Day off work today – hooray! But whilst the rest of the country basks in warm sunny Spring weather, this little corner of England is suffering a bone-chilling breeze straight of the North Sea. Instead of sunshine, we have low misty cloud and a temperature of 6 degrees. We’ve suffered from this East wind for the past week although we’ve had some sunny days.
Oh well. Despite the cold the garden is at least showing signs of Spring. The daffodils are still in flower whilst the pear tree looks ready to bloom any day now. Trees and shrubs are coming into leaf, hostas are starting to grow, the hop (Humulus lupulus ‘Aureas’) is starting its long journey across the back of the house.
The squirrels are starting to become a nuisance again, I blame them for destroying 2 pots of Semperivums over the past few days. However, the ‘festive fence’ seems to be working and there have been no more signs of cat mess for the past week or so.
The big question now is when to take down the temporary plastic greenhouse? Although I can control the minimum temperature, I can’t stop the temperatures soaring in sunny weather. If I leave plants in there too long they are inclined to rot in the hot humid atmosphere. Also getting rid of the greenhouse and putting back the table and chairs is always a milestone on the road to summer.
Have I said that the tree ferns are looking ready to put out new fronds soon? This year all the fronds were killed by the cold and I feared that the whole trees (?) had died. But no – within the hollow at the top of the trunks I can feel the coiled new fronds ready to unwind.
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