Garden gift review slot number 2

My family and friends generosity continues unabated. Here are some other items to add to my list of gifts:

1. Plant labels and labelling pen. I didn't use these initially, in favour of remembering where I'd put stuff or making my own from strips of card. But I started to forget where I'd put stuff, and the bits of cardboard promptly floated away the first time I watered my seedlings, making it hard to work out what was in each pot until the plants got bigger, and I'm still not sure. So this is a great gift, and I used up two packs of labels before I realised the pen has both a wide and narrow nib. Everything is now neatly labelled, especially things that haven't come up yet.

2. Money... I received a cheque from my aunt in Germany, which has been very useful. My strawberries are now safely hidden under netting, my seedlings are now merrily growing on in bigger pots and my carrots and salad leaves are hidden behind a fleece barrier. Aunt Anne has admitted to having not just one, but two allotments when she was in the UK so I may yet be able to glean some useful tips as time goes on.

3. A big open-necked thermos flask for keeping hot stuff hot and cold stuff cold. It's great, I've got two cups of tea and a choc-ice in mine. Boom, boom.

4. Lots of timber. Hot on the heels of the BBC's Joe Swift, I've had a donation of timber planks from my brother-in-law Mike. They were sitting around in his garden, but are now sitting around in my allotment waiting to be used as edging.