Sunday 24 April 2011

rain, glorious rain...

but, unfortunately, not enough of it. Number one water butt is back to half-full but I now have a healthy crop of weed seedlings to deal with. The combination of warm weather and recent rain has pushed everything forward, including chickweed, dandelions, buttercups and groundsel.

Because I use a block planting scheme on part of the plot the close spacing means no hoeing so I have to get down and remove the weeds by hand. Out comes the kneeler as that's the only way my poor old arthritic joints will allow me to get close enough to the ground. Once the veg. plants get well established I leave them to fight it and don't bother much with weeding.

A while ago I put some strawberry plants in the greenhouse which have now got good fruit on them. If the weather stays fair it shouldn't be long before I'm munching on fresh strawberries.

And talking of fruit, the cherry tree has so much blossom we should be in for a bumper crop. Well, the birds will be in for a bumper crop as they seem to prefer cherries not quite ripe. I do manage to net parts of the tree and get a few for myself but it really is a losing battle.
cherry blossom
I saw a damsel/dragon fly in the garden today. Not sure of the species but it was a bronze colour and about 4cm long. Whatever it was I hope that's a sign that summer is well on its way.

2 comments:

  1. We were on the edge of a thunderstorm which barely wet the ground yesterday. Other than that nothing for a few weeks! I'm not complaining but I don't expect watering to be a daily chore this early in the year.

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  2. We've only had a tiny amount of rain and with my sandy soil it's beginning to look as if the hose will be out soon. Like the look of your strawbs, yummy.

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