Suddenly it’s March, and the sun is actually out, hello old friend, I had forgotten what you look like! While it’s getting quite busy in the greenhouses with early hardy veg sowing, the gardens are still only just starting to wake up. The soil is still cold and we’ve had some night frosts, but daffodils, crocuses and snowdrops are out in force, and the tulips are catching up. The first welcome wildflowers I spotted this year was some coltsfoot and lesser celandine on the 22nd of Feb, a lovely little peep of yellow through the gloom.
My customers gardens have had the last of the big pruning jobs finished, many many many roses have been pruned! As have apple trees and hedges. The theme for the start of March so far has been digging. Compost heaps have been dug out and spread, as well as woodchip mulches. I’ve been building and filling some new raised beds for a new allotment space, digging a path and levelling a large recently bulldozed area and preparing it to sow lawn seed when it warms up a little.
Here at home, my lovely husband has helped me double my greenhouse space for the spring by adding some removable shelves. My spare room is currently filling up with seedlings that are too tender to go out with the frosts. I bought myself a fabulous max/min digital thermometer which has showed me that although I thought the greenhouse was staying just above freezing at night, it is not! Not long now though by which time I will have a spare room jungle! In February I started a small amount of a tomato called “St Pierre” that I tried last year and found it was an extremely slow developer, so started it with the chilli’s and peppers to give them a longer growing period. Other tomatoes are being started this week and through March, along with brassicas, peas, sweet peas, dahlias, zinnias, lettuce and spinach. So many flowers to sow this month from my competition win of seeds last month! We also lost our other older chicken Blue yesterday, just two months after we lost her friend Black. It’s very sad, but she had a wonderful fulfilled life helping me keep on top of garden pests, they are both greatly missed.
