If It Feels Like Spring, Looks Like Spring, It Must Be Spring!

With the weather having warmed up over the weekend and the weeks forecast to remain that way, Spring feels like it has finally arrived after the coldest of winters. With the winter hopefully over, it is time to get the black leaky hose pipe out of the pump house and lay it on the herbaceous border, although last year it was never used due to the extremely wet summer.

Whilst Ali and Simon lay the hose pipe down, Joss gives the Nuffield lawn its first cut of the season, long shadows appear for the first time now that the sun is shining and the grey clouds, that were a feature of the winter, have disappeared.

Walking around the garden there are signs of spring everywhere, the beautiful, bright yellow, Brimstone butterfly and pollinating insects are seen for the first time. The Sparrowhawk has announced its return and new songs from the returning migrant birds can be heard by those who want to listen, even one of the tree ferns is smiling!

Spring also sees the birds working hard building their nests. A pair of Canada Geese have built their nest behind the ash tree, three eggs have been seen when they get up to gently turn them with their beak.

In the orchard the daffodils sway in a gentle breeze, their bright yellow trumpets heralding Springs arrival. All around it feels like Spring, looks like Spring, so it must be Spring! (Even the groundsmen have their legs on display, shorts on, there is no going back now.)

Spring Cleaning The Tomato House

Back in March 2010, see blog entry 'First Day Of Spring', the restoration project of the tomato house began with the clearing out of all the rubbish that had been stored in it. By the end of March all the rubbish was gone and, following a clean and the single digging of the two borders, see blog entry 'Now The Digging Is Done', the tomato house was ready for use. Three years have now passed since it was first used again and they have been very productive years, a huge numbers of cucumbers and tomatoes have been consumed by the team during the past three summers. As can be seen by the next two photographs, the glass and walls are again in need of a clean, so Ali, in her waterproofs, wellington boots, goggles and ear defenders spent the morning power washing all the grime off.

 

By lunch time Ali had finished the power washing, the grime was no longer on the glass and walls but all over her, good job she had her protective clothing on! This year the sun will now be able to shine through the clean glass and, hopefully, it will be another very productive year.

Lifting And Splitting Galanthus 'Magnet'

The snowdrops in the herbaceous border have given a lovely display this year but, as their flowers have gone over, now is the time to lift and split them, 'in the green'. Graham and Ali spent a few hours this morning working on the large clumps of Galanthus 'Magnet', lifting, splitting and replanting the new, smaller clumps further along the border. Next year the display should be bigger and even better, but let's not wish away the year too quickly, the team will just have to wait.

,

The Completion Of 'Project Chicken'

The chickens have settled in well in a corner of the Provost's garden, but the team still had some more work to do to complete the project started on the 20th February, see blog entry 'Preparing For The Chickens'. Joss and Kieron went in to the garden first this week to put in the new iron edging, and to work out the new shape that would work best for the corner.

Ady, Graham and Callum joined them the next day to clear out a few more old shrubs at the back of the chicken area and, once cleared, a few more trailer loads of wood chippings were spread over the extension..

With the work at the back of the chickens completed yesterday, Joss returned, this time with Callum, to prepare the ground in front of the new iron edging for the sowing of grass seed. Top soil was spread over the area, levelled and, by the end of the day, the seed had been sown and the area roped off until the grass has grown.

Improving The Light Levels

With some of the young plants now occupying the old, unheated peach house, the natural light levels which play a crucial role in plant growth, need to be improved. (The photograph above does make the peach house look well ventilated, this is not due to missing panes of glass but new panes that have been installed and not yet been painted with 'Coolglass'.)

The roof, covered in dirt, mess and other horrible, unidentified crusted material, needed to be power washed off. After an hour, Ali had managed to remove the grime and, with a sparkling clean roof, the plants should grow well until they are moved to their next home in the cold frames.

The First Of Many Seedlings

With space being made in the greenhouse yesterday, there is now space for the seedlings to be pricked out into their individual pots. The Geraniums were pricked out a few weeks ago but today was the first, of what will be a number of days, that Ali will spend in the greenhouse over the next few weeks pricking out a few hundred seedlings.

On The Move

The greenhouse is now full, not an inch of space left, which is causing a problem as some of the seeds have now germinated and need pricking out. To create space the cuttings taken last September must be moved into the old, unheated peach house for the start of  'hardening off', the toughening up of plants to acclimatise them to the cooler outside temperatures.

The cuttings, repotted in January, are moved to larger pots, the last time before they are planted out into the garden in June

The plants are then taken to the peach house and laid out on the staging until it is full. When the heated greenhouse becomes full again, as the seeds are pricked out, these plants will be moved out of the peach house into the cold frames and replaced by more of the plants that have been repotted today. By the end of May the greenhouse, peach house and cold frames will be full to bursting.