Getting really fed up now with these dark grim days and cannot wait for the longer days to arrive where I can get out in the garden after work. At least it wasn't raining today and got to spend some time outdoors even if I didn't really have much that needed to be done.
I decided to cut back the roses in the garden, I usually do this in another months time, but with the weather generally on the mild side they are already budding up for the year ahead. Sticking to the three D's theory I remove any dead, dying or diseased wood, then give the whole plant a general cut back of about a third. The climbing roses I have just shortened the side shoots to an outward growing bud to keep them tidy. I had already pruned the roses by half last autumn to prevent any wind-rock over the winter period.
I usually grow onions twice a year, the first being planted back in September for a June/July crop, and the second in the March for cropping around September. The bed the onions are to be grown in this year is smaller than the others, so I only planted shallot sets in September followed later by some garlic bulbs. After the hard frosts of late these are still slowly growing away and won't really get going for another month. The other day I received my onion sets through the post for those to be planted out in March, however I did read recently that you can plant onions in module trays in the greenhouse in January for planting out later. Seeing as I have plenty of onion sets I thought I would give this a go a see if it made any difference, but still leave some to plant out later as I would do normally. The onion being used is Stuttgarter
Meanwhile it has been a couple of weeks since the tomato seeds were sown, these have now germinated and are starting to show signs of growing the first true leaf. Once these have a couple of true leaves they will be potted on to individual pots. I just need to ensure that the pots are turned every day as with the plants being on a windowsill they have a tendancy to lean towards the light.
