Spring Ventures
Spring is perhaps the most testing time for us gardeners. We wait patiently all winter, dreaming and planning. We spend cold winter nights tucked up in bed with glossy seed and plant catalogues, transported to the land of nod by hypnotic southern breezes and intoxicating scents. By the end of February our expectations are at fever pitch.
Tempting March sunshine arrives with an alluring promise that spring has finally arrived. This is the signal for most gardeners to make their first real venture into the garden.
I know from experience that what looks inviting from inside a centrally heated living room rarely lives up to its promise once out amongst the plants. After a few minutes I begin to realise that another woolly jumper is called for. To stop my teeth from chattering I also rummage around for some headgear. Now back outside again, in quite bright sunshine, looking for all the world like some out of work scarecrow, I settle down to re-uniting myself with Mother Earth.
April was described by T.S. Eliot as the cruellest month. I would put March as a close second, having worked like a Trojan this past month, in biting easterly winds coming straight from Russia, with my fingers nearly dropping off. Early spring in the United Kingdom is consistent only in its inconsistency.
I should not really complain. I have achieved much over the last few weeks and proudly boast to being well ahead of the game for the time of year. Having long exhausted my own supply of homemade compost (it never goes as far as you imagine!) I have been spreading composted bark around every single flowerbed in sight. This was preceded by pelleted chicken manure, which was a delight to handle and which will supply most of the nutrient requirements for the coming season. In addition, the composted bark together with the chicken manure will help in my ongoing aim of continually improving the soil structure and will also help with keeping moisture where it belongs at root level. Newspapers report that we might expect a hot dry summer this year, well I’m well prepared and so are my plants.
With roses and clematis pruned, beds mulched and fertilised, together with most of the early spring jobs now behind me, I can now concentrate on the plants themselves.
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