While it may have been warmish for a winter evening the other night, last night was definitely cooler and foggy, but its still not proper cold and all my plants are confused. I did a wee wander around looking for something to do and guess what I found…
Raspberries and strawberries – what the??? These plants are supposed to be long since dormant. How can they build up their reserves for the summer it they are still going? I nibbled on a few and moved on.
The next thing I came across was a bit of a problem. I have loads of brassica plants about the place. There are Brussels sprouts, kale, broccoli, romanesco, cauliflower, cabbage, red cabbage, kohlrabi and calovo nero and… I think that is about it. It’s a nice mix of all sorts of cool stuff that should add loads of variety to our diets.
The problem is I don’t know which is which. Some are really easy to figure out, the red cabbage, calovo nero and the kohlrabi are a given – the kohlrabi is nicely swelling the base, the calovo nero is unmistakeable and the red cabbage is red. But the rest all look the same at this stage of growth and all I can do is wait. I should have labelled each plant, but I didn’t. I thought I’d remember, but then I should have remembered that I never remember. Oh well.
I decided to do a bit of soil toiling and get my hands dirty, and planted out those salad plants. The soil while cold and quite wet, was also soft and crumbly and full of worms. I removed all the weeds which wasn’t too much of a chore as there wasn’t all that many. I pulled out all the rocket that was showing signs of flowering and gave half to the chickens, who were very suspicious and the other half to the goats who were delighted. Then I set about transplanting all my little salad plants and protected them from slugs and any escapee chickens that may find them.
And lastly I took out my new camera and tried to figure out how to take my monthly panoramic shot. As you can see I still have a lot of work to do.
Come again soon – I’m going to have to get creative, its supposed to rain!
Sarah the Gardener : o )
This happened to us this winter. We had a warm spell and the garden got very confused!
Hi there. I think it is not so much a warm spell, its more that we haven’t really had a cold spell… Although it will come bringing it’s frosts with it.
Cheers Sarah : o )
The seasons in the UK are still mixed up with temperatures still dropping to Autumnal/early winter temperatures and the plants and insects are very confused. The experts reckon that overall, we are about 1 month behind where we should be.
BTW Middle Mudlet wondered what the light blue bit in your panoramic shot was – she thought it was a swimming pool 😉
Hi there. You can let Middle Mudlet know that yes, it is our pool, although we have let it down for the winter. If you go to my website sarahthegardener.co.nz and go to monthly photos on pictures drop down box and click on one of the summer photos you can see the pool up and ready to swim in.
Cheers Sarah : o )
Thanks for that, I’ll tell her in the morning (it’s quarter past ten at night here at the moment). She has better eyesight than me and we’ll definitely go have a look at your site tomorrow. I think the fact that your garden looks like it could be somewhere in the middle of England, really fascinated her. I think she thought only gardens in the UK looked like, well, gardens in the UK, if you see what I mean 🙂
I thought the same thought the other day! I couldn’t for the life of me identify my winter veg either! Must label plants properly…..!
HI Sarah. I am shocking at remembering to label. I always think – she’ll be right. So the best I can do is sit tight and hope that something vaguely recognisable appears!
Cheers Sarah : o )
I was walking Earl this morning all rugged up and in my own world when I was startled out of it by noticing blackberry flowers…already! Aren’t they supposed to be dormant now?!!!
Hi Fran, It’s all really weird. The thing is most of the out of season stuff wont come to anything much, but then it makes you wonder if you should treat plants as per normal – like pruning the raspberries – do I wait until they finish… well that may never happen! Just when you think you have the hang of something – it turns around and does something unexpected!
Cheers Sarah : o )
I like your garden layout, it looks so nice.
Hi There. Thank you so much. It kind of just evolved, but it works really well.
Cheers Sarah : o )