Eynsford Gardeners' Club

New Year blues

 

Here I am sitting at the laptop staring out at the garden and thinking who on earth wants to write about gardening when it’s pouring down with rain, blowing a gale and cold and miserable. The garden itself is almost totally devoid of colour apart from one solitary yellow rose (don’t ask me why that one flower is in bloom at this time). Even the starlings on the bird feeder seem to have lost their iridescent colours – probably because they are soaking wet!

 

A Total contrast to the front garden where charms of goldfinches and chaffinches (they apparently share the same collective noun) swarm round the sunflower heart feeders accompanied by the occasional brambling and siskin bringing flashes of colour to the otherwise drab scenery.

 

What I should be doing is sitting in front of the log fire with a glass (or two) of Malbec and planning what changes (if any) I will make to the garden in the next few months. I think I have decided to give up growing tomatoes in the veg patch. I have tried for the last couple of years but they succumbed to blight so I think I’ll stick with the tumbling toms in wall pots and chimney pots. I might put some more raspberry canes in the veg patch instead. I’ve tried growing brassicas over the years but they.ve never been successful and there is no point in trying to grow things that don’t want to grow. Courgettes always do well and the runner beans usually produce a decent crop so I will continue with those.

 

I keep thinking about building a salad trough to put outside the back door as we eat quite a lot of lettuce and salad leaves in the summer; maybe when the weather improves I shall get round to it. 

 

Hopefully by my next article the weather will have changed for the better and I can drum up a little more enthusiasm for the garden - roll on Spring.

 

Happy hoeing!

David Ketley

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