Spring Is Sprung!
Tom Mowat continues his series of gardening notes. These were written last month since when the weather has caught up
I am puzzled by Global Warming. The climate does seem to be changing. There are no hard winters such as I had when a schoolboy. We always had snow for sledges and slides. Now winters are milder, dull and drizzly. March used to be a dry month in which to complete outside jobs and painting before showery April but has not been so for some years. Spring bulbs are confused. Snowdrops used to flower in January but are still in flower and crocuses are out with the daffodils and even some tulips. Frog spawn which usually appears in February did not arrive till early March.
The steady daily rain has left the soil saturated. Farmers are unable to till sodden fields and await a frost before spreading slurry without compressing the soil. Same for the gardener who can’t prepare a wet vegetable patch. But be patient; the ground will dry eventually and warm up for planting. Many vegetables can be started in trays in the greenhouse or window ledge and transplanted later and potatoes can be sprouted. I have purchased dahlias to add to last year’s collection which have over- wintered in the shed, and several new herbaceous plants which I hope like it here. Those that don’t like this garden don’t survive and it is pointless trying again. I have now given up on pampas grass which I know some people don’t like but it can fill a corner gracefully
We had an interesting talk at the February Fellowship, from Mr Topliss from Cairndow on the Argyllshire garden when he listed trees and ornamental shrubs happy in our climate. The selection of birch, hawthorn, rowan and maple is very wide and he even suggested the dreaded ponticum as a shelter hedge. I must fit in a visit to Cairndow soon.
Since building a compost heap in the garden for the kitchen waste, we have had fewer mice in the house but there are plenty in the compost heap! The red squirrel which regularly raided our bird nuts in past winters has not visited this year and we wonder what has happened to it. Six months ago I heard noises in our loft space which I thought at the time could be our bat colony or a noisy mouse but I now wonder if it could have been a squirrel. The presence of a few bird nuts, too big for a mouse to carry, among the loft insulation seems to confirm that a squirrel has been there. But is it still there? Time will tell.
