In the bleak Mid Winter, Bits and Bobs...

[Monika]

Snooky, nice to hear from you again and from a different place!

It sounds as if you are going to be very busy this year (and sometime to come!). If I were you I would try to convert some of the acquired lawn into a vegetable garden, then, at least, the vegetables are close to the house. But that depends of course how shady this lawn is, you having mentioned so many trees.

Make lots of plans - get lots of advice from books and/or magazines, websites (like this one) and local people - don't rush into things!

[Pa Snip]

Feeling rather pleased today and have a smile on my face.

Last year for the first time ever we decided to support, by request, our local village show by entering some produce.

So in a competitive spirit that many on here seem not to be interested in I have decided that this year I want to try and enter some large onions.

Never grown onions from seed before but decided to try growing 'Kelsae'.
Seeds arrived a month later than I had hoped but duly sowed them in trays and put them in a heated propagator in the greenhouse a couple of weeks back.

Lottery win this morning as little green shoots have emerged.

Now to try and ensure they don't dampen off

[Pa Snip]

08:00 Sunday 8th Feb

Bright looking morning, wind not heavy
Plan for today is go up the plot and see if I can get some more garlic in, along with more shallots otherwise they will soon be sending up shoots in the bags they are in.

Might also try to prepare some ground under cold frames for use in a few weeks time when Kelsae onions need hardening off.
( No idea what I'm doing with onions grown from seed but giving it a go, have only ever grown onions from sets in the past )

[Motherwoman]

Onions from seed are pretty good Pa Snip, not a lot of trouble. Don't need much heat, but plenty of light. prick them out when they have spent a few days 'un-doubled', I always found watering from below, when needed, was best. A trick for thickening them up is to gently run your hand over the tops a few times a day, just to make them spring about a little.

MW

[Clive.]

That's better...in the brilliant sunshine...at last I can get back on the ground at home here. I never did get all the Winter digging done so its change of plan now and fork it over.

I'm using a SKJO potato fork from I suspect the 1960s. However I have just bought a Fiskars fork with the same diamond back flat tines and must give it a try. It has a huge long handle....much as I like a long but conventional handle this one looks a bit long...but time will tell.

Meanwhile at work this morning snow was still lying North of hedges and path edges....and whilst it is drying it is still like bog.

Clive.

[Clive.]

Fiskars fork passed its commissioning test run all ok. Started the work of running it in...removing the thick black paint on tines through use. I regularly use an earlier one from when they were once allied to the Wilkinson Sword brand...these had a plastic sleeve on the metal shaft which is not on the new one.

Clive.

[Pa Snip]

MW

Thanks for the tip, I'll note it and when time is right I will pop down the greenhouse and give them a stroke or two.

[oldherbaceous]

Evening Clive, the last digging fork i bought was over twenty five years ago and was a Bulldog. I wore it out in about ten years of hard work. The tines are only about six inches long now, so it just gets used for border work,
I managed to get my favourite old flat tined fork,that i broke at the shank, welded up, so i use that for all my deep digging again now.

[retropants]

I managed to dig over the area where we are moving all the roses to. I had covered it with part-rotted manure last autumn, and that has all but diappeared now, so I turned it all over, put a nice flagstone path down the centre (in my usual 'not quite straight' fashion) and began to put some timber edges down the side of the path. It was getting a bit late, so I'll have to finish that off next week.

[Monika]

Heard the first mistle thrush sing today!

With most of the bulbs now coming through, I started clearing all the 'debris' under our long rose hedge - dried stalks of red campian, honesty, lamium etc etc. But then we had an afternoon out at LBS Horticulture near Colne in Lancashire. We have been going there for years and it's an absolute Aladdin's Cave for any gardener: rows and rows of pots, pans, trays of all sizes, fleeces, plastic sheeting, tools ...... I went to buy three packs of Erin potting compost and two super-size growbags and, of course, ended up with loads of other things.

They have a great website, too: www.lbsbuyersguide.co.uk

(and, no, I have no connection to anybody working there!)

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Monika, i use this company and have had very good service from them.

[peter]

Cleared ten yards of dogrose, bramble, blackthorn and hazel. Relocated my carpet on a pallet store and other obstacles. Dragged 6'x8' oil soaked floor to allotment. Removed wood 3"x2" base from metal shedand drag/rolled it to new location. Broke up, denailed and binned/kept bad/good bits of old wooden shed roof. Finished when it got dark.
Had a rest for an hour or two, then went to gym for 1:25 weights with 0:10 of that on the cross trainer thingy. Home by 21:45 for a bath then supper.

Thursday restful morning. Next job to assemble shed after making level brick piers and remanufacturing floor with new supports.

[oldherbaceous]

You sure know how to relax, when on a week off, Peter.

[peter]

Raining since 2pm, fed up with the damp.

[oldherbaceous]

I got wet a work this afternoon, too, Peter.