What I did on my holiday

Not much really. In essence we filled the fridge with christmas food and ate for the fun of it. Since Uppsala have a rare layer of winter snow we brought the son out for some sledge rides, but in most we rested. Christmas is a good time for resting.

I couldn't let go of indoor gardening entirely, though. I purchased some seeds from Impecta (swedish seed mail order company specialising in exotic and swedish heritage seeds) and perhaps it was unwise to do so without a proper plan. According to my notes I've ordered two kinds of melon, oil pumpkin, blackberries and a kind of cabbage that grows to a two meter tall "palm". I don't think any of them would do good indoors, but I do have my allotment gardens - and motivation to really make those raised beds.

This year I made it easy for the indoor hubby and wished for a book easy to get since it was released a few months ago. The title translates as "Cloister gardens Heavenly places on earth", it's Lena Israelsson, my favourite swedish garden writer who's travelled to cloisters and convents around the world studying their gardens and the monks' and nuns' gardening techniques. An absolutely beautiful book, but somewhat dangerous - I'll take a post to explain why. In the meantime you could pester your local publishing firm to make a translation, it (and her other books) is worth it.

And I've finally bought my bokashi starter set! My mother in law is kind enough to give her kids, daughters in law and grandkids a good amount of money for christmas. My share was quickly sent to the swedish bokashi seller. The receit was sent by email, and included the line
"Are you the one who writes Parkettodlaren (Indoor Gardener's swedish motherblog)?"
which made me feel like a celebrity for a few minutes. I picked up the parcel yesterday, and now have both worms and microbes eating our leftovers.

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Since my only new years resolution was Stick to the plan I've sterilised soil today. Thus I've checked another point on the list I made before Christmas, together with the point on ordering seeds. Now I only got these left:

• Mix new potting soil (jay for home made worm fertiliser!)
  
• Repot seedlings
  
• Buy sills, consoles, lamps, chains and flourescent lights
  
• Paint sills
  
• Put up sills and added light
  
• Move the mound of pallets under the window in the study
  
• Put the potted plants in their new places