The weather continues to play its tricks. The ground was just about workable and yes it rained again. Heavy rain which meant once more the soil became waterlogged soil. Hey ho!
A little work done. I have added leeks (Gras Long d'Ete), aubergines (De Barbentine, Halflange Violette) and Roma VF tomatoes to the sown seed collection in the poly tunnel fleece cloche. Onion and shallot sets have been purchased and I wait for more drier conditions before planting them. I ought to have parsnips in by now but really the ground is so wet the seed would not germinate and parsnip is a poor seed to germinate at the best of times. A row of radish (18 jours race Velox) has been sown in the poly tunnel along side the row that I am now starting to pull. Just a few but hey a few is better than none! I have noticed that the lettuce I sowed on the 30th January is starting to show. Out in the garden the comfrey bed has been tidied up much to the delight of the chickens. I have also weeded the asparagus bed in anticipation! Asparagus does not like to be amongst weeds. I am looking forward to a few drier days!
The weather has not really improved. I was just starting to think that I would be able to get onto the garden beds and it rained heavily again and once more there were puddles on the beds. So again I have to wait.
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| Ditch bank Snowdrops |
In the last week I have managed to get moving with seed sowing in the poly tunnel. Tomato seed is now sown, varieties Galina, Coeur de Bouef, Champeau Giant, Ethel Watkins Best, Gardeners Delight, Millefleur and placed into the poly tunnel fleece cloche along with leeks and two varities of Aubergine. Most of the seed was gathered from my own tomatoes so it will be interesting to see how they do. Along with these I have sown celery and celeriac but I have those in the house to germinate.
There was as least one day over the last week which was a beautiful sunny day and it gave a hint of the spring to come. The crocuses and snow drops were open and our bees were active so the air temperature must have been over 10C. They were busy collecting pollen from the crocuses and snow drops. I took advantage of this lovely day and tidied up one of my perennial borders. Well, i redefined the edges and pulled/dug up some grass tuffs.
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| Crocuses in flower |
I took a look at my garden log for the past week. What do I see? Mostly blank entries. Just shows what the weather is like. Cold, windy, wet and hard frosts. I have been itching to sow more seeds but this year I am hanging on until at least the middle of February for tomatoes, celery and celeriac. One bright spot. My seed potatoes are showing signs of growth and the onion seed is thriving!
So, what has been done this week? Just a little bit of pruning and the setting up of the poly tunnel fleece cloche and "beep" all else! The weather is looking promising with the 9th and 10th February being sunny and cloud free. Unfortunately I had to move a cord of wood into the wood store today (Tuesday, 10th February) and that has sapped a lot of my motivation to do anything else! Shame on me!
Without anything much to write about I took the opportunity to look back at the blog that covered this time last year. Guess what? Yes, it had been raining and the ground was saturated. Seems to me that the ground has been like that for months! I had seed potatoes chitting, tomatoes, lettuce, celeriac and cauliflower all germinated. No, I will not change my mind and I am going wait a few more days.
What can I say? More rain and the ground is impossible! Looking back over the last week most of my time has been spent doing very little gardening. Still, got some things done like prune the climbing rose (which is climbing along a fence rather than up it), tidied up the poly tunnel a little and sowed some salad endive and red salad bowl lettuce in the the poly tunnel! The poly tunnel has been re-organised in readiness for putting up the poly tunnel fleece.
Good news! My Sturon and Yellow Rynsburger onion seed that I have had in modules in the house has germinated. I have bought my seed potatoes and they are chitting in seed trays on the dinning room floor. Varieties this year: Desiree, Charlotte and Bintje! Bintje are a Belgium developed potato that was used (not so much today) for making frites, a favourite of the Belgians.
Chickens have done well in January having laid some two hundred and eighteen eggs! Yeah! Oh, we had snow showers on the 1st February.
