Many thanks to everyone who sent me their best wishes for my hip operation on Friday January 25th. I managed to escape from hospital on the following Tuesday and I am currently at home recovering (I can't spell convalescing). One of the more pleasant things about being in hospital was the fact that several of my visitors brought gardening magazines with them, for me to read. Most of the magazines contained free packets of seeds. This was a fine bonus and now I only need to purchase some Sweetcorn seeds to complete this years wants list. One amusing thing that I noticed whilst reading the January/February editions of the magazines, was that most of the people in the photographs were gardening, outdoors, wearing Summer clothes and working in glorious sunshine, as if.
One of my friends went down to check out the condition of my plots last week and said that the ground conditions were still too wet to achieve any positive work on them. I finally managed a visit to the plots myself last evening, again to check things out. I was pleasantly surprised to see that there were no weeds at all, growing in the prepared areas of either plot. Apart from the fact that my Cabbages had suffered from attacks by slugs and snails all was well. The soil had dried out considerably since last week, due to the recent cold, breezy weather of late. The recent heavy frosts had also broken down the soils surface considerably too. I checked over my sheds and inspected my stored seeds for any signs of decay. In general the allotments were looking bleak and windswept, with only 1 other person there, walking their dog. About a dozen plots (out of 119) were looking well tended and had been dug or rotavated during the past week. It was too cold to spend much time there so I lurched back to the car on my crutches, turned up the heater and was driven home.
Due to my operation and the time needed to recover, I had decided not to sow early seeds into pots and trays this year, thinking that sowing direct would save time and effort. I am now re-thinking this as I believe that this current cold spell will last well into March. I haven't spent much time at my computer lately so I am looking forward to reading up on the gardening blogs next week.
I hope the following may be of use to my readers:
1. Hozelock have 2 offers at the moment (Chelsea Flower Show Tickets) and A Flexible Hose.
THIS IS THE LINK
2. (U.S.A. except Florida) Organic Gardening magazine are giving away free seeds (with subscriptions).
THIS IS THE LINK
There's always tomorrow!!
One of my friends went down to check out the condition of my plots last week and said that the ground conditions were still too wet to achieve any positive work on them. I finally managed a visit to the plots myself last evening, again to check things out. I was pleasantly surprised to see that there were no weeds at all, growing in the prepared areas of either plot. Apart from the fact that my Cabbages had suffered from attacks by slugs and snails all was well. The soil had dried out considerably since last week, due to the recent cold, breezy weather of late. The recent heavy frosts had also broken down the soils surface considerably too. I checked over my sheds and inspected my stored seeds for any signs of decay. In general the allotments were looking bleak and windswept, with only 1 other person there, walking their dog. About a dozen plots (out of 119) were looking well tended and had been dug or rotavated during the past week. It was too cold to spend much time there so I lurched back to the car on my crutches, turned up the heater and was driven home.
Due to my operation and the time needed to recover, I had decided not to sow early seeds into pots and trays this year, thinking that sowing direct would save time and effort. I am now re-thinking this as I believe that this current cold spell will last well into March. I haven't spent much time at my computer lately so I am looking forward to reading up on the gardening blogs next week.
I hope the following may be of use to my readers:
1. Hozelock have 2 offers at the moment (Chelsea Flower Show Tickets) and A Flexible Hose.
THIS IS THE LINK
2. (U.S.A. except Florida) Organic Gardening magazine are giving away free seeds (with subscriptions).
THIS IS THE LINK
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| A New Sign for My Allotment |
There's always tomorrow!!
Hi Rooko; Hope you are soon well enough to get back to your digging! Well, actually, it was probably a surfeit of digging that made your hip bad in the first place, wasn't it? Like you, I'm not anticipating being able to sow anything much outdoors for some while yet. My garden is currently fozen solid.
ReplyDeleteHi Mark, Sorry to hear things are still frozen up for you. It's been mild here until a week or so ago but now its too cold for any work outside. The digging will be a while yet, I expect the last few years of resurrecting overgrown plots aggravated the last hip, but joking aside it was osteo arthritis that started the problem off.
DeleteGlad that you're on the mend, Probably a good time to be out of action rather than in a month or so!
ReplyDeleteThanks Sue, yes I hope to have things started by April at the latest.
DeleteHi Rooko nice to see you back in blogland - you haven't missed much it has just been too darn cold to do anything except for a sunny spell last weekend - what a shame it didn't last. Hope you are feeling a lot better - I bet you can't wait to get back on the plot.
ReplyDeleteHi Elaine, I expect its colder in your part of the country than here. I'm just thinking about getting some sowing done indoors this coming week. Hope your Tomatoes are not feeling the cold.
DeleteWelcome back! Hope you're fit again soon!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Belinda, things are moving slowly but hopefully I'll be back moaning about the weather outside soon.
DeleteI think you're wise to stay indoors. It's ghastly out!!
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