The start of the gardening year
A couple of weeks ago it was nice enough at the weekend to get out in the garden and assess its condition. We pruned and cut back the fruit bushes and trees that needed it, and discovered that most of the strawberry plants had made it through the winter - even the ones in the trough that fell off the fence in the bad weather and had been sitting upside-down for a while! We also worked out what seeds we needed and what seeds we still had from last year.
This weekend we went shopping for garden stuff on Saturday, and got loads of seeds, a greenhouse and some growhouses. Yesterday we constructed them and put them in position - one 6x4ft greenhouse, one mini greenhouse with four shelves for seed trays etc, and two tomato growhouses - and Tam trimmed the hedge on the far side of the extension section of the garden to allow a bit more sun into the site of the greenhouse. At the moment it's still a bit shady, but as the sun gets higher it should get plenty of light.
I checked the bees earlier in the week and they seem fine, although they still haven't really touched the block of food I put on after Christmas...I'm assuming this means they still have enough food in their own stores. I need to check when to switch the solid food to sugar syrup to supplement the first nectar flow once the early spring flowers/blossom start coming out. I've got a couple of bee books that are next on my to-read list.
This week I'm going to make a chart of sowing, planting out and harvesting dates for all the seeds we've got for the year, and display it somewhere prominant in the kitchen so we can keep track of where we are.
This weekend we went shopping for garden stuff on Saturday, and got loads of seeds, a greenhouse and some growhouses. Yesterday we constructed them and put them in position - one 6x4ft greenhouse, one mini greenhouse with four shelves for seed trays etc, and two tomato growhouses - and Tam trimmed the hedge on the far side of the extension section of the garden to allow a bit more sun into the site of the greenhouse. At the moment it's still a bit shady, but as the sun gets higher it should get plenty of light.
I checked the bees earlier in the week and they seem fine, although they still haven't really touched the block of food I put on after Christmas...I'm assuming this means they still have enough food in their own stores. I need to check when to switch the solid food to sugar syrup to supplement the first nectar flow once the early spring flowers/blossom start coming out. I've got a couple of bee books that are next on my to-read list.
This week I'm going to make a chart of sowing, planting out and harvesting dates for all the seeds we've got for the year, and display it somewhere prominant in the kitchen so we can keep track of where we are.