Happy New Year 2022
Although Christmas was wiped out thanks to a dose of Covid, I am slowly returning to real life and looking forward to a new season in the garden. It’s been extremely mild here, as everywhere, during late December, coupled with quite a lot of fog and mist. 18 degree days and 8 degree nights have not been unusual this year, though ridiculously high compared with the norm. The humidity has hung around 86% even when there’s no rain.
As a result we still have roses flowering. They’ll get a shock though, as I’m going to prune them as soon as I have some energy to spare.
The greenhouse continues to be a triumph, with tomatoes and salad flourishing ever since it was finished in September. Just this week I planted out some lettuce plants, into the g/h raised bed, that I grew from seed in the greenhouse. Mizuna and purple pak choi are doing famously outside the greenhouse in raised tubs.
Mizuna & purple pak choi
Calendula and Evening Primrose are coming on well. The calendula is actually flowering too. It’s ready to go out, but I haven’t quite decided where yet. Possibly in the wildflower are in the orchard.
Today I sowed chillies, sweet peppers, aubergines and parsley. They’re all on heat mats and covered in case of rodent incursion. The coriander I sowed in pots a week or so ago is sprouting very well. There are still pale yellow Amy Hungarian sweet peppers ready for picking in the raised bed - at the same time as I have sown them for this year. Astonishing. I really didn’t expect the greenhouse to do this well.
As if Covid wasn’t viral enough the hens have to be kept covered to protect them from avian flu. We rigged up a solution using an 85 euro plastic polytunnel - poulet-tunnel. So far so good. The hens seem happy enough. A couple of them have started laying again after the winter break too. So all’s well.
