Our clocks went forward this morning making it lighter in the evenings and the days seem longer. The past few days have been warm and we’ve been out in the garden tidying things up and preparing for the summer.
The tomatoes I sowed earlier in the month have mainly germinated, as I said at the time, some of the seeds are getting old and some cultivars have not germinated. Nonetheless, there are about 25 different varieties and I’m starting the regime of walking them in and out every evening and morning to give them the necessary light but protect them from the cold (we’re forecast a frost later in the week).
I spent some time potting up strawberries. Last year I bought a few plants and put them into the netted tunnel which protected them from the squirrels so we had a few helpings of strawberries to add to the raspberries and other fruit from the garden. My plan this year is to add to the number of plants by supporting some in pots from the frame of the tunnel. I’ve done it before and the only issues are making a decent hanging system and making sure they are adequately fed and watered. The first is simple, the second needs more consistency.
Lots of spring flowers in the garden. Over the years we have come to terms with the fact that ours is a woodland garden. The Oak in the middle (which we reckon is over 100 years old and part of what remains of an ancient forest which was cut down when our area of houses was built in the 1960s) shades and dries much of the garden through the summer months so we don’t get much in the way of summer bedding. However, as you can see from the following pictures, we get a lovely showing at this time of year.
The Rhubarb is to show that we’re already getting crops from the garden and the bee nest is one of many around the place. We expect to see bee flies at some point which (apparently) predate on ground nesting bees.
We’ve also got blue tits nesting in the nest box (hopefully the woodpeckers will let them bring up their family this year) and (we think) long tailed tits building a nest in the hedge (at least theyve been going in and out of the hedge with feathers and bits of spiders web so we’re hopeful. On the negative side we seem to have a load of wasps about and they seem to be getting themselves trapped in our bedroom. I assume that they’re going along the soffits and nipping in through our open windows. We trap them and let them go again as they are useful aphid predators.