A COLD START TO SPRING

The first of February signals the start of spring in these parts but someone must have forgot to tell Mother Nature. The first two days saw heavy rain and storm force winds with gusts of up to one hundred miles per hour. Day three dawned with four inches of snow that was still falling when I peeked out of the window and of which there no mention on the previous evenings forecast. I nearly had to reach for some heart tablets as I was after removing the glass lights from all my frames the evening before to let them get watered. Rain seems to stimulate them into growth quicker than watering with a hose.

Spent most of the morning going round the garden with a long handled brush knocking the snow from shrubs and conifers. Some of the shrubs were bent over to almost ground level under the weight and on the verge of breaking. The conifers had parted in the middle and splayed in all directions leaving a gaping hole in the centre.

Snow is one of the main causes of conifers losing their shape, if it is not removed quickly they seldom resume the former habit, and it is almost impossible to fit all the branches back in place. In the past I have had to resort to tying them into place for a few months after a heavy snowfall. It works reasonably well but I would prefer if the problem did not arise in the first place.

The next task was to remove the snow from the roof of the greenhouses that was starting to come under pressure with all the weight. Again the brush came in handy and was just long enough to reach the ridge. When the roof had been cleared the snow was eighteen inches high at both sides of the greenhouses.

Lucky the snow thawed enough to allow me to put the lights on again before frost set in early in the evening.

The upside is that all the pots of seed that did not germinate last spring got a nice blanket of snow, and this might just convince them that winter has come and gone and maybe it is time to get up and do something.

The seed in the zip bags that did not require cold treatment, is germinating quickly now, and necessitates sowing every day. I try to mix enough compost at one time to last about a week, and I keep some pots filled to speed up the operation, as sowing seed one at a time with a pair of tweezers is a tedious job.

Go To Page: 1 2