Well that felt like a really long month! January does though doesn’t it? We’ve seen on a lot of the socials (as the young people say) that a lot of chilli/aubergine/ tomato seeds have been started off. Good luck to you, but we wait a while. We do use a heated propagator, but this year it’s just going to be for some flowers that take a bit longer to get going – echinacea & rudbekia – and in a few weeks the squash and pumpkins. We don’t use grow-lights and the light levels at home can make our seedlings weak and leggy, so we ‘re going to wait with the greenhouse crops. There’s no panic.
Have a look at these Hellebores! How lovely are they? This was a small plant bought in a garden centre a few years back. We eventually planted it in the orchard and it seems to have made a home there. It always surprises us. This year it’s especially lush. The Honesty seedlings are doing really well, and since this photograph was taken, they’ve been potted on. These are the purple and white variety. More summer colour!
We had snow! Yes proper snow, not just half an inch of slush that gets everyone in a panic. This was proper, send the kids home from school snow. The kind that makes a crunchy noise when you walk in it. We paid a quick visit to the allotment to check up on the queen of the plot – Tabby – and it was a good job we did. The weight of the snowfall had made the fruit tunnel collapse! Everything just sort of bent inward. It didn’t take long to fix and looked worse than what it was. At least the fruit bushes were OK. Some of them have actually begun to bud up, as has the peach tree in the poly-tunnel …
The repairs continue. Behind the shed and the greenhouse need some love. The honeysuckle on the shed needs pruning – we let it go wild last year, the bees loved it! – as well as the lavenders in the trough underneath. We have some crocossmia and some bugloss that grows around it – the whole area needs a good weeding. As does the area behind the greenhouse. Because this area gets full sun all day, we planted our baby melons in there. They did OK as did the chamomile that grows around the base of the trough. The bird cage might look a bit weird but we grow nasturtiums in it and they always look lovely and self seed in there. Every plot needs a little bit of eccentricity! The plastic tarpaulin covering the top of the greenhouse is there until we can get the leak fixed. It’s right at the apex – the most awkward spot of course, and looks like another job for when the weather is a bit better.
We hope you’re all doing well, and preparing yourself for the growing season ahead ( if you’re in this part of the world!) Spring is coming!
Happy Plotting!
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PlotDaze 
February 9, 2024 at 1:54 am
Those Hellebores are truly lovely and you’ve got your work cut out for you this spring. Nothing new then… 🙂