Like many of you, no doubt, our ridiculous weather is causing havoc in the garden moving within two days from 20 degrees to 6 or 7 at lunch time. Because of the heat of the previous weeks, I got a move on with my seed planting and now it’s proving to be a major headache.
Whereas earlier this week I was having to water them night and morning to keep seeds and seedlings moist, now I’m wrapping them up in horticultural fleece from about 6pm.
We’ve got half a dozen camelias in the walled garden and they are in full bloom. Too difficult to fleece them up at night so, no doubt, they will be brown and horrible by next weekend. It’s the same with the tulips. Most of them are in flower but will be knocked about by the forecast frosts and winds.
Mrs GG is very proud of our magnolia that she nurtured from a small bush into a massive tree (see pic) about to burst into flower- well until that wretched frost does for it. The only good news is that at least the cold weather will hold the grass growth back which means we can have a brief respite from mowing. I have not stopped cutting the grass throughout the winter. Thank goodness I have plenty of space for the mountain of cuttings (see pic).
There was one lighter incident in the garden. A couple of weeks ago we had two nights away from home. On our return the dastardly grey squirrels had knocked one of the sunflower seed bird feeders of its very secure hook. They managed to get their evil, yellow teeth inside the so called “squirrel proof” surround and totally destroyed the plastic tube and seed dispensers.
Happily we do have an excellent and really squirrel proof alternative feeder (see pic) but I went to our local pet shop and bought a replacement for the damaged version. It was nowhere near as robust and painted cream.
I filled it with the requisite sunflower seeds which the birds seem to adore – but not from a cream painted feeder. They ignored it totally for a fortnight. I even let the other feeder run out of seed in the hope of encouraging them to the new one. So they totally ignored us and, apart from the ground eating birds, we were without our avian friends.
I had to give in and purchase a version of the original squirrel proof feeder and they are all as happy as Larry (did you know he was a boxer?).
Back to the weather. The doom mongers at the Met Office are predicting arctic winds, frosts and even snow here in Staffordshire. I have opened another roll of horticultural fleece so, it is does snow, the inside of my greenhouse will be as white as the outside garden.
Happy gardening and keep yourselves and your plants warm.
GG
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