Starting to walk faster....

   And off we go! A very short entry this time as most of the slots in my garden log are empty meaning nothing has been done. The weather continues to be against me somewhat. The ground is very wet but it is very mild and of course the grass (and weeds!) are starting to grow. A neighbor has even cut their grass! Mind you they have a ride on mower!
   Seed potatoes bought, onion sets bought, shallots bought, seeds bought. It is time to get a little more serious. I have now put up the fleece cloche in the poly tunnel. Over the next week I will start to sow tomato seed and maybe some onion seed. The seed potatoes are set up in seeds trays "chitting". This year I have Desiree, Corolle (new to me!), Bonnette Noirmoutieur and a favourite Belle de Fontenay. Here is hoping for another good year for onions and potatoes.
   On the animal front the chickens are on a egg laying strike with an average during January of only four a day being laid whereas last January they were laying on average seven a day. Three rams have been moved to a neighbours back garden in an attempt to stop some of the agression going on between the six of them.
   
   

Thoughts of spring

   January is moving along and before you know it it will onion and shallot set planting time along with the purchase of seed potatoes.

Snow fall

   I look at the cherry trees and see that the flower buds are starting to swell. I guess it is not many weeks until the cherry trees flower and then it will be getting warmer and that means only one thing. The grass will grow.
  It actually snowed over this last week. A proper snow shower which did not last long. As you see below I have been spending time in the kitchen baking. Chocolate fairy cakes with pink butter icing. My wife used to make them for my daughters.

Nothing to do with gardening but they were nice!

  Looking at the garden log over the last week what has been done? Not a lot. Moved three rams to another paddock to relieve the grass and try to stop the head butting warfare that has been going on between the senior rams. I wondered if getting nothing done in January was unique and so I looked back to the log entry of  January 2015 and hey, lots of blank entries. So, I can stop feeling guilty at not doing anything much and just relax and wait. There will soon be more than enough to do. Need to enjoy my youngest grandchild, Evie, a little more methinks!
   I have bought some more seeds. My rhubarb has been poor for two years now. So I have bought some rhubarb seeds. Should be interesting to grow rhubarb from seeds rather than splitting a crown.
  So even though I have more blank entries than filled ones in my garden log I have still managed to babble on! Ha!

Crocus and snowdrops!

14016 Snowdrops

140116 Crocus

    Looks like spring is going to be early this year. Snowdrops and crocus in flower in the middle of January. Last year the crocus did not flower until the middle of February. 
   Looking back at the week on my garden log all I see is blank spaces! The weather has been wet and cool. Nothing done. I need a period of dry weather to be able to crack on with the outside garden jobs. 
   What I have done is finish off my seed purchasing. I have bought some jalapeno pepper seed which I have never grown before and some purple sweet pepper seed. Along with the usual green and red the sweet pepper bed should be a picture!

Funny ole winter.

Flowering comfrey 311215

   Happy New Year!

   Generally up to now it has been a mild winter with only a few days when it has been really cold. Yes, there have been a good number of frosts and the early morning temperatures have been below zero on occasion but the sun has shone and the weather has varied between mild to warm. The photograph was taken on the 31st December 2015. I have never seen comfrey in flower in December let alone at the end of the month. When will winter really strike I wonder? Now (08/01/16) it is raining and it is a persistent shower with the occasional heavy burst of rain and there is standing water about the place.

   In the poly tunnel I have sown peas and two types of early onions. The onions are a salad type and can be sown at this time of year. I guess I am taking a chance but hey if you do not you never know if you can succeed. In the outside garden the garlic is thriving and the winter cabbage and the leeks are doing fine as well. The ground as I write this is once more at the saturated stage and there are puddles of water on some of the beds. 
   Experience has show that early January is too soon to sow seeds like tomatoes and onions. You watch this year I will regret not having sown them. So what is to be done? Not a lot when the ground is so wet and it is impossible to do anything outside of the poly tunnel. Having said that I have a pear tree that I want to move before the workmen move in to prepare for the new fosse septique. Cannot do that though if it is raining! There are still tree onions in an outside bed and they are now looking dormant. They will need to be dug up and separated before replanting in February. The tunnel is as prepared as I can make it. Compost has been spread on the beds and I water them now and then to keep them moist and encourage the worms to do their work. I await the showing of the peas and spring onions!
   Looking forward a little to the end of January beginning of February when it will be the time to look out for onion sets, shallots and seed potato and the season will be really getting underway.

The New Year begins

   Happy New Year! Christmas has gone and 2016 has started and this is the first posting of 2016. 2015 ended with a freezer disaster with me loosing two turkeys and three chickens. Fortunately none of them were required for Christmas. My seed holding has been sorted and I have a good idea of what my sowing and planting for 2016 will be. It will be a year of unusual tomatoes with a bit of luck! I have been given some seed that will produce blue tomatoes. That seems to be as bad as violet potatoes! 

Morning moon 271215

   I often wonder if the phases of the moon affect sowing and planting. The picture opposite was taken on the morning of the 27th December 2015. There is a whole raft of stuff about the subject and here in France there would seem to be quite a following.
   In the garden once more not a lot done. I have cleared off the bean poles, late I know and I am wondering whether to leave them up or not. Most of the leaves have now been raked up and put into a leaf compost heap. Due to the mild weather I have managed to pull a couple of turnip/swedes and I cannot say that I prefer them to swede. Never been a keen fan of turnip. I guess the turnip/swede would be quite good in soup and stews but mashed, no. I still have a few carrots in the ground and really must use them up. Also I have winter cabbage the size of footballs. I have to admit to planting F1 hybrids here bought from the local market as my own plants failed. The winter leeks are now of an edible size and the few purple sprouting plants are now recovering from the late attack by white butterfly caterpillars.
  The better part of two years old leaf compost has now been spread over the poly tunnel beds. An area has been prepared for a sowing of white spring onions except these have a bulb and are not like White Lisbon and yes they can be sown now.
  On the animal front I can report that our eleven hens produced 2554 eggs in 2015 (Jan-Dec) with sixty either soft shell or laid outside the coop. That is approximately seven eggs a day! What have we done with 2500 eggs??? The geese were processed and one eaten for Christmas dinner. It was quite nice but I am not convinced they are worth the effort. The decision has been made not to raise geese or turkeys next year.
  I am keen to get cracking with early sowing but I need to resist sowing tomato seed too early. Last couple of years I have sown it around the middle of January and ended up with plants ready to put out before the last frost has happened. I will sow some lettuce soon. That has worked well.
  Still lots to do. Need to take herb cuttings and sort out my three herb beds which are now two or three years old and some plants are getting a little long in the tooth. So upwards and onwards!