Playing Catch Up Pt 1

It's been a while since my last post but we have had wifi issues resulting in no Internet or house phone. Having no wi-fi for 2½ weeks has been a test of patience but it has also been a surprisingly pleasant respite from the daily onslaught of digital information and social media distractions. But now we are back up and running, I feel a bit behind the drag curve. As this is such a busy time of year in the garden I have a lot to catch up on in blogland so I think I'll break it down into a few separate posts.

So, Pt 1, going back to before the wi-fi nightmare takes us to about the middle of March when there were some lovely dry days and we decided to seize the opportunity to get on with some necessary and long avoided jobs.

I had been procrastinating for quite some time about cleaning the greenhouse. I had built it up in my mind to being a dull and time consuming chore but I knew it had to be done while it was quite empty and before I started sowing seeds. Emptying it was easy and to be honest (with M's help) it only took a couple of hours to clean the staging, frame and glass.

It did take ages though to wash all the trays and sort out the remaining plants, deciding which had made it through the winter and which would never, regardless of copious amounts TLC, be revived. Still, at the end of the day it was all done; we were pretty tired but chuffed with a real sense of achievement. My main reason for feeling so pleased was that I could now start sowing my veg seeds-thankfully.

First things first, I had to get the remaining onion sets into cells to get them started off before planting outside or in the polytunnel (yet to be decided).

We're still getting used to the cooler climate and different growing seasons and so I had planned to start my seed sowing approximately 3 weeks later this year. It was so cold last spring that they took ages to germinate and I'm not sure it is beneficial for the seeds to spend so much time in cool compost. It tested my patience but we got there in the end.

I'd seen these Rootrainers on the market for some time but as they seemed quite expensive I had resisted the temptation to buy - until last year when I found a deal online and decided to invest a few pounds. They're supposed to be good for sowing peas and beans etc and are designed to encourage strong roots through a process called 'air-pruning'.

They have plenty of room for the roots to grow and have a clear propagator lid, although they don't come with a tray they they seem to fit a standard seed tray. There are 32 cells in each pack with 8 'books' of 4 cells. Last year we were pretty impressed with how easy it was to open out the 'book' to remove the plant without disturbing the roots. The root systems were strong and the plants were really sturdy when we planted them out.

I got a bit carried away but that's the peas (Little Marvel, Onward and Kelvedon Wonder) and broad beans (Aquadulce) sown. We've nearly finished our final bag of frozen peas from last season so we need to grow lots more this year.

We have lots of different willows around the woods but unfortunately no weeping willows. We bought 3 of these little trees (cheap at a local supermarket) which should grow to about 6' high. We got 3 Echinaceas, a Peonie and an Astilbe at the same shop (pretty cheap too) but they've been potted up in the greenhouse before being planted out later in the year.

We also got this bargain (oh I do love to get a bargain!!) Morello Cherry tree for the orchard. You can see a plan of the orchard in the Plans tab at the top of the page.

The greenhouse is already starting to fill up with onions, seeds, overwintering Dahlias and my 8 Oaks grown from acorns, although we're hoping to plant the Oaks out in the next few weeks.

Just as we were getting used to drier and slightly warmer days and had planted out the willows, we had rain and lots of it. This is the farmers field opposite which seemed to fill up quickly overnight and drained away really slowly.

And, as if that wasn't enough we had a downfall of snow!! It's amazing how quickly the weather can change here and it has certainly kept us on our toes.

Thankfully we had some warning and managed to cover the onions and garlic with some old compost bags to keep out the worst of the frost and snow.

The gardening had to be put on hold for a day or 2 until all this had melted away.

As I lit the fire and snuggled inside with Jess and Finn, M was slightly less patient to get outside and off he went to the barn to build a duck house for the midden. We had a duck and ducklings last year but we don't think any of the ducklings survived and so M planned on making them a little safe house in preparation for this year.

It is resting on the reed bed and is tilted slightly towards the water, with the ramp easily accessible. Fingers crossed Mr and Mrs Duck reappear this year.

As the snow disappeared and the sun reappeared the sowing and planting continued but I'll leave that to the next instalment as there are photos aplenty to peruse in Pt 2.