In the bleak Mid Winter, Bits and Bobs.

[oldherbaceous]

So pleased to see the mornings and evenings getting lighter at both ends, with all possible haste!.
The birds are in really good voice this morning, so we are starting to get there.

[alan refail]

I think it will very soon be time to risk an Early Spring thread. The tentative monthly forecast for March is for high pressure for England and Wales, average daytime temperatures, frosty nights and much less rain

Fine day here today, so I must get the propagators set up and running and some sowing done today and over the weekend.

[Shallot Man]

Released a large bee that had got into the conservatory.

[retropants]

there were 3 large bees buzzing around the hyacinths in my hanging baskets by the front door on Saturday morning, real whoppers!

[Shallot Man]

Just come back from the plot. Someone was planting spuds.

[oldherbaceous]

Shall we start a Spring one at the weekend, Alan!

And i suppose Geoff is nearly ready to harvest his potatoes.

[alan refail]

Bright and sunny here today. Propagators up and running. Chillis, parsley, basil, bunching onions sown. As well as lettuce and cabbage (not on the heat). Tomatoes,more herbs and onions etc next week. Forecast suggests Saturday (1 March) an entirely appropriate day to start a new thread.

[Geoff]

First potato showing but a bit to go yet!
Propagator electrics are driving me mad. It has a soil warming cable in the sand base in the usual way plus another in the air space going round above the sand. These are connected together and controlled by a rod thermostat in the sand. It also has a pair of low energy growing lights controlled by a timer. The timer and the warming cables plug into a twin RCD socket. Soon after I started using it this year it started tripping out. I couldn't find a fault or get a definite pattern but there was some evidence it went as the thermostat switched, I got it to trip a few times by turning it up and down. I changed the thermostat (the original was about 1976) but it still trips from time to time but now I definitely can't find a pattern. It runs for quite a period regardless of whether the lights are on or off, I can switch the heat on and off by changing the temperature setting and nothing happens but then I find it has cut out again. I've run it with each of the cables used on their own without the thermostat and it didn't fail. Never fails with just the lights in use. I've now ordered a second RCD so hopefully if I get a failure of the heating I won't lose the lights.
First batch of stuff has gone from there to the greenhouse; peas, mangetout, cauliflower, cabbage, calabrese, turnips, lettuce but it is still full of tomatoes, aubergines, sweet peas, parsley, coriander, a salad box (cress, lettuce, radish, rocket) and verbena bonariensis cuttings. The greenhouse also has onions and shallots from seed.
Horrible cold wind and rain this morning has dried up a little this afternoon but wind still unpleasant.

[oldherbaceous]

Afternoon Geoff, i was wondering if your RCD has got a little trigger happy.
Although you should be able to find this out when you get your new one.

[retropants]

Big tray of mizuna have poked their little heads through. Spinach sown similarly, not showing yet, both sown last weds. Also sown last week were aubergines, chilies and peppers in heater propagator, lettuce, sprouts and cabbage in the greenhouse and.....I think that's all for now. I've ordered some heirloom toms from the USA, hopefully they'll arrive this week, and I can get them going too.

[Monika]

Sown the chilli and sweet peppers, celeriac and several pots of night-scented stock to spread around the garden. The forecast for the weekend looks good: dry and little wind, if cold. So we are hoping to clear the leeks (as I tend to use them in soups, I will freeze the last ones in chunks) because I want to prepare the bed for carrots and parsnips.

Only last year's few parsnips and lots of kale are still left on the allotment but they are looking a bit 'anaemic' - perhaps I should give them a nitrogen booster? The spring cabbage hasn't really liked this wet winter, but the slugs and snails did.

Looking forward to "Spring Bits and Bobs"!

[donedigging]

Thought OH was supposed to start a new thread this weekend..
"Spring bits and bobs"...
Hope all is ok and he hasn't got stuck up the clock tower

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Donedigging, no, i didn't get stuck up the tower, it was just that the weather was awful...