25th February 2019 - Warmest February on record

This time last year it was snowing and this year it has been the warmest February day on record!  This weekend I was determined to make a dint in my to-do list but I was slowed down on Saturday by a chest infection (it hurt to breathe).

Last week I cleaned out the pond; I also bought some 'sludge bomb' that you drop into the pond and it effectively eats all the excess sludge.  Once I got up there this weekend though, I decided that it didn't need it.  While the water is still a little murky I could see the lily at the bottom of the pond and so I'm going to leave it for now and see how it goes.  The frogs have already started to sing to each other so I'm hoping to see some frog spawn pretty soon and I obviously don't want to mess with the pond once the frogs start spawning.  I can keep the sludge bomb for the end of the season when I want to clear the pond again.

I had some leeks in root trainers over the winter.  I didn't have room for them in the onion bed but I didn't want them to die off and I thought the root trainers would be a good way to keep them healthy while I was waiting for a bed to be ready for them to go into.  I have planted them into the bed that I'm planning to put the carrots into; leeks are a good companion plant for carrots because they're supposed to help to mask the smell of the carrots from the root fly.

I also planted them very deep, which is supposed to help to blanch them; I'm looking at other ways to continue to blanch the stalks as they grown,  You can earth them up, much like potatoes, with additional soil as they grow or you can use cardboard/paper tied around the stalks when they're big enough.  I am saving toilet rolls for the job and I think I can even pop them over in anticipation of the leeks growing big enough.

I fixed the flag this weekend as well, I love having my England flag flying although it does have a tendency to tangle around the arbour but over the winter it was pulled off of the post and so I needed to take it down and fix it back again.  I don't have a proper flag post; I use an old curtain rail and I've stapled the flag to it but it does the job.

I had 3 tree peony's that were delivered as bare root plants and they've just been sitting in the shed for a week.  I wanted to get them potted up this weekend but I needed some more compost first.  As ever I made up my normal mix of compost, root booster and all season feed.  I didn't have any grit or water retaining gel so I didn't include those but I did top dress it with some moss which should help keep the moisture in the pots.  The pots smaller than they will eventually end up in but until I decide whether they'll be in pots or in the ground (or even at the allotment or house) the pots are a good size to get them established and will probably be fine in there for the whole season, if not longer.  They eventually grow up to around 5' tall and make a really lovely statement piece in the garden.

When I picked up the bags of compost I bought some primula's for the flower bed next to the shed in 85a, I enjoy having this area as a flower bed, it creates a nice space around the sitting area in front of the shed.  One of the things I think I'd like to do this year is clear the area in front of the shed and make a bigger seating area.  I think I'll need to move the bird feeder to do that but if I have enough matting after using it for the greenhouse, then I think it will be the perfect thing to use to extend out from the flags.

Some of the jobs I have planned for this year include clearing behind the compost bins; I want to cover the area with membrane to reduce the nettles and brambles that grow in that area.  Once it is clear I may even be able to put the tree peony's back there or even a fruit tree.  

I have no idea how long this nice weather is going to last but I will certainly be making the most of it while it's here and so fingers crossed I can get more done.

Until next time
Happy Gardening x