Kitchen Garden Forum

Had half an hour in the greenhouse, potted on some strawberry runners into big clay pots and spread the last of the manure in the borders, might contemplate some early salad sowing in the next week or so.

Guess the sub zero temperatures were just too much for them. Found a second batch of frogspawn this morning so hopefully even if the ice in the pond killed off the first batch I will still get some tadpoles. Does anybody know whether frogspawn can survive the sort of sub zero temperatures we experienced last week?

I think it depends how prolonged and how cold it is Primrose . The dots turn white if they're dead. Hope they're ok. I've not seen anything in my ponds as they're still mainly ice.

Just seen a Magpie picking up twigs, probable nest refurbishment on progress. A sign of spring. !

It does feel a little Spring like, but rain in the week is going to put pay to much progress.....i can feel my sap starting to rise but, i'm sure you all don't want to hear about my problems...

Forgot to say, Cook put a £20 through the wash yesterday and not enough left of it for the bank to change...now why couldn't have been 2 of the new indestructable £10 notes or 4 of the fiver's.....

We used to have a corner shop for around ten years it was in one of the rougher parts of Liverpool ,the number of people that came in with washed twenty pounds notes was unbelievable first thing we did was put them under a ultra violent light there was not many that were genuine , that's no reflection on yourself O H

Bad luck OH. Obviously a bad weekend for money wasting as my OH went into a local car park yesterday , got distracted talking to somebody and completely forgot to buy a ticket. Returned 20 mins later to find a parking ticket on his windscreen. Rots your socks when that could have funded something tasty to eat or drink !

First newt of spring has just arrived in mini pond. Would love to know where it’s been hibernating all winter. I never see them anywhere in the garden apart from in the water.
Went to garden centre and stocked up with new compost so am now ready to get sowing when things warm up a little. I did some weeding this morning but the soil is still very sodden .

Much more pleasant day today. Not even much wind this afternoon so spread fertiliser round all my fruit trees and soft fruit. Looks like it is going to get washed in overnight which I could perhaps have done without.

Lots of frog activity in the ponds again but no frog spawn yet. I'm so glad plenty survived the cold snap.

I've planted the elephant garlic and ordinary garlic and been for a walk so am hopefully going to get the garden looking a bit more cared for when my fitness improves. It's a start anyway. I found some excellent comfrey liquid in a bucket in the greenhouse where I'd put a sack of comfrey leaves in the autumn. I'll have to bottle it as it looks rather concentrated and will need diluting quite a lot.

Didn't look too bad early on, Sunday routine Allotments Society shop duty, then shopping, was raining when I left Sainsbury's.
However, after that fairly heavy and prolonged shower it calmed down a fair bit. With intermittent light showers and thus no power tools, I have finished framing both sides of the first six foot section of my shed extension. Drops down a foot & a bit to fifteen foot remainder. Also two way framed the first four foot of the roof and added two more cross pieces up to the drop.
Fitted the first of the solid double doors, each two foot wide, my working access, looks like my measurements are roughly right. So the old front door, aluminium double glazed, will be on the path where it turns down the garden. That end is promised to "her outdoors on her bike" for her indoor exercise bike and newly acquired cross trainer.

Prepared all the vegetable beds in the garden at home this morning, complete with roll-out paths. Nearly ready for sowing and planting now. The path to the allotment is still filled with snow!
This afternoon on of our daughters had an 'at home' for anybody in the family who could come and it was lovely to see the interaction between our three great-grandchildren aged 2, 1 and 4 months.

I gathered together all the 25mm plastic pipe and the 28mmID x 5ft metal pipe and made the framework for a 12ftx12ft netted tunnel for my brassica bed, good days work i think, it,s probably cost me about 30 quid,i think a wonder wall tunnel would have been about 200 quid, good result!

Hooked up my auto vents on the greenhouse, even up here we are getting over 20 degrees in the daytime