New Year musings

The snow was almost gone yesterday, but a new flurry this morning has left the ground covered again. Before it fell I was able to do a quick inspection of the ground and see loads of cat crap on the patch where I have planted the onions. Nowhere else has this neighbour's cat pooed. Does it think it's dropping a nice piece of manure to help the onions along or is there some scent from the bulbs that attracts animals? I'll be very interested to see if this piece of produce ever comes to fruition.

The people who run the excellent Blagger site have been out tending to their raspberries. They admit themselves it's a little late, but it prompts me to think I am even later and must get on with the job. It's not much of a task, just a bit of pruning to get the plants in order for the new year. Must do it - when it stops snowing.

Winter wonderland

 

Today I woke up to heavy snow, really huge flakes falling, and I felt glad that I did not have to get up and go to work. It seems as if we will see out 2009 in snow, just as we saw the year in.

Hard to imagine that a green garden existed here not all that long ago. As I surveyed the scene from our bedroom window, I spied a cat having a crap – right on the spot where I planted the onions, the only things that I have planted out at the moment (apart from the dubious existence of rhubarb). Why there?, Why, why?

That darn cat

Our cat Mish has followed up her wee on the growbag with a crap. More accurately, the poo was near the growbag. Naughty, naughty. What can I do?

There's been a lot of rain here today and I have been prevented from going in the garden, but a bit of wet is very welcome after the heatwave of the last few days.

Things seem to be going on well, although I am a bit worried about my peas. The seeds I planted seem not to have taken in pots in the conservatory or in the garden outside. Give them a bit longer, I suppose, but I am resigned to fate. My friend Kate says she never has much success with peas either. She seems not to know why and neither do I.

Ain't she sweet?

Anyone want to buy a cat called Mish? She is out of favour after doing a wee on one of my growbags.

Present state of affairs

I needn't have been concerned about the garden drying up while we were away on our short road trip - it's been wet for days here in Yorkshire now. Not a lot of gardening has been done in the last three or four days.

Current state is: Potatoes coming on OK, ditto onions, garlic and chives. Lettuce and salad leaves appear to have failed to germinate. Rhubarb which looked as though something had sat on it now perking up somewhat. Runner beans and Cherokee Trail of Tears in the conservatory now ready to go out, I reckon. Must think about transferring tomatoes to growbags.

And - which bloody cat left its poo on the ground where the lettuce and salad leaves are supposed to be?

Animal farm

I love cats but, looking out of my bedroom window, not the one I spied walking purposefully from next door (it doesn't live there), into our garden and then right up to the veg patch at the back, where it proceeded to do an almighty crap. At least it had the grace to cover the mess up in a very neat fashion before ambling on its way.

What are you supposed to do? Get a gun? Stone them? Or get those cat repellent products that I've given a perfunctory glance to in the shop, but which don't seem very nice. And what about my own cat? Shouldn't she have freedom to enjoy the garden in her own way? All in all, I think I will let nature take its course.

This morning I was down in the woods collecting leaf mould, which Susan said would do the soil a bit of good. There's tons of it there, oak too. My efforts to dig it in failed miserably, however, with the onset of sleet and then heavy rain. It's still showering intermittently even now, three hours later. Susan says the forecast for tonight is that it could go as low as -10.

We alter the clocks tonight. But we mustn't be fooled into thinking summer is here already. Cast not a clout til May's out.