Kitchen Garden Forum

Just seen a pair of Doves mating.

Amazing what a little sun can do.

Bet Clive is itching to get a mower fired up.

After reading Doves mating....I scrolled down and saw my name.....and I wondered for a second what it was that I was was supposed to be up to..




I was mowing in the snow last Wednesday. ...

Dori 29" rotary mower running around some Hazel mincing leaves and the top off some nettle etc rubbish so that the Snowdrops can be viewed next month...

Clive.

My hellebores are flowering.....spring is definitely coming.....eventually

We have only yesterday emerged from the snow and particularly the black ice which covered everything (including vertical surfaces!) for a few days last week. As we live up a steep hill, we were marooned for four days - nobody dared drive up or down and walking was extremely hazardous. I walked very gingerly to our allotment on the other end of the village and still ended up on my bottom on a slope - luckily, I went down in slow motion! The allotment looks better than I dared hope, the leeks and parsnips (albeit cankerous) have survived and even a few beetroot! There were rabbit tracks in the snow all round our allotment but the double wire netting had obviously kept them out and there were no deer tracks (which we had feared). The pheasants had nibbled the bottom sprouts but the ones at the top are still fine and we had some over the weekend. Purple sprouting broccoli and kale (Nero di Toscana, dwarf curled and Ragged Jack) are looking a bit battered but certainly still usable and the spring greens (well protected against bird damage) are still alive too, having been frozen hard or buried in snow since before Christmas.

In the unheated greenhouse, iris danfordiae, iris reticulata and hyacinths are just showing their leaf tips with flower buds inside - roll on spring though I fear very much that we have not seen the last of winter yet!

In yesterday's sunshine I also spotted a collared dove wandering around the garden with a twig in its beak. I'm beginng to think the birds are as confused as we are with this weather.

But the 20+ blackbirds which flocked to our garden to feed on extra food while the snow was there have now all virtually disappeared without trace. Ferfidious little blighters !

Turns out it was not an urge to mow but in fact to start up the chainsaw...

Over in the South of the work gardens there is a Spring flower area....and also a rather poorly rotten branched Prunus Autumnalis which needed our attentions before the Snowdrop and other bulbs were any more through....so that was todays first task....dismantle Prunus with pole saw and top just above graft to give it the option to make some form of a comeback... The work developed into a ring of branches off a nearby young Cedar.....
Post put in at location for a Malus Red Sentinel that arrived pre Christmas.

In this area under the big old Horse Chestnut there are the first of the Snowdrops that are showing white bud...and couple of Aconites are showing.

We do have one clump of Snowdrop that always flower in late November.....

Work then switched to down the avenue drive as contractors had arrived to dismantle a Lime and pollard another.....tree climbing for them and a piles of logs for us to move..and bonfire up brash...

Working in the sunshine. ...til lunchtime anyway when it decided to hide a little.
....and drove home in light drizzle....

Clive.

Yep, we have ladybirds flying round the house and when I was emptying bottles into the council recycle bins on a sunny Sunday, there were insects buzzing round it.

Not so spring like today.....have been plenty warm sorting the logs on the drive side...but on taking off sweaty chainsaw helmet the cool breeze from the North East was very apparent.....

Clive.

Seems dark early today....
..and a tad cool to the head again following a visit to the barbers...

Day off today....have been to Johnsons Garden Centre at Boston shopping for seed tateys for home and work.

Dad has got his Swift, Lady Christl, & Valor. Valor did well for him last year in lieu of Sunrise so he has gone with the Valor again.
He got Kestrel last Sunday from Parkers, Anwick G C.

For work I have stocked up with Lady Christl, Arran Pilot, Maris Peer, Kestrel, Charlotte. Premiere already in stock from Anwick.
Ambo, Merlin, Harmony still to get.

I got 4 varieties of Shallot today too..2 red, 2 yellow

So a bit more progress towards Spring..

Might get a few minutes at home digging caught up now...

Clive.

Dear Clive, it's been very dark here today as well, the clouds must have been rather thick, but at least they didn't empty their contents.

It's always a nice feeling getting ones seed potatoes ready for the year ahead, well i think it is.

It was nice to get out and do some real gardening today. Cut down the Autumn Bliss, cleaned them up, fed and mulched them - that should be the last attention they need for a while. Also fed and mulched the Rhubarb. Broke up and raked level the bed I double dug in the Autumn that will be having First and Second Early potatoes in it, it was in remarkably good condition. If the wind drops I'll sheet it over tomorrow to warm up for planting in March.

Yes, it's been lovely to see the sun today. I tidied up the bed under our long rose hedge and covered some precocious bulbs with well rotted leafmould because, I suspect, we'll still get a fair share of hard frost. The smell in the greenhouse was gorgeous! Also dug the sweet pea and runner bean beds and dug in a lot of FYM (without aminopyralid!).

If it stays dry and unfrozen for a bit, I shall turn in the first lot of green manure and re-dig the large bed on which we spread the aminopyralid-affected manure. Hopefully, with three diggings over six months, we'll get rid of the nasties.

We put the chainsaw away today and returned to proper gardening...except for a few minutes of furniture moving.......

Finished a job we started last week on an Apple tree and then onto Rose pruning...including one quite severe prune down to 18" of a tired wall Rose.

Our new recruit volunteer ably cut down some more herbaceous that was still outstanding to be done..

Last job of the afternoon saw a tidy through Zeva the Autumn Raspberries..

....and it was still just workable light when we were packing the tools away
.....but we still failed to see actual sunshine.....

Clive.

Today was much sunnier than was forecast in the Britains garden..and as can be seen the spring bulbs are now well out....

The lawn has been rolled and the mower is out for the first cut....

Clive.