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Thursday 08 March 2012
Leeks and Sweet Pea Sowings
It was mostly dull on Thursday with only a few very brief glimpses of sunshine.
I’d decided to sow our leeks earlier this year. Last year they were sown on 8th April so this year’s seeds are in a whole month ahead of last year which I suppose thinking about it is quite a bit earlier. Perhaps it’s the mild start to the month that’s encouraged me to sow the seeds now. Last year at the beginning of March we had a series of keen overnight frosts from the 2nd to 11th March with temperatures falling as low as -5.1°C so there wasn’t a lot of encouragement to make an early start to seed sowing. I also made a start sowing some of our sweet peas today too. These were sown on the 2 nd April last year so I’m well ahead of last year at the moment. Hopefully by the time any of these seeds have germinated any danger of really cold nights in the greenhouse will be past.
I managed to make some space for the seeds on the greenhouse floor next to our onion sets which are now all starting to shoot. The onions and shallots will be the first plants to move out of the greenhouse and into the cold frame to make way for more seed sowings.
Our second camellia which only receives a light pruning each year is also in flower. Unfortunately I can see the time approaching when this too will need a major pruning. In the meantime it continues to produce some spectacular flowers.
Friday 09 March 2012
Remaining Mild
Friday continued the mild start to the month. We had some reasonable sunny periods although it was a bit blustery at times. It clouded over late in the afternoon with enough cloud to allow a little light drizzle.
In the afternoon I made a little more progress preparing the base for the summerhouse. Approaching the pond I heard several “plops” as frogs headed to the bottom of the pond and safety. It wasn’t long before they surfaced again and I was treated to a chorus of croaking as I connected up my new pond filter.
Obviously I haven’t been the only one making good use of the mild weather. Usually virtually all this frog spawn is eaten by our fish, although this pile is laid in shallow water and it might be difficult for the fish to get at. Maybe this year we will have tadpoles and baby frogs. Watch this space for updates.
Saturday 10 March 2012
Isn’t Nature Cruel
Saturday continued the mild spell of weather. An early morning shower meant a damp start to the day but it soon dried up as the sun came out. The day was spoilt somewhat by a strong to gale force wind.
Sue’s covered the details of the shenanigans going on in our pond here. I’m amazed the fish could get at the frog spawn in such shallow water but they would appear to have eaten the entire lot in yesterday’s photo. Not that it’s stopped our frogs producing heaps more so we will have some really well fed fish at this rate. It didn’t stop the fish begging for more food when I walked by the pond this morning either.
Rather late this year I got round to cleaning out our nest boxes.
The sparrow terrace at the far end has been moved from another part of the garden. The sparrow terrace between the two windows had two nests from last year to be removed. We think one blue tit and one great tit took up residence last year rather than any sparrows. The remaining box is our camera box which last spring produced a brood of blue tits. I wonder if they’ll be so well used again this year.
Sunday 11 March 2012
Frog Spawn Heaven
Sunday was a beautiful spring day with sunshine from dawn until dusk. The wind felt cool in the morning but the afternoon was pleasantly mild.
Our frogs seem determined to produce more frog spawn making up for that gobbled up by our fishes. If all today’s frog spawn turned into frogs we’d be in serious trouble.
There was plenty of croaking going on as the frogs squirmed about amongst their freshly laid spawn.
They seemed quite up for having their pictures taken
In the afternoon we made a visit to the plot. Amongst other jobs one bed was cultivated ready to be sown with green manure. The bed will eventually be used for winter brassicas which will not be planted up before the mid to late of summer. I’m intending to use Phacelia which is a quick growing hardy annual green manure that is supposed to germinate at low temperatures and grow in most soil types. It can be sown from March until September.
The soil had dried out nicely and cultivated very easily so all I need to do now is sow the seed and my green manure experiment will be well under way.
Monday 12 March 2012
Progress of Sorts
Monday morning was dull and cloudy but in the afternoon the sun came out to give us a lovely afternoon.
I spent the afternoon working on the base for our new summer house and at last I can start to see it taking shape. I’ve now got some shuttering in place defining the area required and that enormous pile of rubble has shrunk considerable as it’s been spread around the base to help provide a solid foundation.
In the greenhouse our first broad beans have started to germinate. These were sown on the 26th February so it’s taken just over 2 weeks for the first seeds to germinate.
We had considered trying an over wintering sowing down on the plot last autumn but decided to try our luck with some peas instead. As it turns out that was a failure the worst frost of winter killing off the small pea plants. Other bloggers seem to have faired a bit better with broad beans but have suffered losses of some plants due to frosts. Our module sown broad beans usually provide us with a good crop so I think I will continue in future with our tried and tested method and leave autumn sowings to the more adventurous plotters.
Tuesday 13 March 2012
A Wildlife Sort of a Day
The amount of sunshine each day is reducing as the week progresses with a resulting fall off in temperature too. Just a little late afternoon sunshine on Tuesday with a high temperature of 10.6° about average but all the same a little disappointing after the milder weather earlier in the week.
We’ve made some improvements to our nest box camera this year and added sound. This camera is wired so we are hoping that we wont suffer any of the picture quality problems we had last year from our wireless camera.
The new camera is now in place and waiting for its 2012 family to take up residence and to star in our very own reality TV show.
In the pond the latest frog spawn has so far remained out of reach of our ravenous fishes. At times the frogs sit on the frog spawn appearing to be guarding it against any marauding fish.
The frog spawn might be fairly safe whist the water in the pond remains at it present level but should we have some rain and the water level rise then nature may have a different fate in store for it.
Wednesday 14 March 2012
Burning the Leftovers
A few weeks ago Sue pruned back our extremely thorny blackberry bush. It’s not a task I enjoy and I’m happy for her to do it. I don’t tend to have enough patience for all the careful pruning required. Sue just asked where to put all the wickedly prickly stems. Just leave them on the ground by the blackberry I’ll see to them later I said.
Next it was our buddleias that Sue cut back. Where to put the prunings was all I got asked and the answer was put them with the blackberry remnants. Next it was the rose and the heap of prunings got bigger.
So this was the state of the prunings today. After some mild days and no rain I reckoned that they should have dried out well and be ready for burning to tidy up the plot. With rain forecast for the weekend it seemed a shame to risk them getting a soaking.
They certainly burnt well. I was kept busy piling more debris on the fire as the dried stalks burnt so quickly. I didn’t have time to stop feeding stems onto the fire and by the time I took this photo most of the burning had taken place.
By this time all the debris had been burnt and the bed next to the blackberry looked much tidier. It had only taken just over 30 minutes to burn the whole lot.
I made sure all the ‘unburned’ bits around the edges of the fire were picked up and placed on the hot ashes to burn away and that the fire had died down before I left the plot.
Before visiting the plot again I’ll have to decide which is the most appropriate bed to spread the wood ash on. With all the rubbish burnt I’m not planning any more large bonfires before autumn or even next spring.
So now I’ve fulfilled my contribution to all the pruning work!