It's official the flowers are fed up, ...
... the birds are fed up
... and most of all Martyn and I are totally fed up of this appalling weather. When it isn't snowing or raining or just cold wet and miserable, the snatches of brighter weather are not effective at drying the soil on the allotment. It is too muddy and claggy to dig, weed, plant or anything else. After the few visits to the plot I have left at least an inch taller - courtesy of mud coated soles.
As visits to the plot are few and far between, we are falling behind schedule as are the frogs that should by now have arrived in the garden pond!
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| Saturday evening 18:30 |
The annuals that you may remember that I sowed last autumn should have been planted out by now but are still languishing in module trays.
The potatoes are chitting but still under fleece .
We have managed some sowing though. Broad beans, leeks and lettuce have been sown and are sitting in our garden greenhouse waiting for a little heat to encourage germination. The trays each have a clear plastic lid covering them.
A group of plants that are keeping to schedule are the fruit trees in the garden greenhouse. I posted about pollinating the apricot blossom in an earlier post. The apricot flower petals are now falling and green leaf shoots are beginning to appear but it is too soon to tell whether my efforts at pollination have been successful.
Last to flower as usual will be the peach. At the moment its flower buds are tightly enclosed in green sepals. Sensible plant!
So it's not really all doom and gloom just yet and at least here in the UK many of us are in the same boat. Let's all just put in a joint plea for real spring to show itself soon.
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Il gelo è davvero abbastanza e tornerà anche qui la prossima settimana. Le tue semine sono però belle :) Complimenti anche per quell'elleboro super fiorito!
ReplyDeleteBuona Domenica.
Grazie Pontos, vorrei solo che arrivasse la primavera
DeleteI am beginning to wonder how long I can chit potatoes for!!
DeleteMm I know what you mean, Mal!
DeleteYour winter is surreal this year. Enough indeed!
ReplyDeleteIt is a long extended winter, Michelle
DeleteGhastly isn't it. Our frogs had already gathered before the Beast from the East. They hunkered down for a while until it passed and then they were back in force and frogspawn appeared last week. They're all hiding today from the snow though. No sign of nesting anywhere yet. I'm really hoping we have great tits in our nest box again this year, it was lovely watching them last year. A red kite flew over our garden earlier which is a first for us. We've never seen one around here before. I haven't sown a single seed yet this year. No doubt as soon as it warms up I'll get going. I usually sow things a bit on the early side anyway, so it won't hurt to wait for a while. And with no allotment this year I won't need as much. Fingers crossed for some springlike weather soon. I recall Cheltenham Festival weeks in the past when it's been warm enough to sit out in a t-shirt. (Only because I happened to be in Cheltenham, I wasn't at the races!)
ReplyDeleteI wonder whether the spawn will survive, CJ. We see a few red kites - especially in North Yorkshire which I believe was one of the original release sites. It’s good to know that they are spreading. Is there such a thing as a spring dance - if so I’ll give it a go as long as I can remain fully dressed including thermals and gloves.
DeleteOh no! It must feel worse for you after experiencing spring only to have it snatched away again. Hoping for some lasting warmer weather for you.
ReplyDeleteI just hate to see the flowers bent down under the snow, tpals. We wait for the spring flowers all winter and then they are hidden under the white stuff.
DeleteI lost my first cucumber seedlings so I shall be waiting until it warms up now. I thought Mrs Blackbird had deserted her new nest in the honeysuckle but I saw both of them standing close to it today, looking confused, with snow falling all around them. Perhaps they’ve decided to follow my lead with the cucumbers.
ReplyDeleteWe usually plant seeds later, Jessica. The worry os that the beds on the plot won’t be ready in time for planting out this year.
DeleteI agree - come on spring! We've had one snow already in March and there's a chance of another this week. I planted onions today but I'm holding off on anything else for a bit.
ReplyDeleteThere doesn’t appear to be any improvement temperature wise on the horizon for us yet, Dave, It’s sunny today but still bitterly cold.
DeleteUgh! No digging happens around here until April, at the earliest as the ground is still frozen. Hopefully our spring isn't delayed like yours has been.
ReplyDeleteIt looks as though at this rate the ground will take ages to dry enough for planting, Margaret. We didn’t get all our end of season jobs done last year due to not being able to get to the allotment so we were already a bit behind schedule.
DeleteThank you for sharing Sue lovely update i am hoping i do not get peach curl again this year any tips warmly welcome and blessing to you and Martyn
ReplyDeleteTHe reason we moved the peach and nectarine into the greenhouse was to avoid peach leaf curl, Linda. Advice tends to be to place a plastic cover over the tree from November to mid May leaving the ends open so insects can get in to pollinate. Have a good week.
DeleteThey're amazing photos of the blackbirds sue...beautiful.
ReplyDeleteSadly an allotment neighbour has been finding dead frozen frogs in her pond this weekend, maybe the pond is a bit shallow :( hopefully yours have found a safe place to hold up. The wind has been absolutely bitter hasn't it.
Thanks, Lou. It’s a shame about the frogs. We still haven’t seen any. Our pond is 5’ deep at it’s deepest so I guess some may be hiding deep down.
DeleteGetting to the enough stage here too, although garden bird visits have been entertaining. I'm not at all surprised with you, must be frustrating not getting to work at your plot. Fingers crossed the weather warms up soon but I fear we are not past the cold yet. Oh dear to your frogs, having not had any return to our pond so far I've no idea when we could expect them here.
ReplyDeleteI’m surprised that we haven;t seen any different species of birds than we normally have visiting, Shirley. Other exceptionally cold spells have brought some unfamiliar faces. Still no frogs but maybe just as well as next week sounds as though we are in for a bit more wintry weather
DeleteI think that real spring finally showed itself today Sue :)
ReplyDeleteI’m just hoping that it isn’t a temporary blip, Anna as forecasts aren’t too good.
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