Potting shed progress

I was going to name this one spring scenes as well. But as I am sitting in front of a blazing fire trying to defrost my freezing feet and hands it does not feel appropriate.

Brrrr.

A sudden storm blew up on Sunday afternoon bringing with it gale force winds and stormy rain. The sort of horizontal stuff that has you rethinking where you stored all your tools and chairs in the calabert barn. Things are wet in there.

And I had to rescue my cavolo nero plants which were supposed to be hardening off outside the potting shed. But were bent double and looked like all their still soft stems would snap.

I only went up there to check on the seedlings.

I ended up staying all afternoon. Mainly because I didn’t dare make the wet and windy 100 metre dash to the house.

And of course there were some long overdue chores to be done in there anyway.  There has been tidying. Sorting. Fussing.

And I couldn’t put off one job in particular any longer.

Accepting that the pelargoniums have not made it through winter. Is it just me? I had a dozen plants that came in last October all ready for a dry but cold winter. And as much as I wanted to fool myself, I do really only have dead twigs here.

So I’ve given up. Given up on pelargoniums. Well, I do have half a dozen left. But the ones I place out on the steps beside the courtyard are no more.

Step forward a successful propagation and over-wintering stalwart.

Sempervirens. Yes, it’s giving up. But sometimes one just needs some fuss free plants to stop you fretting about one small part of this large garden.

And as the plants thrive on poor soil you guessed it. I didn’t even give them fresh rich compost. I just recycled what the pelargoniums spent a season using and topped up.

I have run out of my wonderful potting compost. And it’s a public holiday here today, so no chance of replenishing my stocks.  No one is expected to stir in the retail world when there is May Day to celebrate.

I’ll celebrate with re-arranging the pots and assuring them that it really is too cold out there to be ‘hardening off’.

And that goes for the gardener as well as the plants.