Good Weather For Ducks

As I sit here looking out of the window at yet more rain I know like me the rest of the gardeners are all praying that March is going to be a lot dryer than February has been, after the snow at the beginning of the month hindering us the last thing we needed was this much rain, shame we didn’t have some of it last summer! We are all fed up trying to dodge the rain, getting soaking wet and caked in mud. The lake has overflowed into the entrance of the vegetable garden turning the lawn into a bog much to the enjoyment of our resident Heron, Ducks and Moorhen and the path outside the workshop will soon be submerged if this carries on.

Luckily we have plenty to do indoors, seed sowing is now under way with over 350 different varieties and cultivars there are thousands to sow. We have also now started potting the first of our Dahlia tubers; we have around 100 different cultivars totalling to about 6000 tubers much to the distress of our propagator Boo who has to find room for them all in our greenhouses!

Unfortunately this month we have lost one of our professional gardeners ; Frinky who is still staying on site but is moving on to set up and work in our new gift shop. We are all very excited about it selling a wide range of gardening gifts it will be opening at the end of March. Frinky is going to be replaced with a seasonal maintenance gardener whose duties will be mowing edging and hedge cutting allowing Steve and I to concentrate on the planting.

We have made a lot of progress over the past month, the garden is looking neat and tidy almost ready for the start of the season most of the borders have been cleared and forked over and the roses have been pruned, bent or trained and manured we are just waiting for many of our bulbs to battle their way through this awful weather, we already have snowdrops, crocuses and winter aconites flowering and I noticed yesterday after a few hours of sun the reticulated irises newly planted on the island meadow have suddenly burst into life. I am waiting with anticipation as I know by the end of the month spring will be well under way.

Steve