War, and the shock of a new world order
The world has changed beyond all recognition over the last 10 days or so, and it is completely baffling and quite terrifying. Just as we seemed to be emerging from the worst of the pandemic, with all the loss and difficult that entailed for so many people, Russia has entered into a shocking, brutal attack on Ukraine.
It’s hard to take in the enormity of what’s happening, or what might happen next. And it’s really hard to focus on anything much apart from this terrifying unfolding situation and the questions it raises about how the world order might be changing and how things might unfold from here.
It feels somehow completely trivial and inappropriate to be gardening, and even more so to write about it, with all that’s going on. But there’s no sense in just downing tools and wallowing, either – that doesn’t help anyone. We can all find our own ways to try and help. And we must all do what we need to do to keep ourselves well if we can, at the same time. For me, that means time in the garden, in nature and on the allotment.
In our little green-fingered corners of the internet, we gardeners can also help keep each other’s spirits up a bit by carrying on sharing what we’re growing, what we’re learning, and the little moments of joy and wonder in our daily activities and observations. I know I certainly feel the need and appreciate that, now more than ever.
So, here I am, as though everything is normal even though it really isn’t, downloading what I’ve been up to in the garden and at the allotment this week.
Lengthening days and lovely hellebores
Here in London, the days are getting noticeably longer now – it won’t be long now until there’s still enough daylight left to nip to the allotment after I finish work each day, if I can finish on time. I can’t wait – it makes such a huge difference to my state of mind when I’m able to get outside in daylight after the working day. The joy and freedom of that first spring after-work evening, cycling down the hill in the dusk light and standing there on my plot, quiet, still, peaceful and delighted to be there after a long day at work – it can’t come a day too soon.
The sun, when it’s out, is much warmer than even a couple of weeks ago. Enough that you can really start to hope that milder, kinder days are on their way. Days for t-shirts and shorts. Sunglasses. Sun-blushed skin. And all that lovely new growth.
The daffodils, crocuses and hellebores are all out in full force now, the first lovely frontrunners of spring flowers. But the fritillaries, wallflowers, tulips and bluebells are growing fast now too, with buds forming and swelling, developing flowers that will be out before very long at all now. Buds are appearing and starting to unfold on shrubs and herbaceous perennials – my blackcurrant and blueberry bushes have tiny buds now that weren’t there last week. Annual seedlings are germinating and starting to grow. We don’t quite have the joyful momentum of April, yet, but the growing season is definitely here, and there is plenty happening and plenty to do.
These are all hellebores at RHS Wisley, where they have a huge range of varieties in flower all over the gardens just now. I adore hellebores and it was an absolute job to see them in flower as we visited over the weekend.
Seeds and seedlings
This week has been quite cool, particularly at night; the ground isn’t warm enough for sowing or planting out just yet. I am dying to get going, as I always am at this time of year, but there really isn’t any point in rushing to get seeds into the ground when there’s frost forecast during the coming week.
So I’m holding fire on my outdoor sowings of parsnips, beetroot, kohl rabi and lettuce leaves, and slightly regretting my over-excited sowing of radishes and carrots last week. I’m thinking next weekend might be the moment to start outdoor sowing in earnest, as once the frosts have passed the nights are due to get warmer during this week.
Indoors though, there’s plenty of seedling action. The seedlings under the grow lights are going great guns.
This weekend I’ve taken the Ipomoea, Cobea Scandens, Peppers, Cucumbers, Tomatoes and Tagetes Burning Ember out from under the lights, now they’re small plants rather than seedlings, and put them into the heated growhouse where I’m hoping my small heater will protect them from frost and they’ll get plenty of light as it’s forecast to to be sunny this week. It’s still early enough that if they do succumb to the cold I can sow another batch, so it seems like it’s worth a try.
I pricked out my Primabella Tomato seedlings into modules this weekend – they’ll continue under the growlights indoors for another week or two before they go out into the heated growhouse. This was my first time attempting to save tomato seeds; I did it because I was so pleased with the blight resistance of this variety last year and wanted to grow their offspring again this year. You have to soak them in water for a few days, until they start to grow mould, and then rinse them off before drying them out to store them. I wasn’t sure if I’d done it right so was really delighted to see them germinate! I sowed rather too many as I wasn’t expecting a high hit rate, so I now have plenty of plants to give away to fellow allotmenteers once they’ve grown on a bit.
This week I’ve sown:
I’ve also potted up 4 new dahlias that arrived from Sarah Raven, to grow as cut flowers at the allotment (I could easily have bought many more as there is a truly lovely selection available, but as it is I’m not really sure where I’m going to squeeze these ones in!):
These are now out in the heated growhouse where I’m hoping they’ll start to sprout and be safe from frost.
And with that, another week is done and we’re a week into March, whose hope, light, promise and optimism surely make it the best month of all?
Keeping the Plot 