Taken from Lynne’s weekly column ‘Green Scene’ for the Western Mail
7th March 2020
Marching On
Let’s hope the weather had all its tantrums in February and that March is going to be a kinder month. A friend likened last month’s weather to someone losing an argument – storming off and then coming back with ‘and another thing …’
Mid-February last year I was working outdoors in a t-shirt as temperatures hit 18 degrees – it was hard to reach 18 degrees in my living room this February. In February 2018 we had three feet of snow. Nature sure keeps us guessing.
There’s a lot to be done in most gardens this month. A lot of people are telling me that they didn’t get a chance to cut things back and ‘put the garden to bed’ at the end of last year as it was so wet. As a result, spring bulbs are pushing up through last years spent herbaceous growth and flowerbeds are generally in need of some TLC. The sooner you can cut back old growth the better for this season’s growth to thrive. It’s a tough call as the ground is still so wet, so if you can it is best to work from boards laid in beds or on the lawn to minimise soil compaction and making a mess generally. Obviously you will have to be a bit more gentle working around new growth and the spring bulbs now too.
In my ‘numerous’ years of gardening, I still maintain that nature ‘rights itself’ very quickly and you’ll be surprised just how soon you will be out there mowing the grass and catching up on your gardening chores. It has been frustrating that so many chores have just been impossible to do – ironically, even weather related repairs. I have to do some re-concreting in the lane at the cottage but it’s been too wet to do it, so I just have to watch as the ruts get deeper before I can address it. A friend put up an outdoor wooden office last October and hasn’t had enough dry weather to stain it since.
It is frustrating but my advice is to make a list of all those jobs that need doing, get your materials on site and be ready to go when we do get some dry weather. As a local farmer told me last week, “The trouble with this country is that we have 7 months of winter and 5 months of bad weather.”
So let’s hope that March is indeed kind – to us and our gardens.
What the Welsh are Saying
Staying with the weather theme, I was tickled to learn that apparently the most used phrases in Wales are:
- Have you seen the forecast?
- I’ve had enough of this weather now.
- Let’s have a cup of tea.
Current Calendar
And you don’t have to be a gardener to realise that the seasons have, and are, changing. I think now the actual seasons are:
- Winter
- Fool’s spring
- Second winter
- Spring of deception
- Third winter
- Mud season
- Actual spring
- Summer (1 week)
- Pretend autumn
- Second summer (1 week)
- Actual autumn
Light Up Your Life
I do like my solar lights and have written about the various types often in the column, but as the flowerbed outside my kitchen window hosts the most beautiful spring display of flowers I thought it would be nice to be able to prolong the time I can enjoy them.
The days are drawing out but it’s still dark at 6 and I wash up after that – so I have up-lit the blooms. I don’t know why I haven’t thought of it before It makes so much sense to uplight things that can be appreciated in the longer darker evenings.
I used a single solar uplighter, and they have improved so much that they don’t need sunshine to work now, just daylight.
And then I put a string of solar fairy lights at the back of the bed on the wall. It has made washing up far more enjoyable – and gives me a boost every time I walk into the kitchen and look out the window.
Little things maybe, but they are the things that matter most.
And no, I haven’t got a dishwasher!
An Evening Out
Apart from my speaking engagements, my friends are forever telling me that I should ‘get out more’, so I have taken their advice and I’m looking forward to an evening with Jeremy Vine and Terry Walton on April 18th. The good news is that it’s not just the three of us going out – you can come too!
Broadcaster Jeremy Vine and Radio 2’s allotmenteer, Terry Walton, invite you a fantastic evening in Cornerstone Cardiff, raising funds for and awareness of Prostate Cymru. Jeremy is currently on tour around the UK, however there are no dates in Cardiff, so Terry and Prostrate Cymru thought they would remedy that.
Join us at 6:30pm with a welcome reception followed by a 2-course meal and of course lots of humour, chat and anecdotes.
For more details and to book tickets, please contact chris.leyshon@prostatecymru.com or phone 02920 340 029.
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