Spring has finally sprung and I’ve taken advantage of having a well deserved Weekend Off to get caught up in the garden.

It’s not all good news unfortunately, a number of my woody bush fruits were more dead than I’d hoped, including last year’s fun guavas. Apparently they’re not hardy to -Yorkshire after all, neither was the rose nor the goji berry. The Honeyberry coped ok, and the currants and gooseberries are roaring back into growth.

Gooseberries Before

I took the time to give the Gooseberries their bi annual prune, clearing out the mass of growth and restoring their goblet shape a little. I’ve put the prunings into some gritty compost in the hope that they will strike and I’ll have even more bushes. I tried that last year with one of my red currants and whilst only one of those cuttings rooted, that’s growing on nicely.

Gooseberries after their prune

I’ve done quite well for a breadth of varieties of Stuff this year. A friend at work generously gave me a pile of accidentally chitted Jerusalem Artichokes, so I’m hoping they do better than this time last year. The roots are in season at the moment, which is suitably tasty.

I had a really good seed trading session with another friend yesterday, who introduced me to the Real Seed Company who seem to be a good halfway house between Chase Organics and the HDRA’s Heritage library service.

The beds have been dug over and raked and are warming up nicely in the sun, so I’ve direct sown a few rows of Spinach, Chard, Beetroot, Strawberry Spinach (it didn’t germinate last time I tried it but hey, optimism!), French, Runner and Borlotti Beans, Mangetout Peas, and Unwin’s Rainbow Mix of Carrots that I got for Christmas.

My usual potato buckets have been potatoed, I’m going for a lazy earthing up approach by half filling them now and I’ll finish filling the up in a couple of months time. It worked last year.

I didn’t get on with Spinach Tarpy last year, I didn’t like its leaves as much as a traditional breed and it bolted too easily, so I’ve gone for Thompson and Morgan’s Heritage Bloomsdale this year.

I’ve pinned this year’s tomato hopes on an RHS stamped bushy variety called Vilma, another dwarf early, which I’ve paired up with another super early bush variety called Latah, I really associate with its description “The plants are quite untidy. To be honest, you can’t really train them or support them in any way – but if you let them get on with it they really will make ripe tasty tomatoes earlier than you thought possible”.

I’ve sown a few flowers as well, including my fourth generation of Morning Glorys, I’m not exactly following a breeding programme, more that they’re dead easy to grow from seed that you’ve saved yourself. I’ve also got a few clumps of Alyssum and some third generation Marigolds.

A couple of pots of Coriander and Basil from Suffolk Herbs of Kelevedon, Essex for the Kitchen Window Sill have completed the collection.

With up to a foot of snow in places, it’s been an interesting few days to see just how prepared we were for carrying on with life in the snow. Some things were succesful, others not so much. As ever, one of the biggest risks with driving in the snow is all the other people, it doesn’t matter if I’m anchored to the road if somebody else comes round the corner sideways. I suspect I would be less optimistic if my daily commute wasn’t so lucky.

1) Winter Tyres. Oh my god do these make a difference. I left it until well past the last minute (well, ok, Monday morning) to get some and was lucky enough to get the last two Michelin Alpins from Ian Brown Tyres. I would have preferred something less eye wateringly expensive, but they’ve probably paid for themselves already and they had darned well better last many years worth of winters. These are not magic, but they give you a fighting chance when the temperature is below 7 degrees C or it’s very wet and snowy, some (presumably quite rich) people use them all year round. My car has been a complete liability in previous winters, with the brakes freezing on, the front wheels not being able to grip on the snow on flat carparks and generally been more hassle than just walking. In contrast, this week’s been almost completely uneventful, with the front wheels able to accelerate, turn and brake adequately on a surface that it otherwise wouldn’t have even been able to move on. Driving along our tiny lane and along country roads has been with caution rather than abject panic. The back wheels are just as crap as ever though, so don’t be too surprised by the conservation of momentum when going round corners…

2) Remember chemistry. This is one of today’s lessons that I wish I’d thought of. If you can’t quite get enough grip on ice to reverse out of the snow drift you’ve just gently slid into, then melt it by pouring out your spray bottle of windscreen deicer. This melts the ice a treat and lets you use your sturdy plastic scraper to dig down to the road. It turns out that concentrated screenwash with antifreeze does not work. Chemistry may apply, no purchase necessary, your mileage may vary.

3) Gently does it. Unless you’re practicing your 15mph powerslides in a deserted car park, try to remember momentum. Give yourself bags of time for your car to respond to each command you give it, otherwise you may not accelerate, slow down or turn in time to follow the road or the car in front. Patience also applies. If necessary, carry a spare Little Book Of Calm to chew upon. You’ll get there in the end.

4) Try to be prepared. Make sure your portable sources of energy are as full as possible, be that refined dead dinosaurs in the car’s tank, or mobile phone batteries being full, not half full, or a packet of biscuits in the glovebox. That way, you’re able to call for help and then calmly eat a tasty snack whilst awaiting the cavalry. Pack a 2 ton tow rope and know where your car’s towing points are, it’ll have them front and rear.

I’d best finish with a disclaimer, these are just our thoughts of the week and should be considered to have less credibility than any other unreviewed words you might find lying around the internet. Now go mail order some mid-range winter tyres (because the internet’s the only place with any stock left) and get your local garage to fit them.

Shiny icy lane

Pretty Trees

Typical British weather, there’s always something to talk about and this week has been no exception, the Vikings would be well at home here. Until about half past 1 on Thursday, I was expecting a fun couple of days in Northumberland, visiting the National Trust property at Cragside for a pair of events to celebrate Lord William Armstrong‘s bicentary.

First was another installation of the remarkably successful Northumberland Lights, have a look at their Facebook album and the BBC to see what it was like. This was to be followed by a party with fireworks, music, food, stalls and some local lantern lit processions, this was so popular it sold over 1500 tickets and they had to organise a number of park and ride venues just to get everybody to the site.

Unfortunately, 4 inches of snow dropped on the Rothbury area on the day and the A1 jammed solid at Newcastle so all in all, I’m very glad that they emailed me to say it was cancelled. Shortly afterwards, the snow started landing on the rest of Yorkshire, including the four day Christmas markets in York that apparently attracted record crowds. I wasn’t so impressed with the retail offering this year, but I was mighty glad I caught the hot apple punch seller as he was packing away when I walked through town to the whisky tasting yesterday evening. Mmmm, hot punch…

By the time I got around to phoning my favourite tyre company, they’d all but sold out of winter blend tyres, so I’ll be trying again on Monday when their suppliers have replenished their stocks. If you haven’t come across them before, Winter Tyres are mostly a different blend of rubber that keeps sofer at lower temperatures. Mix that with a different tread pattern and you get a 2 wheel drive car performing substantially better than a 4WD car on the snow and ice, so it’s well worth the effort of swapping them over twice a year if you’re at all uncertain. You don’t have to wait for the snow to fall either, they are supposed to be better performing when the temperature dips under 5-7 degrees, so it’s no wonder that many countries mandate their use by law. You don’t have to take my word for it though, just ask the AA. I don’t think I’ll be getting a full set of four spare wheels though, I’ll just get a local garage to swap the rubber on the front wheels as necessary.

It’s not all doom and gloom though, the local Shoot missed a few this year and I’ve seen both male and female pheasant running around the trees and hedgerows in the snow. I snapped this photo earlier on this afternoon of one of the snowiest hen parties I’ve come across and, whilst I’m playing with the camera, I’m writing this not too far from the wood burning stove, trying not to think about how I’m going to get the car off our lane in the morning and wondering how best to oven some duck legs I’ve got for tea.

Slainte!

Female pheasants in the snow

Toasty fire