Catch up time


It is hard to believe that it is already the end of March. I have spent today catching up on my seed sowing for both the garden and kitchen plot. Not a bad thing all considered as the weather hasn’t really been fit for any of the outside jobs that needed doing. I did manage to get the tomatoes off to an early start in February and it won’t be long now before these will need potting on. Today I got sown peas, mangetout, broad beans, spinach, cabbage and various flower seeds, I also managed to get sown a row of parsnips and plant out the onion sets. For some reason last year I had no luck what so ever with the parsnips, didn’t even get a seedling!  After having great success the previous year I have no idea what went wrong, but I have my fingers crossed for this year.

Whilst the greenhouse benches are filling up with seed trays and young plants from last year one of the borders is now filling up with tulips. I planted these  last November, the idea being to provide cut flowers for the house. Being in the greenhouse they are protected from the worst of the weather, make use of my otherwise empty borders and they flower much earlier than those planted outdoors. It was a success last year, providing several bunches of tulips.

Last week I managed to get out and get some lawn care done, which basically for me amounts to scarifying the grass to get rid of some the thatch that has accumulated and putting down some more lawn seed. Had a look at how it was doing today and it looked patchy in places, I am sure the birds must have been eating the seed. Wouldn’t mind but it’s not as if I don’t feed them!

The flower garden at the minute is a mass of yellow, from the subtle shades of the native primrose to the loud cheerfulness of the daffodils.  Everywhere you look in between there are signs of life as where once there was bare soil it is slowly greening up, the days are getting longer and the garden waits for no one.