Beautiful Day!

[Clive.]

A grey day today...but actually it was good for seeing Snowdrops...although lack of sunshine and a chill NE wind meant that it was none too warm for the 283 visitors who attended our Snowdrop day guided walk today.
The 3 groups we took round this morning were as large as we could sensibly manage...so was quietly pleased when this afternoons groups were a little smaller.!
We did these walks every year, 2007/8/9/10 the last of which I think had seen 180 attendees...given that it could be an unknown quantity attending and it was a grey day, another 100 on the previous total was a pleasant if not a little fraught surprise...as I stood in the centre of the Courtyard to address the huge massed crowd...

Clive.

[alan refail]

Yet another brilliant sunny day here. Damn chill wind though

[Ricard with an H]

Same here Alan, clear skies and a biting wind. Hopefully i'll manage another two metres of the planting trench i'm digging before my legs get too cold.

[robo]

very cold here blue skies and strong bitting winds but i did manage to plant my spuds i know i am early but i am away all march and at least its dry today

[Ricard with an H]

I'm amazed at how dry the soil is where i'm digging out a planting trench, and it's gratifying that even though this is a difficult exposed site it has good drainage. In fact the soil perfect for digging trenches, it not clingy at-all.

I just wish I had a decent days work in me, Hmmmmm.......better go and an hour Eh.

[Monika]

Robo, you are very hopeful with the weather, aren't you? Potato foliage is very touchy about being frosty and I hope you have some fleece/cloches/newspapers ready when they come through!
I am going to plant a few potatoes soon in potato bags in the greenhouse which I can cover easily on cold nights or even warm up by putting on the greenhouse heater, but the outside crop won't be planted until well into April.

[robo]

thats my problem when they come through i will be in spain not back till early april

[Primrose]

Sounds like some cheap fleece is needed here. There's rarely a good time for a gardener to take a holiday, is there, apart from in the middle of winter. There's always something to do, whether its sowing, pricking out, planting, sideshooting, weeding or cropping. There must be few other hobbies that are so constrictive in terms of when you can indulge !

[Westi]

Oh Primrose - so right! Funny even though our neighbours try really hard & actually / probably try harder than us to keep our plots watered when away in Summer we are always surprised by the state of the lottie when we get back!

I find myself making excuses now not to go on hols - kennel costs, cattery costs, no pets, on call & might have to go in - etc! At least only can blame myself then & not my poor neighbours who have hosed like crazy. Of course now I am the one left behind to look after their plots! Eeek!

Westi

[Shallot Man]

We have snow forecast for today.

[Clive.]

Blooming cold today with light snow flurries all day...but it is great to have cold and dry.
We could stand a ladder on the dry garden today and an American Pillar Rose over a gateway that has only had cursory pruning for a couple of years got the works.

Just before I packed up for night...I put a double row of Broad Bean seed in. ....for someone as pessimistic as me that was wildly optimistic....

Clive.

[Westi]

No Clive - will be fine..fingers crossed. They are well hardy & my ones overwintered & getting a bit of stem rot are putting out new growth right where the rotted bit was! (Can't say whether the new bits will flower & bear fruit but remain optimistic!)

Westi

[Ricard with an H]

And yet another cold but lovely day, i'm concerned about my over-wintering onion and garlic. It's a first time for, I did a little weeding in-between rows and some of the planted bulbs whilst sprouted had lifted with the lifted ones showing very little growing activity in the the soil. They looked pathetic.

The better bulbs have four inched of green, some only an inch of pale green/yellow.

Such a lovely day I just wanted to do something so I recked my hips and low-back on the planting trench for the Sea Buckthorn shelter-hedge, I spent most of the day in bed after that.

Did old-blokes really be allowed to do this.

[Monika]

I wouldn't worry about your overwintering onions and garlic (yet!), Richard. Some of ours have done the same. Last spring when they also looked like that at this time, I thought they would never make it, but when it got warmer and wetter, they suddenly popped up and provided us with plenty of produce. I am still using the garlic nearly every day.

[Clive.]

My over Winter Onions also look similar to your description and are the poorest I've had at this stage in 20 years. I have them covered with wire cages to keep the Pheasants off them. I think these cages make them sit a bit colder and wetter than open ground....and I look forward to being able to take the cages off and to run the hoe between the Onions to cheer them up a bit.

I went in to work today to do a few jobs and got Fantasia the Blackberry pruned out and tied in...it's a fiercely thorny brute of a thing to be grappling with on a freezing cold day...but after having walked past it dozens of times all Winter wishing it would dry enough to get on the ground around it...today the ground was dry enough and it's done...even though I should have being digging at home really....

Clive.