a partner church in the WOLDSBURN benefice
CHURCH AT KIRKBURN
Or an everyday story
of a country bloke
of a country bloke
MARCH 2007
Well, I’m writing this towards the end of January. Up till now it’s been a warm month but last night garaging my car I found it covered in ice. I expected to find the garden frozen over the next morning but, contrarily, the frost had disappeared and it was just wet and nasty. We’ve had a spate of high winds during the last few days, there has been loss of life and some flooding. They have promised us some cold weather but the forecast for this area for the remainder of this week has indicated nothing below 1 degree. Now at the beginning of February as I am putting the finishing touches to this article I am watching it snowing – they’ve promised a lot of snow down South and rather less here, but the forecast is that the temperature will rise, and then it’s bye-by snow, well, we shall see. All the forecasts for the summer suggest it’s going to be warm - let’s hope we get some rain with any heat. I, for one, had enough of semi-drought last year. I feel very sorry for the guys in Australia who have really been suffering. My Broad Beans, Aquadulce Claudia , and my autumn onion sets Swift are about 6 inches high now. They may have grown a bit soft due to the unusually warm winter so if we do get a spell of really cold weather I shall probably suffer.
And so to March. Well it probably will look as if you ought to cut the grass, certainly mine has kept growing. When we finally get to March I will have a think depending on weather conditions, but perhaps early April would be better. A top dressing of spring fertiliser towards the end of the month would do no harm. Tops of hardy perennials should have been cleared by now and if you’ve got any compost, manure or slow release fertiliser - I use fish, blood and bone, or bone meal - it would pay to spread a bit between plants and dig or prick it in. The raspberries I’ve had in for some time (June/July fruiting) haven’t thrown as many new canes as usual - of course, I cut down the last years fruited canes a long while back. The new ones I bought last year, which fruit towards the back end, are showing a bit of activity, so I’m hoping, come wind or weather, that one or the other row will do decently. I’ve got most of the vegetable garden well dug and my
And so to March. Well it probably will look as if you ought to cut the grass, certainly mine has kept growing. When we finally get to March I will have a think depending on weather conditions, but perhaps early April would be better. A top dressing of spring fertiliser towards the end of the month would do no harm. Tops of hardy perennials should have been cleared by now and if you’ve got any compost, manure or slow release fertiliser -
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www.churchatkirkburn,org,uk page 162 (163-164) Plantsman March 2007 1 of 3 18/3/07
A plantsman’s peregrinations