whole leaves won’t break down enough over the winter.

Once your leaves are shredded, add them to a compost bin such as the 3′ by 3′ bin shown below. Add the leaves in 12 – 18 inch layers. On the top of each later, add a handful of urea, ammonium nitrate, bone meal, or a layer of grass clippings (any of these add the necessary nitrogen required to partially break down the leaves over the winter). Then mix the leaves and nitrogen additive with water. You want the leaves wet, but not saturated.

Repeat this layering until your bin is full. The goal is to wet your leaves while adding nitrogen.

I found that small bags of urea, available from garden centers, make an easy way to add the required amount of nitrogen. Grass clipping also work well, but in November I don’t have enough to add.

Cover your mulch bins with a tarpaulin or plastic over the winter.

It is a good practice to mix your leaf bins in March. This extra effort isn’t essential, but is worth doing if you can.

In the Spring, your mulch will be ready to add to your garden. You might see white areas on the leaves. This is a leaf fungus that adds to the mulch’s nutrient value. You’ll find that leaves have changed into a crumbly material which will help to lock in soil moisture and prevent weeds from germinating. At this stage the compost is still recognisable as leaves, but if you leave it another year, it will have rotted down further to a dark brown compost, which can be dug into the ground as a soil conditioner. This material contains high levels of humus, which help soil to retain moisture and enable it to hold onto nutrients.

So, instead of swearing at the leaves like I used to, put them to work!

It did seem that it was a very short weekend, even leaving aside that an hour of my sleep was stolen on Sunday morning!

Saturday was spent potting on the huge amount of seedlings that had sprouted, so the greenhouse is now full. I also got a refill for the greenhouse heater, just in case the predicted snow/sleet that is forecast for later in the week arrives.

Sunday was a lottie day, and I built the two raised beds

that arrived earlier this week from Freshly Forked and I’m going to use those for herbs and salads when the time is right. I also moved the stuff that was in the compost bins on the left hand side of the plot down to the new ones that I had built, and dismantled it, so that I have a bit more room to use for growing.

So the plot now looks like this …

I’m happy with the progress so far, but still a lot to do. Plan for Easter, depending on the weather, is to make a start clearing and digging the right hand side of the plot. We may have to reward ourselves with large amounts of chocolate if we succeed!