2010 is underway

I emerged this weekend, blinking, into the sunlit blandishments of the promise that spring might finally be on its way. The crocuses are just coming up. The primroses are just starting to flower. The honeysuckle has leaves sprouting. And after the longest, coldest, snowiest winter for over 30 years, the ice and snow appear to have been banished.  Although not yet the frost!

It wasn't a good winter not to insulate the greenhouse with bubblewrap!  The Builder was on his way down to do it in October when I made the comment that it was perhaps still a bit warm and that it might be better to wait a couple of weeks.  Hmmmm.  Bad plan! The temperature plummeted, the frost had its merry way, followed not long after by snow. It was months before we really had a chance to get back down to the greenhouse at the back of the garden. I still haven't made it to the allotment!  The allotment greenhouses aren't such a concern - there was nothing in them that was overwintering. There was quite a bit overwintering in the garden greenhouse.  Not all of it looks particularly well! The garden money we got for our wedding may have to go towards some replacement plants.

Some of the garden money has now gone on a new garden clock, a replacement blackcurrant bush (for one that for reasons best known to itself turned up its toes last summer), a new hellebore (I buy one or two each year to put in the bed with the twisted witch hazel) and some seed compost.

The Builder (who, I suppose, should now be redesignated as The Under-Gardener) has been digging up on the allotment and there are beds almost ready to receive the onions. Shortly there will be beds ready for the potatoes. And I am hopeful that we might get some fruit trees to put on the middle bit by the greenhouses - although we may wait for that until May when we return from our travels.

In the meantime, in the kitchen garden the sprouting broccoli is just starting to show some sprouting bits.  The cabbages are beginning to heart. The sprouts and caulis disapproved very strongly of being covered in snow for all those weeks and have given up.  And the pigeons are making merry with one bed of cabbages and broccoli.

I have put 500g each of early onward pea and aquadulce claudia broad bean seeds in the two beds by the greenhouse.  I've sown some sweet pea, radish, cucumber and coriander seeds.  We've filled a box with potting mix and planted carrot seeds.

There are two boxes of  baby carrots growing in the greenhouse.  Once the weather warms up a bit more, we might move them outside. 

The new carrot box we filled with compost we attempted to grow Christmas potatoes in last autumn.  the potatoes failed dismally.  Only one tuber produced haulms, and that was killed by the hard frosts we had in November.  There were no potatoes in evidence when we had a dig around in the potato bins in December.  You can imagine our surprise, then , when we found these in the bottom of the bins when we were emptying them out!!