2015 Springing Bits and Summer Bobs

[Clive.]

It's an ill wind that does nobody any good....and it is drying things up. Got a good proportion of "my" Onion sets in this afternoon...the ground pulled down a treat just with the middle size Wolf cultivator.

Clive.

[retropants]

Well, if it is all the same to you, I'd rather it wasn't blowing so chilly, I just spent all day freezing my butt off at a craft fair

[peter]

Bigger thicker pants needed then, eh retropants!

[Monika]

Had intended to cut our very long rosa rugosa hedge today but as we are mightily exposed to the NE wind, I think I will hang on for a few more days!

[Ricard with an H]

It's the only time of year I can comfortably wear my chainsaw protective trousers, they are so thick and heavy I boil up if it's even ten degrees. So felled a sycamore one of two that are too close to the over head telecom cables and nuisance to a neighbour. It's hard work, I packed up at three-ish now I still have the two foot diameter trunk to deal with and all the smaller branches. The thin stuff goes through the cruncher, that gets spread around the raised beds on the paddock as walkways.

Wood chippings and crunchings are really good at suppressing weed growth, I just get the odd tuft of grass with weak roots too pull out.

I got into the naughty room again, Er-Indoors moaning about me behaving like I'm 30 at the age of 72. To be honest, a good days work does me a lot of good if I manage to do it without upsetting my poorly joints and I slept like the proverbial log last night.

Garlic cloves I planted four weeks ago are two inches high and looking good, should I plant more or is it now too late?

[oldherbaceous]

Just been strolling the lanes and tracks of Milton Bryan and there's not a open bud to be seen, on the trees or in the hedgerows. So i don't think it's going to be the earliest of growing seasons.

[Monika]

I was checking back in my records on the first frogspawn in our pond: for last few years it has always appeared at the very end of February or the beginning of March, but no sign of it yet this year! And we do have plenty of frogs - when it rained the other evening, we counted more than 20 just in and around the pond.

And no sign of green yet on the hawthorns or bird cherries which are usually the first to show.

[Clive.]

I finished off the Onion sets today....and called at the local nursery for some for myself on the way home so we now have 2 rows of Shallots and 4 rows of Sturon Onions in here.

Went back to shut up the greenhouses, calling round at the stables on the way back for a couple of bags of doings for the compost heap here.

The countryside does look very desolate...not much growing happening with this chafing Easterly.

Clive.

[Motherwoman]

I have a Ribes just bursting some pink buds in the garden and the hazel buds are fat and showing a hint of green. I'll have to pollard the willow by the pond soon, I tend to keep leaving it as the golden stems look really good at the moment but I know the sap is rising...

MW

[Ricard with an H]

The only stuff growing here is grass, willow and my sea buckthorne hedge does have fat buds with a few opening.

The gorse is always welcome at this time of year, with brilliant yellow and the gorse perfume on a calm afternoon.

[oldherbaceous]

A few buds are starting to swell and with tomorrow being a bit warmer, maybe things will be on the move....

Did a horrible thing yesterday, i was forking through a herbaceous border, when i heard a popping sound when i put the fork in... i had stabbed a toad right through the middle, so i had to dispatch it as quickly as possible....but it did leave me feeling bad all day....

[peter]

One of the hazels behind my garden has broken bud, half inch leaves unfurling.

OH sorry, but I think that means you'll turn into a princess.

[Monika]

Oh, poor OH, that must have been awful .... I once had to disentangle a half dead frog from netting on our allotment and still feel guilty that I let the net trail on the ground.

Very pleasant day here today, no wind and quite a bit of sun. It took all morning to cut the rose hedge and clear it all away but the whole garden looks so much tidier now.

Two of our nest boxes (with larger holes, for great tits) are occupied by house sparrows this year. That's the first time it has happened in all our 34 years in this garden. We also have dunnocks, robins and blackbirds nesting in a long stretch of very dense ivy which covers a dry stone wall. There are plenty of blue and great tits about but so far none are nesting in the garden.

[Ricard with an H]

Oh, poor OH, that must have been awful ....

Even worse with a brushcutter, I try to remember to disturb them but they don't run. They just hide in a different place, not nice having toad or frog all over the wire screen on my head protection.

I disturbed a little mouse who must have made a nest in the tree I was felling, little chap (Or girl) was running up and down the trunk to and from the rotted hole where the residence had been created.

Presumably moving all the worldly goods, my cut was above the nest though tomorrow I need to deal with the stump. Hopefully Mr/Mrs mouse has vacated the des-res.

[Elaine]

Dear OH...not nice. I still remember my horror at finding I had severed a toad's leg whilst digging.....there was no one around to help me so I had to despatch it myself. In the end, I had to put the injured creature in a bag so I couldn't see it while I did the deed.
I felt quite queasy afterwards and to this day, I'm scanning the soil for frogs and toads whilst I work.

My husband no longer tells me if he has injured one, just quietly puts it out of it's misery.