Through the Garden Gate--March 2023

March has not been very Spring like this year. We've had a lot of rain, it's been cold, windy and we even had a bit of snow. The rain has been constant and stopped me from getting out into the garden to do jobs. I've had to dodge the showers and take advantage of the odd couple of hours of a dry spell or sometimes  I've been lucky and there's been a whole day of sunshine too good to waste. We are just longing for some fine, dry weather. 

Despite this bad weather we've managed to do quite a bit of work in between the showers.  Most of the borders have now been cleared of dead foliage and leaves. In the back garden we mulched the beds with a soil improver. We spread a bark mulch on the woodland wildlife bed in the back garden and on the hosta bed in the front garden. The garden always looks so much better when this has been done, it suppresses the weeds for a while and shows off the lovely bright green of the emerging plants.

Although the weather hasn't been very Spring like there are still plenty of signs that Spring is here. There are buds on the trees and some are starting to open up so there's a little haze of green as we look out the house windows.

In the beds the spring flowers are coming into bloom. There is plenty of yellow from the daffodils.

Clumps of primroses are dotted around under trees and shrubs and as a contrast blue pulmonaria and the forget-me-not like flowers of the brunnera are opening up now. 

The pulmonaria pop up all over the garden. This little one has turned out a pale pink, I've never seen one that colour before.

I bought some drumstick primula and planted them in the front garden.

The patio pots are mainly full of daffodils, but there are some violas too and the tulips have buds which hopefully will be flowering next month. 

The clocks went forward last weekend so we have longer days for gardening. There's lots to look forward to in the coming weeks. Hope you all have a happy  Easter. 

I am linking this blog post to Sarah's blog at 'Down by the Sea'  for her monthly 'Through the Garden Gate' post.

A few wildlife jobs on the allotment

Last week was a chilly week with snow again, but earlier in the week before the snow came we tackled a few wildlife jobs on the allotment.

The woodland area at the top of the allotment is an area where we can't grow anything because of the big sycamore tree which dominates. The good thing about this is that it provides a home for a lot of wildlife. I've written before about how we cleared the area to make somewhere for the grandchildren to play. They are teenagers now  and are no longer interested, but I still love this area. 

Our seating area is just below the big tree and when we sit there having our tea breaks there is so much activity from the birds flying in and out. There is a privet hedge behind the tree between our plot and the next one up. Also there is elder which provides us with lovely blossom in the spring and berries in the autumn. I pick the blossom  to use when I am making jam. It goes well in gooseberry or strawberry jam. 

When I first created this wildlife area I planted bulbs and shade loving plants. There are crocuses, snowdrops, Tete a Tete daffodils and bluebells. The bluebells do well and I am happy for them to spread. I've tried to get some foxgloves going too. 

The downside of the sycamore tree is all the leaves which fall all over the plot in the autumn and need clearing up especially from the paths. I don't clear them from under the hedge and around the base of the tree and any other nooks and crannies. Then in the spring the plot is covered with the little sycamore spinning Jenny seeds which fall everywhere then germinate and I am constantly trying to hoe them out.

The tete a tete and crocuses are flowering now and I can see the new growth of the  woodland plants I put in there.  Soon it will look more colourful like the picture below which was taken last year when all the euphorbias were out. I like them but they tend to take over, popping up all over the place as they send out runners underground. 

Last week I did one of the  jobs I do on the allotment every year at this time. That is to have a bit of a tidy up in the woodland area. It might seem the wrong thing to do, to tidy up a wildlife area, but it needs to be kept under control so that the weeds don't start to encroach on the vegetable beds and the rest of the allotment. And I pull up those euphorbias from places where they are not wanted. When it has all been tidied up I put bark chippings down on the pathway which goes around the tree. At the moment there are no chippings available to use so I am waiting for some to be dumped on the allotment site. Then it will be a race with our wheelbarrows as we and  all the other plot holders get their share of them.

Our other wildlife area is the pond. We built this a few years ago out of an old tin bath which was left on the allotment by the previous tenant. It was in good condition with no holes. We have had frog spawn each year which is always exciting. I give it a clean out every year in the spring to get rid of leaves and excess mud. 

This year I did the same, it was in a bit of a bad state with overgrown pond plants which I removed. Then I set to scooping out some of the excess mud and added more water as the water level was quite low. I soon realized that the pond was leaking because of a hole in the side where the metal had rusted. So we decided instead of getting rid of the tin bath we would leave it in place and put a pond liner in it. This was Richard's job last weekend. It wasn't as big a job as as I had thought and he completed it in one afternoon.

He needed to empty the bath completely of the stones and mud and to our delight he found frogs in the mud at the bottom and another one under one of the big stones around the edge. 

There must have been about four frogs and we think a toad. We kept them safe in a bucket while he finished off lining the pond and when the stones were back in place I gently popped them back into the pond. It must have been a bit of a shock to them, to be wakened up from their hibernation. We're hoping we haven't upset them too much and when the weather warms up will soon have  spawn back in the pond.

Mulching, pruning, and getting ready for Spring

Its been good to get back to working on the allotment after the rain and snowy weather we had early on in January. It was drier in February and we had sunshine, but it has been quite cold. We've been working at a slow steady pace, with about two or three visits to the plot a week for about two to three hours. We both struggle with pain in our joints and we now have to be more careful about how much we do in one session. Lots of tea breaks! Last year when I was first diagnosed with Rheumatoid arthritis I thought I would have to give up the allotment and we said we would give it a year to see how we got on. Well we did really well I'm pleased to say, so we'll carry on as long as we take it at a slower pace.  And with the latest shortages in tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers I think we're best to grow our own.

Over the last few weeks I've cleared all the dead plant material from the veg beds and weeded. Then I spread a manure mulch over the beds. There are some vegetables still growing, leeks and parsnips. I dug some of the parsnips up at the weekend and there are some really big ones. I brought a bagful home but there are still some in the ground. Spicy parsnip soup could be on the menu soon. I've cleaned both greenhouses out so they are ready now to be filled up with seedlings when I start those off.

The next job was to prune the fruit bushes. There are blackcurrants, redcurrants, gooseberries, blueberries and raspberries. I gave the apple tree a bit of a trim but I'm never sure if I'm doing it right. The fruit bushes and rhubarb then got a mulch of manure and a feed of blood fish and bone. I mulched the blueberries with the shreddings from the Christmas tree as they like an acidic soil We do this every year and they seem to like it.

I started off onion sets in cell modules. I'm growing two varieties, Sturon and Turbo. Red onions never do very well for me so I've decided not to bother with them this year. Shallots do well but I find them difficult to peel because of the arthritis in my hands, so I won't bother with those either.

The potatoes are chitting at home. I'm growing Rocket and Charlotte. I've also sowed broad beans in cardboard tubes and those are on the kitchen windowsill.

With regular visits to the plot I feel pleased that we are on top of the work. There are some bigger jobs which are on our to do list. Like repairing a section of fencing, mending the strawberry troughs, relining the pond and sorting out the leaf bin area. These will keep Richard busy for the next few weeks. My next job will be to start sowing seeds at home to grow on the kitchen windowsill.