Tuesday, March 9

The year marches on!

Well the crocuses managed to show their faces last week - maybe wished they hadn't though.

We also managed to show our faces on the plot but were far more well wrapped up than the crocuses in only their party dresses. The layers of clothing made us look as though the months of inactivity had left us several stone heavier.

I have enjoyed visiting quite a lot of garden blogs and websites over the past few weeks. The activity out there is amazing. We have however resisted the temptation to sow any seeds yet although most people seem to have started sowing seeds. At the moment our seeds are staying in their packets. Few seeds will be sown until the weather improves – we may risk some of the hardier vegetables such as broad beans. No doubt, with the help of a heated propagator, seeds would germinate so that isn’t an issue. The problem comes once the seedlings need pricking out or growing on. Advice to keep seedlings in the house on a windowsill doesn’t work – not for us anyway. Even if we had enough window sills the seedlings still become weak and leggy. The seedlings suffer a setback and cannot continue to grow – this means once they are planted out they have a struggle to recover. Seeds sown later can be kept in continuous growth so their growing isn’t interrupted and they usually catch up or even overtake earlier sowing to produce stronger plants. It’s just so tempting to start when reading that everyone else is but with prolonged periods of minus degrees - this year is just so exceptional cold - we will just have to be brave and stand firm.

The first diary entry for March - yes it's March already - has been posted on the website and can be viewed here

The list of seeds we have bought is here



8 comments:

  1. I'm with you on this one...I have seen many blogs where people are sowing indoors but I prefer to wait until the weather is warmer so i can have my boxes outside and then plant on as soon as the seedlings are big enough. After all...plants were never meant to be grown in the house!!

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  2. If we follow how nature does it - things just wait for the conditions to be right. The daffodils aren't saying "It's freezing cold but it's March and I need to flower so I will anyway!"

    You can't cheat nature can you?

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  3. I think you're being wise, although I have to confess that I've sown quite a lot of seeds already. Last year I put up a mini plastic greenhouse inside my normal greenhouse and moved the seedlings into that. It worked really well and I intend to do that again this year.

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  4. Sort of double glazed greenhouse - sounds good.

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  5. I'm waiting on most things too. I don't have a greenhouse (or garden!) and I also don't fancy having seedlings on my windowledges at home. It gives me lots of time to tidy up the allotment after the over-winter neglect and plan what I want to put where. Doesn't mean I am not buying some seeds, ready!

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  6. We have all our seeds bought and waiting too!

    There's a whole list on our website
    in links to this post

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  7. The Crocuses are so pretty and fresh looking and such a welcome sight after the long hard Winter we have had. Looking back at your previous posts your Daffodils and Tulips seem much more advanced than mine!

    I loved the Blue Tit photos, birds are not an easy subject for photography, it is so frustrating when you have them lined up in a beautiful pose and just as you start to press the shutter they are gone!

    Thank you so much for the mention and the link, that was a lovely surprise and very kind of you :)

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  8. I did manage some better photos of waterbirds this week which aren't really garden linked so haven't appeared here! Waterbirds seems to be a bit more sedate.

    I did get one really good photograph of the rippling water left behind as a mallard took off - very pretty but no bird!

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