I will be a more diligent blogger

Another year coming to an end and again I have neglected my blog ! Having just managed to get here after faffing about to change to a Google account it might take me another year to return ! What a year it has been weatherwise. A cold late spring followed by a very hot summer and a warm autumn. It has been the warmest year since records started. The forecast for the rest of the day is gale force winds and rain. I will not be venturing anywhere though. I am off now to sort through my seedboxes and do some sorting out. Still have one or two orders to place. May do that later or if not tomorrow. These fingers are itching to get going again.

New Year's resolution ?

I vow to be a more diligent blogger !

'So begins another spring'

'From the dark and wetted soil
Petals are unfolding
From the stony village kirk
Easter bells of old ring

So begins another spring
Green leaves and of berries
Chiff-chaff eggs are painted by
Mother bird eating cherries'

Donovan Leitch

Well Easter weekend has come and gone. Spring has arrived and the last week or so has seen that magical greening.

I spent a couple of hours at the allotment where I managed to drop my mobile phone into the water butt near the shed. It is no more !

Have divided perennials for the plant sale, pricked out Ildi and Purple Calabash tomatoes as well as the celeriac and have filled that green bin again. Sowings made over Sunday/Monday were basil, peas, salad leaves, courgettes, cucumber and gaura lindheimeri. The best time of the year !

Germination

We have germination - indoors both rhodochiton and clematis 'Korean Beauty' and outdoors on the sand bench the perennial white stock has come through. Sowed tomatoes today - 'Ildi' and 'Purple Calabash' as well as some nicotiona mutablis. It is snowing as I write and if the weather forecast is right there will be more to come during the night.

Of snowdrops and seedsowing

Ooooops - what happened to those new year resolutions ! Well I suppose there has not been that much happening in the garden and I have neglectd my poor lottie. All that is about to change ! The propagator is on and the first batch of seeds have been sown. Last weekend - verbena bonariensis now in fridge, rhodichiton and something else that I have forgotten inside. This weekend the perennial white stock and orlaya grandiflora on the heated sandbench.

I have some new snowdrops including 'Anglesey Abbey' and 'Modern Art' - both Ebay purchases. We had quite a bit of snow on Thursday night into Friday morning and then some severe frosts. We made it to March with only a flurry of the white stuff in November and then all of a sudden winter arrived. The snowdrops were absolutely flattened by this and have only just perked up. Still some snow on the ground now. The day has been a mixture of sunny spells and scattered wintry showers which plummeted down on my head and finally drove me inside. Off to study veg planting schedules now.

New Years Day

One of my new year's resolutions - not to neglect my blog ! So here it is the first day of a new year - nothing to report on the gardening/lottie front but it was a bright and sunny start to 2006.