February has been COLD! We haven’t had a February like this for years. Below zero temps and SNOW. Proper snow! Snow that you can make snowballs with! Winter is here and we’re all surprised by it, but it’s what we need and what we should have anyway.
The plot has just been too cold to do much other than tidy and fix things. The garlic seemed to have suffered in the temperatures but apparently it needs a good cold spell, so we should have a bumper crop come summer. We lost a broad bean and the onions don’t seem to be faring too well. Maybe the Spring will perk our crops up and get them moving.
We’ve never grown ginger before, so we decided to give it a go. We bought a piece ( What is the name for a piece of ginger? A knarl? A hunk?) from Wilko for £2.00. After having a nosy at what others were doing on the instagrams and the twitters, we let it soak overnight then cut it up and planted the pieces on their sides the next day. I don’t hold out much hope. Don’t know why, but fingers crossed.


We were given some leftover potash from a plot neighbour. We don’t usually scatter it this early but we decided to get it on the gooseberries. They were rubbish last year. They were in pots and had become a bit neglected admittedly. We had dug them into the fruit bed to give them a better chance, and now they have had the first feed. ( These photos remind me of a cemetery, sorry folks.) The gooseberries look lethal with their thorns, and they are if you get your hand scratched by them. They’re a dark red variety and not too sour.

We had been given a packet of leek seeds, the variety was Musselborough – hope I’ve spelled that right – and decided to try and grow some. Our onion seed was a no show, so we bought some onion sets instead. The leek seeds have sprouted … a lot of them! Our own fault for starting so many! We may be giving some away to other plot holders later in the season. More have sprouted since the pic was taken.

Spring is on the way!The tulip and daffodil bulbs are pushing their way through the soil. daylight is lasting longer, the temperature will – hopefully- be getting warmer. We’ll be taking the tarpaulins off the beds in the next few days, maybe give them a dig over. Sowing will begin seriously very soon. We don’t like to start too early, the seedlings seem to get a bit leggy. Happily, this all goes to show that SPRING IS ON THE WAY. This Lockdown has been difficult, and continues to be so BUT the longer days are coming everyone, and with that comes the jab and hopefully in the not too distant future … NORMALITY or whatever will pass for that. Keep washing your hands and wearing your masks. Stay safe. Happy plotting x