This winter has been very mild; we have only had a few frosty nights and zero snow. For several weeks the weather was very spring-like, and the plants in my garden started waking up.
My apple tree has quite a few big, fat buds on it.
The rhubarb has shown its face.
The flower bulbs I found buried in the potato planter, and scattered all over the garden back in autumn, have all sprouted. I'm not sure what they are, possibly daffodils, but it definitely looks like I'll have some flowers this spring!
The garlic and the onions I planted in October seem to be doing particularly well, although I am not sure if they are supposed to look like this in the middle of the winter! This is my first year of gardening so I really don't know if I should be happy or worried...
 |
| Buds on the apple tree |
 |
| Garlic jungle! No picture of onions as their bed is covered with fleece. |
 |
| Baby rhubarb |
 |
| Daffodils (I think??) |
There are a few new additions to my garden as well. I wanted to grow kale, and while researching the subject I discovered a perennial variety of this lovely vegetable. It's called Daubenton's Kale, apparently a very old variety, and is supposed to be very hardy. When I bought it online, the orders were limited to 1 plant per customer, which was a bit disappointing, but then it is supposed to grow very tall (up to 2 metres!) so if all goes well I should have enough leaves just from this one plant. I can also propagate it from cuttings if needed. At the moment it's sitting in a fleece tent, to protect it from slugs and snails until it's established and starts growing.
Another newbie is a second apple tree - Golden Delicious. We love apples so I thought doubling my chances of getting a decent crop would be a good idea :-) I don't expect much from them this year, but hopefully by 2018 they will be established enough to start producing.
And lastly, not a plant but certainly a very important part of my garden - a compost bin. It's a 300-litre bin, which I hope will be enough for our needs. So far the council has been collecting all of our green waste, but no more, I shall start producing my own compost now! Although first I need to find a good spot for it. The first place I put it in didn't quite work - the bin (weighed down with several bricks, mind you!) got blown away last night by the insane wind (or was it a hurricane!) that's been torturing us for a couple of days now. There's been some damage to the garden but I have rectified all that I could, and I hope the plants are resilient enough to survive.
 |
| Daubenton's perennial kale, resting under its fleece tent |
 |
| New apple tree - Golden Delicious |
 |
| Brand new compost bin |
No comments:
Post a Comment