Early Spring Bits and Bobs.

[oldherbaceous]

As yesterdays weather was anything but Spring like, i left it until today.

I'm sure things are on the turn now.

[peter]

Funny how the springlike weather starts on a Monday and is replaced by rain on Thursday,Friday or Saturday.

Not sown a thing yet and wondering how many of the overwintering onion sets I managed to plant late last year have rotted.

[old codger]

My two rows of winter onions look very sick, keep putting the hoe through them to let the air get to them. But my garlic is looking very well, it's up about three inches above the ground.Its up set O.H.because he has not set any this year.

[oldherbaceous]

I'm just going for "pick your own" on the plot next to mine this year.....

I have to admit, Codger has got some very nice looking garlic this year, a real credit to him.

[Westi]

Very optimistic of you OH but it is officially spring! Actually when the sun shines there is some warmth to it & I am enjoying the lighter mornings & evenings!

My over wintered onions look OK but hedged my bets in case they bolt by putting some more sets in - could have a lot of onions! My garlic looks fine & is also a few inches high.

Finally settled on a planting plan (4th edition) so can start some real feeding, weeding & preparing! As good as rotation is some plants just don't like some areas of the plot I've found, so have been reviewing previous plans & photos to try to put them all where they were happiest.

Westi

[Primrose]

Main problem here is to clear the plot of remaining Cavalo Nero, Curly Kale and Swiss chard so I can get digging for this year's sowing. Every winter I ration myself in cropping it to eke it out over the hungry gap period, and then find myself racing against time to menu plan so I can use it up quickly. I never learn !!

[Monika]

I have the same problem, Primrose, but I am going to be ruthless this weekend - out with them!

Today (dry, fairly sunny but with a sneaky cold wind) I completed my least favourite spring job: I pruned our very prickly rosa rugosa hedge which goes right round our corner garden. it's a horrid job but the hedge looks so lovely in bloom and later with huge hips (the rose, not me!) that I put up with it every spring. Below the hedge are lots of bulbs flowering and a few primroses.. Whilst I was at it, I also gave the much shorter pyracantha hedge a gentle 'haircut'.

[Geoff]

Must be Early Spring - Curlew calling overhead as I was feeding the birds this morning.

[retropants]

I think I'll start my onion sets off in the greenhouse this week. They always seem to take forever direct in the ground! our second eaarlies will be going in on Sunday, but I won't be there as I am doing a craft fair, so am leaving it to ma and pa! I am popping down there this afternoon to install some timber edging to one of the greenhouse borders.

[Primrose]

I've just sown some land cress and wonder whether two nights of frost will have finished the seeds off. They are very tiny.

[oldherbaceous]

Old Codger has just about dug all his allotments for the second time now, first in the Autumn, and for the second time, over the last month.

I suppose he finds digging quite easy as he did so much of it for, "The Dig For Victory", campaign.....

[peter]

I'd heard thst he did indeed as a toddler help his elderly relatives with the Dig for victory campaign, chiefly his grest uncle a chap who in those days was called Young Herbaceous.

[Geoff]

What are catkins like with you? I reckon if all the other trees flower as prolifically as the hazels and alders are producing catkins we are in for something special.

[Westi]

Peter!

Trying to make the most of the weather - have a big list of 'too does' in my head - & get none of them done as get distracted by something else that needs doing! OK, inside shed looks lovely, new compost heap started, & that old manure I found just had to be used!

But fences still on a lean, posts & wires have to go in for new raspberries, got a pile of dried out stems & stuff that have been neatly covered & dried all winter that need burning, hedge row at back needs trimming before it comes into life, outside shed needs a bit of creosote, cold frame glass need replacing & a trip to dump!

At least in the summer it is just weeding & watering to think about (mostly)!

Westi

[Ricard with an H]

Westi, you've got me stressed now.

Yesterday was easy because the weather was horrible so I'm doing the endless rotation of house-chores plus another three wall-lights to mount.

Today the weather is lovely and-so I have all those garden jobs tugging at my sleeve and the paddock grass needs cutting. Can you believe it ? My paddock grass has grown several inches since I last it just before Christmas, its 'amenity grass' which grows much faster than normal lawn-types.

All my Pembrokeshire banks need the attention of a brushcutter and though I paid a local contractor to do it with his 'Bushwhacker' (Massive hedgetrimmer mounted on a JCB) the only time he found time was when the grass was far to wet and I didn't want JCB tracks around the paddock.

I have a soakaway trench to dig that will drain one of the front lawns and I need to re-roof the conservatory with slate rather than risk the glazing being damaged by falling roof slates during the next hooligan-storm.

Or should I leave it to the insurers to deal with if it happens, sort-of like the environment-agency has done with the rivers that should have been dredged.

Pheweee.