In spite of very variable weather I have managed to get quite a lot done on and off this month. True, I’ve had some time off but with the perceptible lengthening of the daylight it has suddenly hit me that there are plenty of jobs to be getting on with. I’m way behind with the potting, this is partly due to the fact that I’d really rather be working in the garden and also some days have  been too cold to be splitting up plants. But today I got quite a lot of potting done and have mixed up some compost ready to start tomorrow.

I was lucky enough to have a (free) delivery of wood chips on Wednesday. There are plenty of places to put it but for now its going down under the birch trees at the west side of the garden. This area always get smothered with annual rose-bay willow herb and wild grasses and tends to look messy. I’ve managed to get a lot of Alchemilla mollis established under the trees but the weeds keep coming. Its a satisfying job to do and pleasing to think that there will be fewer weeds there this year. Robins were constantly scrutinising my work and finding plenty to eat.

There are many different ornamental grasses in the garden and, although they look wonderful when its frosty this is almost time to cut most of them down to the ground. Its not a job I like doing, the repetitious nature of cutting endless stems with secateurs hurts my wrists. For a change I used the loppers which seemed to make it  easier. Its generally thought to be a good thing to leave the stems over winter to enable wildlife to hide in and amongst the foliage. As far as I can tell the most prolific wildlife to live in clumps of grass are mice. If I found one nest I must have found a dozen. Mice eat my plants. They have chomped their way through several clumps of Carex dipsacea , and almost completely obliterated all the Elymus magellanicus. There are buzzards, kestrels and a barn owl which all hunt mice plus we put traps down in the tunnels, the place must be swarming with the little blighters.

My snowdrops are coming through but none are fully open yet. I guess this will happen over the next couple of weeks or so. Its always something I look forward to.

When it gets too cold to be outside I have spent some time re-organising plants in my tunnel. This involves a certain amount of ruthlessness. I get rid of any poor specimens, pot on others, try to get some general tidiness instead of the muddle that happens during the year. It gets swept up and everything is de-weeded, its a kind of spring cleaning and is very satisfying.