Sunday 19 February 2017

At last!

At last a couple of dry days and some sunshine. I've been itching to get out into the garden for weeks. The soil is wet and sticks to my boots, but there's so much to be done, ground to clear, shrubs and trees to prune, perennials to divide that in spite of claggy (technical term!) footwear I've been outside clearing the vegetable beds ready for spring planting.
There are still quite a few crops to harvest, including sprouts, swede, leeks, chard and spinach. Can you see all the mole hills in the orchard? They've been very busy tunnelling there and in the garden whilst I've been tucked up inside throughout the winter.

It's lovely to see spring flowers and the green tips of bulbs emerging from the ground. The snowdrops are putting on a good show.

Miniature daffodils around Maisie's grave.

We walked up the road to meet friends for lunch at the local hotel.
It always involves a pootle round the vegetable garden to see what's growing.
 How impressive!

This is what I aspire to!

14 comments:

  1. Can you cover or straw your beds ? would that help or just cause mold to grow ?
    What I see, except the mole holes looks so nice to me.
    I think you need to rest in the winter so you can be ready of spring.

    cheers, parsnip

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    1. In past years I've put strips of old carpeting down in the autumn and then just rolled it back in the spring. I'll have to see if anyone is throwing out a wool carpet that doesn't have any plastic/rubber backing so that I can do that again!
      Freshly dug ground looks so promising, now I'm eagerly anticipating the growing season ahead.

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  2. ah, I can almost feel the grit under my fingernails

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    1. Clairvoyant, R. Mac Wheeler! I've been working in the greenhouse with potting grit all morning!

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  3. Our spring is not happening yet, but yours is exciting with all the flowers coming up, or already in bloom. I have raised bed envy! -Jenn

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    1. And I've got full-time gardener envy whenever I look at the hotel veg plots!
      Spring is back on hold again with me and the threat of colder weather to come.

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  4. You have already got a fair bit going on in the spring colour department! Further on than our garden, in the East Midlands near Hull. We too are 'claggy' underfoot, but there is a good wind drying it our today. So exciting that spring is beginning to spring !

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    1. Hello Jane, Isn't 'claggy' a wonderfully descriptive word, and today's description, 'muzzle' equally so! I'm feeling seriously sun deprived and back to skulking about inside.

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    2. Oops, meant to write 'mizzle.' The computer comes along later and alters things - it always thinks it knows best.

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  5. Not a flower in sight yet. Since my city house was all planted with barely a square inch to plant, I put up a raised cedar planter yesterday, to be planted with vegetables. Hope they get enough sun.

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  6. You garden is much greener than ours , but we have buds and that is a wonderful thing to see in February. I do think, though, that I will have primroses before the end of the week.

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    1. The valiant effort of late winter and early spring flowering is so much appreciated. I walk round the garden every day, even in a howling wind, to see what is promising.

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  7. You have a wonderful display of snowdrops. It must be wonderful having an orchard, it has always been one of my dreams to have one! Sarah x

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