New Cooker

My parents have gone back so a quick summary of what's been done:

• Got a new wood-burning stove/cooker. There are several benefits for this
• Wood is much cheaper than gas so the cooker shold repay itself within the year.
• All the flyers can now be used as kindling, so it will cut down on waste.
• Its MUCH warmer than the gas central heating I got.
• The ash can be used as a fertiliser. (From my reading I can use it as a substitute for lime). Also I'm going to have a go at making soap at some point. Should be interesting!
• Did some digging. Well, did a lot of digging actually. I've only opened up small plots up until now so I joined several of them together to make larger plots. I also opened a much larger area adding about 25% to the area I can now grow stuff in. I'm guessing I've about half a standard allotment in area now.
• I've planted all my spuds, all the garlic and half the onions. I've also started off my "3 sisters" experiment. Seems more suitable to a much larger area but its an experiment. I've started off my tomatoes but I think 18 plants was a bit optimistic!
• My rhubarb plant (the one I grew from seed) seems to have survived transplanting to its new home and seems to be thriving. Its about 18 months old so it'll be a while yet before I get rhubarb off it. Next year maybe?