Just when you thought spring was on it's way

It starts blowing a gale, throwing it down and temperature drops like a stone.
Before work I had to repair the fleece that had blown off the peas over night (it's them peas again what does it, i swear). The slidy window in the battered g/h needed repairing and one of the lids has blown off the cold frame again !

So put the broadbeans back inside to give them a bit of a break and put other black buckets outside the g/h doors to stop them from flying away. Got back tonight and everything seemed to be intact, so .... result !

At last I have some pics to show you.

The amaryllis has shot up. A good 2.5' now and one of the blooms is just about to be born. Don't think they will be as big as last year though.














I certainly don't remember planting this double snowdrop, but I'm glad I did.












This hellebore (variety unknown) is doing it's own little thing under the front hedge. That's twice it's surprised me now by flowering. I keep forgetting it's there !












Three times this poor honeysuckle has been uprooted, once when it was given to me, and twice since I've had it. I've put it behind ickle g/h to keep it's feet cool but hopefully it will grow up the side and onto the roof to get the sun. It suffered quite badly from mildew last year, so will keep it well watered again this year. No lasting signs of damage so far though.












Spotted Mr Robin having a nice quiet rest in the sun last weekend.














and found this little chap/chapette sitting right in the garlic bed. 5 mins earlier it was sitting in the hanging bird feeder enjoying the same sun as Mr Robin. I got quite worried as it let me get up really close to take this shot and I thought it might have been ill. It looked really healthy though and eventually flew off. I hope it comes back to see me next weekend.












These are two of the spanish peppers/chillis (origin and variety unknown - basically cos I cods up the labelling system last year). Seeing as it's the end of Feb, I think they're doing quite well ! There's still a few more to comes yet (although not as large) and there's still a couple of Numex Twilight STILL ripening.







The trays of petunias and lobelia have germinated and I'm willing them to get bigger, they're sooooooo tiny ! I heard that tea tree oil was good to prevent damping off, but as I couldn't find my bottle, I used lavender oil instead (well it's all anti-bacterial eh ?). One or two seeds have collapsed, but nowhere near as many as I was expecting. Maybe the lavender works !

8 more varieties of toms were sown last night:

Golden Sunrise (Lishka)
Marmande (Lishka)
Legend
Ferline (Lishka)
Cream Sausage (Mum)
Muchamiel (Biscombe)
Tres Cantos (Biscombe)
Pineapple (dearest Supersprout)

My Tigerellas (Lishka) have their first true leaves and are sitting in their tin foil box to catch some extra light.

The Masterpiece cukes took exactly 3 days to germinate, the Marketmores have still to show.

See what happens when the growing season starts ? The pages get longer !

This is going to be a terrific month ..... terrifically busy but so exciting.

Oh and I started the new job last Monday. Seems good so far and I've only bored two people to death with gardening chat ! One of the girls was even excited about Carol Klein's GYO. I think I might have made a friend (or at least found a home for some spare seedlings !)

There's a friend out there who's having a bit of a battle atm, so love and best wishes to our mate SS.

See you soon chaps and chapesses. Hope you're having a good a time as I am.

Yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away

and then I upturned a tray of Red Baron onions all over the greenhouse floor. DAMN !

They've got nice root systems on them though !

Before that I:

Cut back a big chunk of hedge behind the big g/h so one day soon I'll be able to get the new vent installed.

Generally had a tidy up and washed loads more breeding pots.

Sowed a pot of Musselburgh Leeks, and some of mum's seeds called "Garlic". Think they're garlic chives.

Tried to put together one of the rose arches to put around the side gate for the sweetpeas to grow up. Now I'm not an engineer and the box didn't have any instructions, but I've done one of these before and it wasn't hard. This one however, just wouldn't fit together. The uprights were fine, but trying to get the arch together was a nightmare. All the screw bits that were supposed to be fixed in the ends of the cross strut popped out - WITHOUT EXCEPTION. It's now lying on the deck in pieces. I'll have another go today and if it still doesn't work, the uprights will get used somewhere for something climbing.

The snowdrops are out in force in the front garden now, and I found one double ! Don't remember buying any doubles so that was a nice surprise.

Some of the crocus are going over now. They seemed to cope with the frost quite well, but this latest rain has made them go all squidgy.

My pair of robins are regular visitors and last Sunday a pair of coal tits decided to pop by. There are also a couple of male blackbirds that have been coming in the garden which is nice. They've been around previously but never in MY garden before, so I was well chuffed.

Got a letter from the council with a planning application for the house over the street as they're installing patio doors and a deck. Oops, I missed that bit out when I installed mine !

The trays of annuals I sowed a few weeks ago are through but so very tiny but one of the Spanish Palms that our good friends darn sarf gave me at New Year has germinated. Was thrilled with that.

Calendula and alstroemeria are still running away in the g/h. Really need to get them in the ground but suspect it's far too early yet. I put some of the loo roll radishes in the ground last week, had a peek under the fleece only to find half of them gone ! Mr Slug no doubt. So the survivors have all got pop bottle cloches now. See if that deters the little tykes.

Mixed salad leaves in the g/h keep on going. Now about 3/4" tall and starting to show proper leaves. I should really sow the next row today.

Got my Carol Kleine GYO book in the post yesterday and also got a book on sweetpeas this week from ebay. and KG mag fell through the letterbox. So I've plenty to read. Trouble is, I get one page read and then promptly fall asleep lol.

May go and try another page now as this really is too early to be up on a Sunday morning !

oh what a beautiful morning oh what a beautiful day

and it was, it really was. The sun shone all day and at one stage I had to take my fleece off !

Decided to have a good old dig and ended up digging out the kerb stones that are supposed to be keeping the shed base in place and raising them a few inches so that the soil stops spreading all over the slabs, and that was BEFORE the trip to B&Q.

Got a few bags of manure and planted Debs Delight Brighton rhubarb, a specialist variety - origin unknown.

Slung another bag over the Jerusalem Artichokes and spread the rest round my blackcurrant "sticks".

My Twinkle peas have been flopping over in the g/h for a while now, so I took a chance and planted them out. Surrounded them with fleece after this pic, which I've weighted down with bricks, so I hope they survive both the meeces and the cold. Got some more in reserve, just in case.

Sowed some Aubergine Calliope, Carrot Parmex, Gardener's Delight, Peas Meteor and Tomato Black Cherry. Top tip: the plastic carton's that "bargain" tomatoes come in, 3 fit nicely into a standard seed tray !

Will finished off tomorrow. Got a party to go to. :0)

The only thing of note this weekend.

As the weather has been horrid this weekend, cold, wet, unsuitable for anything, I've had to search indoors for something to write about and this is it !

My Amaryllis has started to grow.













And my Dionaea muscipula is throwing out new leaves all over the place.

Watch out bugs !

No snow here

but you can see the blue sky behind Mr Robin !

A bit Heath Robinson

but the wind tunnel now resembles a greenhouse again.



I took off all the green trim, cut panels from an old plastic walk-in g/h, replaced the trim over the plastic and screwed back on. It will last til the next breeze anyway !

It needs a good wash down and will never be as crystal clear as the glass g/h but I won't have to shade it will I ? :-D

Lots of yellow and purple crocus are through and blooming, and some snowdrops as well. They look so pretty, especially the snowdrop that appeared in the strawberry bed ! :-O

Weather - clear blue sky and big yellow thing in the sky and really warm until about 3pm when it got a bit chilly. I even managed to have an after work cuppa on the deck. Luvverly.