for those prepared to get their hands dirty
At last, something besides the weather to post about…
Once again we head towards early April, and it has to be, just has to be so much better that the year to date
Saturday April 7th will once again see us celebrate International Greenfingers Day.
International Greenfingers Day! is that day each spring when we set to celebrate the potential that the new growing season and year presents. It is a day to celebrate gardeners in their gardens, a day to plant up some pots and trays, or plant up a raised bed or drill on your plot. It’s a day to take some seed sowing selfies as a record and have something to look back on in late summer and autumn. It is also that day when we get to enthuse and encourage other people to do likewise and sow something from seed or set, and hopefully introduce them to, and inspire them with all of the benefits of growing something for themselves. It is a day for giving someone a gift of some seed, and helping them to get their hands a little grubby: a packet of seed, a small pot or tub with compost, a can of water and some labels. The rest is in care and patience.
So, why not? Gift the gardener in your life with some seed if for no other reason than for the day that’s in it, and watch the enjoyment as they get their hands dirty…
The time on plot 31 is Winter past Autumn precisely. A perfect circle of ice compliments of the monster’s rain barrel…
April, come she will, and the overgrown plot of land we signed for at the end of December 2016 is beginning to resemble an allotment at last.
There is still much to do on the monster’s New corner, but, at least we have some onion and shallot sets growing away in terra firma. We have also moved the onion seedlings out of our daughter’s polytunnel and set these in the ground and our cosmos are germinated and putting on an inch or so. The dwarf sunflowers have germinated, and all the fruit bushes we moved from our former plot in January have burst bud and the bees are pollinating the early flowers on the Hinnomaki gooseberry bushes; the summer John and April Queen heritage apple trees are about to bloom, and all six of Mrs. Dirt Diggers rose bushes are topping away with this year’s growth, and to cap it all off we have actually harvested some rhubarb form our new plot. We know it’s a little early as, ideally we should have left it a bit longer before picking some stalks as these stools were only transplanted in early January, but, we just had to, and what a sweet treat…the first produce from the monster’s NEW corner.
We’ve set the structures of our raised beds, marked out our pathways and mulched the whole fruiting area with woodland chippings; and last week saw us take delivery of a new shed: a new bolt-hole for the monster.
With peas, broad-beans and some new strawberry plants being set this weekend we’ll be busy as this year’s sowing season gets under way in earnest, and we are glad to say that we are just about on cue.
Although a little cool and grey for much of the last 5 days at least the weather forecast is for somewhat brighter and milder weather than of late, and remembering that tomorrow is Greenfingers Day, sure what more could any gardener or allotmenteer hope for eh!
Buy some seed…… and sow up a pot or a drill on your plot…
time to really get the hands dirty…Greenfingers Day 2017….
Monster In The Corner... 