Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú

Have you read Alys Fowlers’ Boxing Day post? If not, click across to it now and have a gander. It’s rather good and lists 32 things she’s determined to achieve in 2011. Yes, it’s a little daunting (anyone else ever tried wild swimming? No, me neither) but it’ll certainly get you thinking.

No. 5 on Alys' list: make a new path for the allotment.
Dah dah - already done!

No. 7 on Alys' list: create a truly beautiful bouquet.
Done it!

I’ve studied it in detail and have worked out that I’ve already done five things from the list (5, 7, 15, 19, 29), would like to have a stab at a further 15 (1, 2, 3, 6, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 21, 24, 25, 30) and can’t really be faffed with, or don’t quite understand, the rest. By my reckoning that gives me the potential to be about 62.5% as good as Alys this year. Not bad.

Of course, this kind of ‘looking forward’ is just what’s needed at this time of year. I don’t know about you, but I feel like I’ve eaten my weight in cooked meats over the last couple of weeks, I hate to think how much wine I’ve drunk and I haven’t ventured into the garden for weeks (apart from a trip to the beer fridge that’s in the greenhouse). None of this is good. What I need to do is get outside, see what was damaged by the huge dump of snow and repair the shed roof. That’ll make me feel better and set me on the right foot for a year of spectacular gardening.

Yeah right. It wasn’t that long ago that I blogged about my own gardening resolutions. Amongst other things I was hell bent on regularly feeding and staking plants, repeat sowing salads and taking more cuttings. So far I’ve failed miserably because it’s been entirely the wrong time of year to do any of these things. And of course it’s been flipping freezing.

Or am I just making excuses? Could I have repeat-sown salads under a cosy cloche? Could I have taken some last minute cuttings of geraniums and fuchsias to boost next year’s stock? I expect so, but that’s what happens with resolutions isn’t it? You make them, slowly the urgency disappears and before you know it you’re back to old tricks.

Who'll join me for spot of wild swimming?

No, hold on a minute. I won’t be defeatist on the second day of the year. I know for a fact that some resolutions can work if you’re determined enough, because I stopped biting my nails at the stroke on midnight on 31 December 2008 and haven’t had a nibble since. I’ll apply the same grit and determination to my gardening, and by the end of 2011 I will have been staking my plants regularly and I will have a beautifully repaired shed roof.

What’s more I will have been wild swimming in the man-made ditch at the end of our road. Oh yes, 2011 is going to be marvellous.

Kevin Smith is a garden writer, and former Commissioning Editor of Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Gardeners' World Magazine.