More snow is falling as I type, there have been a couple of flurries so far today but it is now giving a good dusting of the sheds and pergolas as I look out of the back window. One of my favourite Christmas presents was my wireless thermometer which we are currently using in the back room to try and figure just how much colder it is in there than the rest of the house. At the moment we're pretty certain its freezing each night and so haven't tried to put it outside!
The broad beans i planted in October have given up but they get an A+ for effort, when the deep snow melted it became obvious their lower leaves were damaged but now most have shrivelled or fallen over. I will plant up a second batch in early February. The shallots are looking spindly but have survived and even though I had to look pretty hard yesterday when I went to check on the compost bin I think that at least one of the 12 garlic cloves I planted has germinated. The green Manure which I sowed has done brilliantly and I am looking forward to digging it in. However the winter peas get a -E for effort with none of them germinating, having sown them under our fleece tunnel i am quite shocked that these have done so badly.
The earthworms have taken refuge in the compost bin now, each time i lift the lid up then its a wriggling hive of activity which is great. I think one of my first spring jobs is going to be to lift up the bin and gradually extract the proper composted material from the bottom and dig the rest in. I am not certain what has encouraged our bin to start working but i suspect the worms and the increasing amount of 'woody' material we've put in has helped.
So the Thompson & Morgan + Marshalls catalogues are open on the table and I have a cup of tea and slice of cake to help me work out what to grow this year. We are now thinking of moving house so my beloved garden will quite obviously not be coming with me, although the chance to have a proper shed/greenhouse/compost stack/vegetable patch is tempting me. I don't want to spend too much money on seeds because I can't take the plants with me if (when) we move, however i do need to plan ahead in case we don't find anything we like. I think the list will go something like this, peas, runner beans, courgettes, tomatos, carrots, onions, early potatos in tubs and spring onions. And lettuce.
I might not be able to take the plants with me but I can take the slug protection copper tape, the fleece polytunnel and maybe even the tomatos in baskets. We'll have to see. Overall the idea of getting dug into a new garden thrills me but the idea of leaving my little garden I made with the help of a few friends does make me a bit sad.
Friday 29 January 2010
Friday 8 January 2010
Under the weather on my birthday
Last time I wrote we had had some snow but not excessive amounts, I was additionally feeling rather tired and somewhat under the weather but put this down to the early start for my last day working in Suffolk. The beans were doing ok and the garden semed to have got through the frosts, the shallots were coming up and I was choosing from my seed catalogues.
New Year was heralded in with me coming down with severe bronchitis, I made it until midnight but faltered fairly soon after that and the last week has been a haze of honey with lemon, coughing, antibiotics and generaly feeling sorry for myself. It seems that the garden has been suffering in a similar way with some extraordinarily long lasting snow and heavy ice. I got some new boots today and they are so funky I just had to go investigate the garden.
Wrapped up warm I discovered that the fleecing i had wrapped around the acer, hibiscus and apple had frozen solid and (luckily) fallen off the shrubs. I am just keeping my fingers crossed that they will bud in teh Spring. The beans which in our pre-Christmas snowfall were merrily poking out of the top of the snow have given up and become buried, along with the shallots, garlice and honesty. The only things which seemed to be actually enjoying the snow were two green pea shoots which were waving around happily in the breeze.
My polytunnel which was about £15 has become a solid frozen icicle and although I got the worst of the snow off I didn;t want to rip the fabric and so couldn't tell how the peas underneath are doing. We are forecast several days if not another week of sub-zero temperatures so i think it will be a while before i can properly survey the damage to my plot.
New Years Resolutions included a determination to make the plot as productive as possible, and a final nail in the coffin of the supermarket for sourcing our food - especially fish and meat. My halfway house has been to get meat and fish straight from the counters rather than packaged, but I really really want to stop doing this and getting all our food direct from farmers markets or local food shops. Budget also comes into this, obviously, with only one of us working, but i can cycle to various shops now to get food.
New Year was heralded in with me coming down with severe bronchitis, I made it until midnight but faltered fairly soon after that and the last week has been a haze of honey with lemon, coughing, antibiotics and generaly feeling sorry for myself. It seems that the garden has been suffering in a similar way with some extraordinarily long lasting snow and heavy ice. I got some new boots today and they are so funky I just had to go investigate the garden.
Wrapped up warm I discovered that the fleecing i had wrapped around the acer, hibiscus and apple had frozen solid and (luckily) fallen off the shrubs. I am just keeping my fingers crossed that they will bud in teh Spring. The beans which in our pre-Christmas snowfall were merrily poking out of the top of the snow have given up and become buried, along with the shallots, garlice and honesty. The only things which seemed to be actually enjoying the snow were two green pea shoots which were waving around happily in the breeze.
My polytunnel which was about £15 has become a solid frozen icicle and although I got the worst of the snow off I didn;t want to rip the fabric and so couldn't tell how the peas underneath are doing. We are forecast several days if not another week of sub-zero temperatures so i think it will be a while before i can properly survey the damage to my plot.
New Years Resolutions included a determination to make the plot as productive as possible, and a final nail in the coffin of the supermarket for sourcing our food - especially fish and meat. My halfway house has been to get meat and fish straight from the counters rather than packaged, but I really really want to stop doing this and getting all our food direct from farmers markets or local food shops. Budget also comes into this, obviously, with only one of us working, but i can cycle to various shops now to get food.
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