Creation of a garden: February - Frost and more
IN my January offering, I ended telling you that the following article would be 'Preparing for Spring'. Well, that is true in part. What I didn’t bargain for were the severe frosts. So, the preparation is on hold.
However, before the cold weather arrived, I did a lot of work removing the old brassica roots and rotavating in readiness for the muck spreading.
But the days are ok, averaging around 15C where we are, but it is still cold out of the sun. For my followers in the UK. The temperatures where we live dropped quite drastically, reaching 2C one morning!
The pictures demonstrate the work I managed, before I hibernated for a couple of weeks. Before that though, I had time to dig out the strawberry patch. I discovered that by the end of last year, most of the plants had died. I put this down to a lack of nutrients. I had never added any fertiliser to the strawberries since I planted them, so the soil did look very tired.
So, I cleared the remaining plants and covered the area with some fresh manure. I have since forked this in, and will be buying some new strawberry plants in the next few weeks.
I have a new problem this month. I have discovered we have some vegetarian rats living next door. I know they are not living in my garden because, after a thorough inspection, I know there is nowhere they can hide.
How do I know they are vegetarian? Well, they have eaten one whole broccoli and started on my sprouts! All I can say is that I am glad they don't like onions!
Next time, – Spring planting.