CATKINS

It is finally warming up out there and we can confidently sow seed outside. I have peas and broad beans shooting up already (don’t forget to support them with pea sticks or netting)  Some are in rows, others in blocks - I’ll let you know which works best.

Our native trees are blossoming, but sometimes you have to look closely to appreciate their beauty.  These are Alder catkins - hanging like golden earrings by our barn.  Look out also for Hazel, (Pussy) Willow and Birch catkins too.  Subtle and understated, but just as lovely as the flouncy pink stuff.

SEEDLINGS

I’ve been a little preoccupied trying to catch up with some seed sowing in the last couple of weeks.  Things are finally warming up out there and we can start sowing seed direct with gay abandon - or in carefully prepared seed drills...

CHITTING

  

The potatoes (varieties: International Kidney, Charlotte - earlies and Pink Fir Apple) have been happily chitting in a light, frost free environment (chitting means sprouting, like those neglected ones in the bottom of the fridge sometimes do) Now they’re ready to plant out in the veg patch.  Plant with the ‘rose’ end uppermost (the bit with the most shoots).  Sam has been most intrigued (the picture is for him)  The shoots are fragile and are easily knocked off -- “Mummy, your potato’s arm has fallen off!” - don’t worry if this happens, some people even rub off a couple to get fewer, but larger potatoes.  I have never purposefully done it, so can’t comment on the relative merits, but I guess I should experiment one day.

                          

Is it my imagination, or are the crocuses bigger and bolder this year?

Perhaps it’s because spring’s been slow in coming and I’m just really pleased to see them - greeting them like children I’ve not seen for a while - “My, how you’ve grown!”

RABBIT EGGS

  
                           

This seems to be turning into a chicken blog, not a gardening one – sorry.  I promise this will be the last thing for a while about chickens, I just thought you might like to see the  eggs our young hens have started laying.  They are Cream Legbars and lay pale geen/blue eggs.  The other interesting thing about them is that they can be sexed on hatching so we were able to buy them as day old chicks, pop them under a broody hen and not have to worry that any would be cockerels.  They have been living in the wendy house with Heidi the rabbit, but have started to lay their eggs in her bedroom when she’s  out and about in the garden.  Easter is early this year, but Heidi is a grumpy old rabbit, not the Easter bunny and doesn’t take kindly to finding eggs in her bed, so it’s time for them to move into the orchard with the other chickens. 

                              

I really enjoy keeping hens.  They are good at pest control and look pretty in the garden.  Unfortunately they’re also good at scratching up plants, eating crops and making a mess...

FLIPPING PANCAKES AGAIN

At this time of the year when there’s nothing much growing in the garden to harvest (thanks to the never-ending slugfests and pigeon parties this winter we don’t have a shred of cabbage or kale left) leeks are such a versatile ingredient.  I find myself putting them in everything  (risotto, chicken pie, pasta bake, soup....) and for Shrove Tuesday supper this evening into savoury pancakes; basically leek and bacon in a white sauce rolled in a pancake and toped with a little tomato sauce (not Heinz) and lots of grated cheese. Baked in the oven until the cheese bubbles and starts to crisp.  Flipping good.

I sow my leeks (usually Musselburgh and  Blue Solaise - both heritage varieties and very reliable and you can collect the seed to sow next year) as early as possible  (around now) in pots to plant out next month - when they’re like thick blades of grass. (I once sowed them directly out in the garden and lost them - because they looked like blades of grass).  then I do that peculiar thing of digging them up once they’re pencil thick and replanting into much deeper holes to extend the white part.  It’s a bit of work, but worth it for such a reliable crop.

SOWING

Suddenly, after that unending winter, spring jumped out at us this week.  The sun has been shining, the birds are singing, the hens are laying well, even our grumpy old rabbit seems in good spirits.  It makes such a difference to - well, everything.

                                   
The picture is from the Imperial War museum - an authentic copy of a greenhouse from the ‘dig for victory’ days.  It has become my dream greenhouse and some day I will have one just like it.  In the meantime I have to put up with my tumbledown aluminium one, but it does the trick and there are lots of tender annuals and early vegetables germinating in there at the moment - oblivious to how inferior their surroundings are.

HERE COME THE LAMBS

                           

In a few months these dear little creatures will be loitering about all over the track, stubbornly refusing to get out of the way of cars and generally not being quite so cute.  But for now I gaze upon them fondly - they’re a welcome sign that Spring might just have arrived...