Eggsit stage left

Sometimes you plan a great, fun Easter egg hunt and tree planting day and then the weather has other ideas. Ones which involve cold, northerly winds, rapidly dropping temperatures and blizzard conditions.

And at that point you just have to bow out gracefully and admit defeat - but not before 'heeling in' 225 native hedge plants in the snow that you had planned to plant with the dozens of willing volunteers who would be arriving, eagerly, at the gate.


At one point this morning the sun was shining and the sky was blue, but I never got any photographic evidence as I was too busy digging at the time. It was still cold, but we've had worse and my hopes were raised that the 'free cakes, chocolate and hot drinks' might bring some people in after all, if only to munch rather than mulch.

But the only people to come out of the cold and into the polytunnel were Ian and Alan (the former doing more film and audio recording than digging, but the moral support was welcome).


Lavender and Jack were out ready to greet the crowds, as they love a bit of attention (especially from the garden's smaller visitors) but they gave up after about an hour and sulked in their house instead.


We've got a mixed hedge pack from North East Community Forests, which contains mainly hawthorn, but with blackthorn, field maple, guelder rose, crab apple and holly mixed in there too. It's hard to see from this photo, so I'll take a better one when we've got more in and the light is better. I also need to knock in the canes a bit and pop on the rabbit guards.

Alan took pity on me and dug the trenches while I planted, and we only just managed to start the double hedge part when the blizzard really took hold.

So, it was back to the polytunnel for a warming drink and some cake before we heeled them in. This involves loosely planting in a fairly shallow trench all together, to prevent them from drying out while you wait for a better time to plant them. I'd take a rough guess on that not being any time soon....


Sunday Update: And here's the same scene 24 hours later and distinctly less wintry looking (better view of the hedge, as well as more hedge as David with a mattock made the job much easier).

Worms on the way out

This morning I spotted next door's 'innocent' chickens on the lookout for free grub....


...and then caught one of them in the act of swiping one of my nice juicy worms.

I think they see the allotment as a bit of a fast food joint. Whenever I'm weeding near the fence they tend to associate my voice with the imminent arrival of a slug or snail overhead (apparently the recent influx of snails has coincided with all of them laying now, so I was pleased to accept a box of half dozen eggs in exchange for a few marauding molluscs ;) Worms, however are off the menu as they're too valuable in the soil....


Despite being told it looked 'awful' by both Peter and Alan, I persevered with my layer of sheep fleece over the soon-to-be pea and bean bed (above). It will warm the soil up nicely (I've just cleared it and raked it over) and hopefully keep the weeds down until planting time too. I think it looks like a patchwork (shame about the bricks, but with the winds we've been having lately it's a must).

One of the main reasons for moving the fleece already was the demise of my seed potatoes. As if it wasn't enough that loads of them were rotting due to suspected frost damage (possibly before they even got to me), now a mouse has taken up residence and has decided to pop into the polytunnel for a midnight snack or two. Mind you, if I was a mouse, I would find a pile of sheep fleece in a polytunnel with potatoes on tap a pretty nice place to set up home too.

We had more tea and biscuit breaks than work completed today (we'll blame Paul for the distraction), but then it was a nice sunny day for standing around and the wind had even dropped. For the last few weeks we've been on the go simply to keep warm more than anything else.

However, Peter did manage to finish weeding the high raised bed, and make a start on cleaning the mountain of plastic pots we've been donated, so all was not lost.

Signs of Spring

Beautiful blue skies and sunshine today, which meant it looked like a perfect Spring day until I ventured out and realised the sting in the tail, quite literally, was the gale force winds. So much for the winds 'dying down a bit'...

The poor polytunnel has lifted another few inches and I feel like sitting on it around the clock to ensure it doesn't blow away, especially since Alan next door has decided he will invoke the 'possession is nine tenths of the law' rule if it ends up in his direction.

The willow dome (see above) now has several new shoots, as well as soft pussy willow buds, and looked a picture against the blue sky this afternoon, so I thought I'd share the view (minus the wind) with everyone else.


The snowdrops and bluebells failed to raise their heads, but the crocuses are putting on a fine show, so that's made up for it.

Peter and I managed to clear the more persistent weeds from the high raised beds in preparation for new arrivals which we hope to sow/transplant once the weather allows. One half of one of the raised beds is going to be filled with a sand-based mixture for carrots and beetroots and the remainder will be salads, radishes etc. and a holding bay for the brassicas to keep them out of reach of hungry slugs and snails until they have the chance to get established.


The ash tree (above) is still looking very wintry, however, and is a fair few weeks away from having any buds of its own.

The rest of the morning was spent moving a bit more of the soil conditioner to prepare a bed for comfrey (more about that a bit later), digging over the new potato bed, and sowing some Green Nutmeg melon seeds (I know, I'm dreaming that I can grow melons like my Dad once did in his greenhouse in Kent - I sometimes have these 'location amnesia' moments when I still think I live down south where it's warmer...)