Playing Catch Up Pt2

Still playing catch up, I'm taking you back to the last couple of weeks of March and after the snow, the sun returned. I forgot to mention in the last post (Pt1) about the latest instalment in the orchard. We made an order last year for a mix of fruit trees to fill up the orchard, they arrived in the middle of March and we managed to get them in the ground about 10 days before the snow. So, fingers crossed, they will survive. If you fancy a look there is a guide to the orchard in the Plans tab at the top of the page.

The bright dry days (not a very exciting photo) were perfect to get on with some planting and sowing but more about that in a minute.

Despite the beautiful weather lifting our spirits we had a very sad day when we had to say farewell to Morag, our little brown hen. She was the friendliest of our 3 chickens, always keen to say hello, feed from your hand and she didn't mind Jess and Finn at all. Following illness we decided that she should not have to suffer any longer and M took care of her. Unfortunately I was not so brave and said my goodbyes before he took her away. They say if you have livestock then you'll have dead stock but to be honest that doesn't really make it any easier.

Surprisingly, Maisie and Wilma don't seem to be at all bothered by the disappearance of their friend. It was best to keep busy and so we returned to some planting and sowing making the most of the sun.

The garlic and onions survived the snow under their temporary compost bags and it was time to break out the salad and carrot seeds. We inherited these plastic cloches from the previous owners, they are great as they fit the baths quite well and allow an early sowing of salad when there is still a risk of frost. So that's 2 types of Radish (French Breakfast & Mooli), mixed Rocket, Red Sorrel and 3 types of lettuce (Salad Frilly, Mixed Leaf and Little Gem). Having had such great success with our carrots last year we have sown Flyaway and Nandor in the baths. The height of the container is thought to prevent carrot fly, we had no sign of carrot fly last year so hopefully it's true.

One of the major disappointments has been our daffodils, despite planting loads the flower display has been rubbish to say the least. We have an abundance of slugs and snails and they seem to love the foliage and flower heads and so we have had a less than 50% success rate. Hopefully the hedgehogs are still around and will soon get stuck into the slugs and snails for us. We may even see if we can go and get some more hedgehogs from the rescue centre.

 

More Rhododendron plants to add to our collection, having learnt our lesson last year we opted for the cheaper alternatives again and got some chicken wire in place to protect them from the rabbits and deer.

 

We already have a couple of small holly plants and as they are evergreen they are a great addition to the woods. So, another trip to the supermarket and hey presto 2 new Holly plants, only £2 each, another bargain.

One of the first signs of spring in the woods is the arrival of catkins on the willow. Once they have opened out they sparkle in the sunshine and are truly beautiful, however, I'm not sure my limited photography skills really do them justice.

When we first arrived here we thought we had lots of dead/nearly dead trees but at the start of spring they produce little bright green pines with cerise flowers, we think they're European Larch. Although they are not my favourite trees, they do look ok at this time of year.

Yay, it's potato planting time, this is not a phrase I ever imagined saying! Having lost nearly half our crop to wire worms and wasps last year we decided to vary our planting and hedge our bets to try to produce a decent crop. So M has built 3 stacking potato planters, one for Charlotte, one for Cara and the last for the Casablanca. Unfortunately at present they look a little like tiny graves but when the next stack is on top we can earth up the spuds without disturbing them.

Having had some seed potatoes left over well a lot left over actually, we planted some in plastic tubs and the rest into the ground. It's hard to believe this whole bed is dedicated to potatoes. Oops, it's a good job we like spuds.

I have always concentrated on growing fruit and veg with the occasional flower seeds, if there was room. At the end of last season I bought lots of flower seeds in the sale and picked flowers I liked the look of with a mix of annuals and perennials for use as cut flowers, in borders or in baskets. I can't list them all (I got a bit carried away) but during the last week of March I sowed 30 varieties in a mixture of cells and seed trays. I will let you know more about the successes and failures during the summer.

While in the mood for sowing I got my tomatoes (9 varieties), peppers, Jalapenos, Cucamelon (I have no idea what this will be like), Gherkins (another new trial), sweetcorn and runner beans into propagators.

March ended with some more planting of willow, a mix of large weeping willows, scarlet willow and a few more Poplar setts. I thought I'd finish off with a picture of the orchard taking shape although there's not much blossom or green growth about just yet. The polytunnel area has been marked out to the right of the veg beds but we need a day or 2 with no wind to erect it. (Obligatory dog in the photo - again) Well, we're nearly up to date, only one more Catch up I promise.