It’s Spring …..

March 25, 2018 by Elaine 2 Comments

Potted up and ready for covering up

…… but I’m not going to shout too loud because I don’t want Winter to hear and come to see what all the fuss is about. So in a quiet voice I will say that today has been a beautiful sunny and warm day, the sort of day that hints at the promise of things to come but gardeners view with a cautious expectation and excitement. That said, as yet we’re a few weeks away from being frost free, and Mud, in his inimitable Victor Meldrew fashion, keeps saying that all the weather models are predicting another bout of cold and there could even be snow at Easter, so I’ll be lucky to grow anything this year and is it really worth it? 

Well? Yes! It is!

The tomatoes were looking a little straggly

It really has been too cold to do much of anything out in the garden over the past few weeks but the sun is shining today and the weather is a world away from Arctic ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ conditions and I have to believe that Middle Mudlet and I can start thinking about sowing the parsnip and carrot beds now. Victor Meldrew can take his doom and gloom predictions and bury them in a deep dark pit somewhere.

Building my frame

I will be sowing, planting and growing this season and this week the Mudlets and I will be sowing the next batch of seedlings – courgettes, pumpkins and squash, as well as lettuces, peas and beans – because vegetable gardening isn’t ALL about producing home grown produce. Vegetable gardening, in fact ANY sort of gardening, is about restoring balance, relaxing, therapy and that in its’ self makes it worth the risk that Snowmageddon 2 will arrive mid April and throw everything off kilter.

Quite pleased with how it turned up

But back to today and today the sun has been shining, the air has felt pleasantly warm and so I have taken advantage of these facts and have spent an enjoyable couple of hours, in the greenhouse planting on my tomato and sweet pepper seedlings. The tomatoes were well overdue and are a little straggly but in my experience, tomatoes are actually tough little blighters and I have high hopes that they will recover and, so long as Snowmageddon 2 doesn’t happen, we’ll get a decent crop of tomatoes and sweet peppers.

I gave the sweet peppers some extra protection

I haven’t completely thrown caution to the wind though and so I spent the first hour designing and constructing a fleece tent to protect my precious young plants. The frame has been constructed from  bamboo canes, and my newly potted on tomatoes and sweet peppers are snug under 2 to 3 layers of fleece which has been draped over the frame. To provide my delicate sweet pepper seedlings with some extra warmth and protection, I have covered them with a propagator lid.

Spring has most definitely sprung in Mudville but keep it under your hat.

  

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