Gardening through a pandemic – Part 4 Winter 2020/21

December, January, February

So here we are in winter, we’re now in a full blown second wave of Covid infection. With the pandemic showing no signs of abating.

We’re facing another lockdown and gardening alone isn’t going to get me through this one! I guess I’m finally going to have to tackle that list of indoor jobs.

Luckily the first vaccine has been given approval here in the UK, so there is light at the end of the tunnel. We all feel cautiously optimistic for next year.

December is probably the quietest gardening month for me. A bit of mulching and tidying on the nicer days. Flicking through the seed catalogues and planning what to grow next year.

By January my snowdrops and crocus have already broken through the ground, and my hellebores are starting to come into flower.

In February I start to sow seeds, and it feels like the gardening season is up and running once more!

2nd December – Time for Optimism

Good news, the Pfizer vaccine has been approved for use in the UK, this feels like a very positive step forward and we all look forward to getting our jabs!

6th December – In need of Christmas cheer

I never normally put my Christmas tree and decorations up until one to two weeks before Christmas, but this year is an exception – to put it mildly!

Feeling in need of a bit of early Christmas cheer, we decide to go and get the tree.

A farmer we know started growing trees a couple of years ago, so off we set. The trees are growing in the field, you pick which one you want and they cut it for you, or dig up a root ball if you want to grow it on.

Just like going to the nursery to pick plants, I want the perfect one. I wonder round and around the field, whilst my very patient husband stands and waits for me. Finally I pick one, still glancing at the others wondering if I’ve made the right decision.

We got it home and decorated it, even getting the outside lights up. Then sit down with a well-deserved Sherry – well it is nearly Christmas!

18th December – Christmas tree festival

Our local church does a Christmas tree festival to raise funds for charity. It’s usually inside the church, but with Covid restrictions it’s held in the church yard and you can donate online. We have a lovely walk around and I personally think it is nicer this way, it feels very Christmassy.

19th December – Another Lockdown

Wales, where we live is to go into lockdown from midnight tonight. People will only be allowed to mix on Christmas Day with one other household, plus one single person. We were expecting this news, but it confirms how bad things are getting again.

20th December – Winter chillies

Who needs house plants when you can fill your window sill with chilli plants. The chillies I brought in from the greenhouse six weeks ago, continue to grow despite my chopping them right back.

21st December – Lets get the party started

Remember my silly idea of a virtual Christmas party? Well we pulled it off!

Even my niece and her sons that lives abroad got involved, I think I can speak for everyone when I say we had fun. And it did feel like we all came together at a time when we couldn’t physically get together. It was especially good to get the youngest members of the family involved.

My thanks to them all for being such great sports.

We went on to raise our target of £500 for the NHS Covid appeal. The page on JustGiving.com remains open to donations until the end of December 2021 for Dance The Covid Cokey

24th December – A disappointing Christmas Eve

My husband and I start with cold symptoms. It is too late to get an official covid test and no home testing is available. We feel there is no way we dare go ahead with Christmas Day plans, which is devastating!

This is indeed a sad and strange Christmas for many people across the country. I tell myself what I’ve been telling myself all year, that all of this sacrifice will be worth it, if all the people I love come through this safely!

We still put Sherry and mince pies out, in the hope that father Christmas is allowed to come.

A nice drop of Tio Pepe for Father Christmas

25th December – Christmas Day

We awake to a beautiful day and a stunning sky, I can’t resist yet another photo of my beloved walnut tree.

Like so many others today, we communicate with loved ones using marvellous technology. In many ways we don’t know how lucky we are, this situation would have been so much harder years ago. We all spread our Christmas cheer and revel in everyone’s smiley faces.

Then it’s out into the garden to pick the sprouts for Christmas dinner.

Happy Christmas, to one and all.

31st December – Good riddance 2020!

I should think this is the quietest new years eve this country has known since world war two! No parties, no mixing of any households, full lockdown. I’m sure if someone had predicted this at Jools Hollands Hootenanny last year, we’d have all thought they were bonkers!

We are all rather pleased to see the back of 2020!

A nice drop of Bollinger to welcome 2021

1st January – Happy New Year!

We welcome in 2021 like no other year I can remember. We all hope things can only get better.

There’s a slight frost but the sun is out and I’m into the garden. The Italian kale ‘Calvolo nero’ is going from strength to strength, we can hardly keep up with it.

And do you remember me sowing those broad bean back in October? Well look at them now!

3rd January – I’m taking charge of the remote!

Imola decided she was fed up with all of these Christmas programmes and old episodes of Gardeners World. She thinks there should be more cats on GW, as the dogs are getting all of the limelight!

7th January – Hard frost

We have our first really hard frost, the garden looks beautiful. This will be excellent for the Brussels, as they always taste better after a good frost.

I take my life in my hands to go and take photographs. In places the paths are sheet ice and I pather around like Hercule Poirot, holding onto to the raised beds. I hope you all appreciate it.

I’m glad I left the seed heads as the monarda, alliums and achillea look beautiful.

12th January – Is it a plane?

A beautiful day with a clear bright blue sky highlighting the walnut, and a rare glimpse of an aircraft!

17th January – Time to cut the holly

Our 80ft long, 8ft high holly hedge luckily only needs cutting once a year – it sure is a prickly job!

It is supposed to be done in November, but the perennials in front of it hadn’t died down. This is happening more often as our winters get milder.

Today we finally tackle it. We use a tarpaulin to catch it and hope we don’t tread on the snowdrops that are already poking through. It takes all day, using a small scaffolding platform, but it’s a very satisfying job.

19th January – Becoming a blogger!

One VIP job on my indoor to-do list was to sort my 10 million photos (I exaggerate slightly!). I couldn’t believe how many garden photos I had.

As I had more time to read online, I’d discovered garden blogs. I didn’t even know they existed, until I came across by chance something telling me of the top garden blogs to read. I particularly liked Alison Levey’s ‘The Blackberry Garden’, her down to earth chat and real life garden. Later in the year I contacted Alison to ask for advise. She took the trouble to write back to me with some really helpful tips.

As I read more blogs I started to think, I could do this. I love gardening and I’m always taking photos.

Having just sorted the photos of our eight year garden transformation, a little idea came into my head. A series following our progress, from plain lawn to walled kitchen garden. I started writing and absolutely loved it. All I needed to do now was teach myself how to create a website!

Hasten to say, I never did get to the end of my indoor to-do list and my photos are not yet sorted! But I did write a twenty part Garden Transformation series!

24th January – Proper snow!

Yippee, we finally get a proper snow fall. I’m straight outside after breakfast with the camera. The garden looks like fairy land, all imperfections disappear and it looks clean and pure.

It carries on snowing most of the day and I’m back outside in the afternoon. I just stand in the garden with the snow falling on me and around me until I’m so cold I have to go in.

After I’ve thawed out, I convince my husband to come for a snowy walk with me around our beautiful church. I feel 5 years old for the day!

26th January – Night-time harvesting

I’ve sussed out the best way to pick veg in dark, it’s by using a head torch. They really are one of the best inventions.

The Italian kale ‘Calvolo Nero’ you see so much of, we grow all year around. It’s a bit like Savoy cabbage, so ideal for stir fry’s, slaws or just as a vegetable.

My husband captures my return with said kale and head touch. Very fetching!

3rd February – Flowers at last

My snowdrops, crocus and hellebores are quite late with the hard frosts and snow. They had broken through the surface quite early, but then come to a stand still. Finally though they are flowering.

11th February – Garden centres are open

I needed vermiculite to cover my seeds, as I’d forgotten to get any last year. I was loathed to order online and have to pay postage.

Phoning a friend one day, she told me that garden centres had stayed open through this lockdown. How fantastic! I checked the opening hours of my nearest one, 8.30. I got there for 8.45 the following morning, there were only half a dozen cars in the vast car park.

I got my vermiculite and as it was so quiet I allowed myself a mooch around the seeds, picking up a few packets, happy days.

12th February – Seed sowing

Now I have my vermiculite, I can’t wait any longer. Off to the greenhouse I go to root out my seed trays. I’m only sowing my chillies today as they need the maximum time to grow big enough to fruit. It feels so good to be starting this years crops off, let the gardening year begin!

25th February – Frog spawning day

I just happened to go down to the compost bins late morning and nearly had a fit. The pond was full of mating frogs. I ran back to the house to get my phone and crouched filming until my battery went flat. Back to the house again for the proper camera, a kneeling pad and something a bit warmer to wear.

I’d wanted a pond with frogs in as far back as I could remember. We finally created one in 2017, but too late for frogs. I’d taken frogspawn from a friends pond for the last two years, but these were the first frogs to return.

26th February – More flowers

Each day now, more flowers are opening. The bees are very visible again and it’s almost spring like on the sunny days.

27th February – Sowing Tomato seeds

Today I’m sowing my Tomato seeds. This year I’m sowing my usual ‘Brandywine’, ‘Rosella’ and ‘Golden’, and two new ones to me ‘Alicante’ and ‘Sweet millions’. I have been doing this now for over twenty years.

Tomatoes are the first crop I ever grew from seed. And I still get a thrill when the little seedlings start to appear.

28th February – Last Brussels for Sunday Lunch

We harvest the last few brussels sprouts for Sunday lunch. It’s a beautiful sunny winters day, and with a few layers on I’m able to peel the sprouts outside.

For my first successful crop of sprouts they’ve done rather well. I shall definitely be growing them again.