Wet, wet, wet

   Nothing like a winter bonfire. I have now managed to burn all the wood pruned from the apple tree and some. I have started to clear the house garden and I am building up yet another bonfire! Man! In my bank border, if one can call it a border, one crocus has managed to flower and more and more narcissus are showing. I went looking for snow drops on the road ditch bank and they are about half an inch high. 

Bonfire

The last couple of weeks have been very quiet on the gardening front. More often than not too wet to do anything meaningful outside. In the poly tunnel my "Christmas" potatoes are  growing well and I am still just about able to cover them up with soil. They are also protected by fleece. Hopefully that will be enough as long as there is not a sequence of severe frosts. The pace will quicken now that January is coming to end. Onion, tomato, lettuce, sweet pepper and aubergine seed have been sown and are sat on my dinning room floor, keeping warm. The onions sown at the start of January are now well on their way. I need to go and get my seed potatoes. I like to plant a small crop of an unusual potato so I will be on the lookout for a heritage variety.
   The last of the oak leaves are now safely packed away under a tarpaulin. For once I beat the chickens!

Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Whoa not so fast!

   As long as the weather holds there is plenty to do outside. Christmas and New Year is now behind me and the excess of food and drink almost forgotten. 

Plot in process of being expanded

Two plots forked, weeded and expanded

 The weather has cooperated for a change and there have been several days of no rain but sunshine and warmth. This has allowed me to get on with forking and weeding a couple of plots that had tomatoes planted in them but have not been touched since clearing the plants back in September. I took the opportunity to expand these plots by a foot or so on the length to enable me to plant another row of whatever!  The year has begun with the sowing of Sturon and Yellow Rynsburger onions in seed trays and modules. Much to my surprise after four days up popped onion seedlings! They are now growing away quite happily. My tree onion sets have also sprouted. I am holding off sowing tomato seeds but they will need to go in soon.

Sturon and Yellow Rynsburger onions

   In the poly tunnel the promising cauliflowers were badly affected by the damp and resulting mould and have been removed. Mould has been a real problem in the poly tunnel this last season a result of the very wet weather.
   In the store room I have sorted the apples and there are still plenty there. Butternut and blue banana squash are surviving well. The yellow Rynsburger onions are keeping well and living up to what it said on the seed packet that they are good store onions. I still have plenty of home grown garlic left.
  With the few days (really a few hours per day!) of relative sun I have also been able to finally prune my red apple tree. A  lot of wood came out of the tree and at last light, air and sunshine will be able to get to the centre. Knowing my luck I will have killed it off! The chickens have been their usual annoying selves and have enjoyed scratching in the forked earth. 

We are underway!

Yellow Rynsburger Sturon and tree onion

   Yes! The season is underway. Yellow Rynsburger and yellow Sturon onion seed has been sown into half seed trays and modules. Tree onion sets have be sown in a pot.  I finally got round to getting a dead oak tree by the river cut down. The tree was cut up into 50cm and 30cm lengths. That included the trunk! It was straight forward enough to stack the cut up branches but moving the pieces of trunk required brute strength and took over four hours over two days to get them up from the river bank to a more level area. Next job is to split them up into stove burnable pieces. Hopefully it will form part of next years wood supply.

Oak tree being stacked after being cut down.

   In the outside garden the weather has relented and it has not rained much for a few days. It is in fact quite mild. Herbs do not stay looking fresh and good for ever so I have rearranged my herb beds. In my new herb bed I have  transplanted rosemary, chives and sage from the old beds. In one of the old beds I have dug up the horse radish, split it and replanted it. That bed will hopefully now become a bed of horse radish and one old sage plant which I am expecting to remove at some point. In the other old bed my Bolls mint has pretty much taken over. No surprise there. The thyme, lemon and common, is looking ragged. The lemon time in particular has not fared well in the wet weather. I have taken some cuttings of the lemon thyme but I think I will be on the look out for a plant in the garden centre. I will remove the thyme eventually and allow the mint to take complete control. I have some golden oregano to dig up and move but I also want to take some cuttings. Much to my amazement several marjoram plants are surviving the winter and actually look quite well. I need to research as to whether or not one should keep this plant from year to year as I understand it is supposed to be an annual. The rhubarb patch has been cleared and manured and I noticed a crown looked ready to sprout. It will not be long now. I have finally managed to start forking and weeding the vegetable plots. The soil is damp and a little heavy in places but workable. 
   In the poly tunnel french shallots (banana shaped) have sprouted and are growing well. My, ahem, Christmas potatoes, are once more showing their little heads so I guess it must be a little warmer. I have taken sage and rosemary cuttings and pushed them into the soil. Experience says at least fifty per cent will root! More winter leaves have been sown and fingers crossed I may have a cauliflower or two!
   So, on we go! As always lots of clearing up still to do and I get the feeling that things are about to start growing. 

2014 - New Season is upon me!

   Happy New Year! I hope Santa brought you what you wanted. Just a short blog as really not a lot has been going on.
   So, here we are once more! January. Time to think seriously about sowing onion and tomato seed. Also in the back of my mind potatoes. In the vegetable garden all is wet and horrible. The garlic, field beans, leeks, beetroot, spinach and swede are hanging in there. The chickens like cabbage so the poor old swedes have taken a beating. Ninety nine per cent of their leaves have been eaten. Not really an issue. My green manure has also been eaten to nothing by the chickens. Mind you, they are producing some nice eggs! The ground is still very wet and really not worth trying to cultivate. In the poly tunnel my french onions are sprouting and the kohl rabi is just about ready to pick. The coriander looks good probably the best batch I have grown as it has grown slowly. The very early rosemary cuttings I stuck in just as an experiment have taken and hopefully I will have another six rosemary plants. My Christmas potatoes, now to be early 2014 potatoes have remained dormant. I am keeping an eye on them and will cover them up as soon as I see any sign of them. Soon be time to start looking for the asparagus shoots. Still lots to do in the outside garden just need the weather to cooperate a bit.