New Year Resolutions!

Last year sped by so quickly, I can hardly believe it is 2012! The wet weather has hampered work on the allotment – the soil is far too wet to dig at the moment, which means I will have to make every effort in January to complete my winter digging. In the garden, apart from sweeping the last of the leaves from the patio and taking vegetable peelings out to the compost bins, I have done very little. The wintery showers that creep up when I am engrossed in a task have mainly confined me to the house – I have had my face stung by hailstones too many times and know that, once the weather improves, I will work twice as fast and with better humour! 

Tweet Tweet - view from my window!The garden is deceptively inviting when the sun comes out and with all of the new growth, unharmed as yet by hard weather, positively spring like. Still it is best to take this ‘down time’ and plan for the coming year.

The first of my ‘resolutions’ for 2012 is to heed the weather forecasts and make sure that I do not put off tasks when the sun shines! Last year I kept a note of dates when seed was sown, so this year I can learn from being too impatient in early spring and sowing the first crops too early. This resulted in poor, slow germination and the next sowings catching up and overtaking the initial ones!

I also intend to compost even more material from the house, including more paper shreddings and the ash from our wood burning stove, which I mix in with coarser material to stop it making a soggy mat! You can never put too much mulch onto a garden – the compost that we produce is not enough for our garden, so I have to mulch different areas each time a compost bin is emptied. A good layer of at least 15cm helps to improve the soil, keep in moisture and keeps down the weeds. It is also a great way of recycling!

Our garden is now very bird friendly, with lots of berrying shrubs for the thrush family, seed heads which we leave through the winter for the finches and sparrows and a thick Privet hedge on one boundary that provides shelter and cover from predators. We do get Sparrow Hawk attacks occasionally but the birds know to dive into the hedge for protection and mostly get away! However, I do intend to put up more feeders and try to attract some more unusual visitors throughout the year.

And lastly, I will plant more Tulip bulbs this autumn and not complain about the task which is one that I do not enjoy! Like many gardeners, I have a problem keeping Tulips from one year to the next but think it may be because our garden is too shady and the bulbs do not get baked in the summer sun. On the other hand, a drift of these graceful flowers in late spring teamed with Wallflowers and Forget me Nots is to me, one of the best rewards of the gardening year!

Wishing all our readers a very Happy New Year

Mr McGregor