Snow going in February 2012

February is a month of hope for some. For me it’s just about the breaking point.

The days are cold, short and gloomy. I plod about my house confined by the everlasting night time, the idiot box on spieling out bad news and mindless “entertainment” whilst the useful hours of the day consumed by hours of work and commuting. February is as close as I get to being unhappy. But as close as I get sometimes, it’s not in my nature to get a bee in my bonnet, so I just keep my head down and stiff it out.

The weekend’s outdoor work is all about clearing away the death of the previous year’s growth which becomes boring. A guy somebody knows who has an orchard made the comment that "Leaves can drive you mad you know". No truer statement can be made of the February cleanup when you have a garden larger than you can chew.

My compost pile has grown to levels I never though possible and the clean up is only half way done. It’s full of browns so will need mixing in with nitrogen rich grass clippings during the season to break it down into something useful. I think there will be several tonnes ready for next year.

I need help, loads to do and not enough time in the day to do it!

Progress slowed to a standstill for a couple of weeks during the early part of February.

Several inches of snow will do that to an outdoor project. Still the garden looked lovely in its white blanket and the trees didn’t look quite so bare.

The sheep out back didn’t appear too fussed as they huddled closer together throughout the week and just got on with it. They seemed happy enough with the supplementary feeds. I went out and regularly chipped the sheeted ice from their troth so that they had water too.

The boy’s usual enthusiasm for snow lasted a day or so, and then they too were content in seeing it out from the inside rather than out.

The wood burners came into their own during the cold snap, heating the farm house in a way that only natural fire does. The smell of burning logs releasing happiness into an otherwise shit month.

Cosy was the word, frustrated and confined were two others.

Still, just before the onset of the snowfall I had help from Trevor, a friend to remove the remaining beech hedges from the vegetable plot.

Then by the second weekend and no thaw in sight we braved it into the garden and got to work winter pruning the apple and pear trees. This hadn't been done for a couple of years and most likely would not have got done again this year had I been able to continue the in the vegetable patch. So not a complete loss! Steve, Ellie and I cut dragged and burned what we could. I am happy with the openness of the trees we managed to do and considerable height has been removed from the youngest of them which should keep it in good shape for a while to come.

The following few days after that brought milder weather and light rains. With it so did the snow quickly disappear.

Problem was that the garden looked a right old mess. I had been putting off de-wintering the borders for so long and the look a mess. There are a few plants and bulbs attempting to put on their first signs of life. So Last Saturday I cleared out four of the beds creating a ridiculously large pile for the compost before getting into the vegetable patch for the last hour.

With the beech hedges gone I decided it was probably a good idea to get the rhubarb back in as it had been hanging about since I lifted it in November. The two old clumps were divided into several clumps. Each had a nice sized hole dug, a spade of sand, and another of pea shingle and some compost. It didn’t take long to do.

I then cut all the autumn fruiting raspberries down to the ground. Dug up and replanted all the strawberry plants, ever so slightly pruned the gooseberry but left the blackcurrant bushes.
Everything was then weeded and mulched with a few inches of compost. I was really chuffed to see that one of the gooseberries had layered in two locations. Layering is where the plant stems touch the ground and take root. I have two free accidental but welcome plants.


The Sheep were transported for lambing yesterday, they wont be back for a while which gives the meadows a chance to recover. There’s a tonne of sheep crap to collect for the compost mountain. Not my favourite job in the world but Ill takes picking up sheep crap for the compost pile to watching Eastenders or Hollyoaks any day of the week.