Strange things happening over the winter.

Last year was so terrible weather wise, cold and icy for a long time during Spring, this might have helped strawberry growers, but it didn't help me with my attempts to grown things.  The Garden BioBlitz in June was terribly diffucult as everything was so backward and the plants weren't attracting insects.  Hence I didn't do much to my plants over the summer and the blog also suffered.  The weather did get better and business was good but the plants had to fend for themselves.

Now it's 2014 and I am starting again.

To compensate for the poor start to the summer, we have got off very lightly in Scarborough compared to other parts of the country.  It has been wet, cold at times and gloomy, but compared to previous winters actually quite mild.  As an example, the osteospermum that I planted last winter started flowering in January.  The flowers on this need sun to fully open and so they have stayed tightly shut.  But actually there are as many flowers as in the summer.

A few nasturtium seeds were also coming through in December.  No further results than are shown in this picture, however, but still very strange.

Over the last few weeks a few snow drops have appeared.  This was a better showing than last year and they look so jolly and optimistic during the cold winter months.
You can tell that I haven't done a lot of weeding.  This is mainly due to the amount of work we have been doing indoors to get ready for the new season, but it also provides a happy hibernating place for insects.

So things are ready to go, plants have survived a mild winter better than the past harsh snow filled winters and it looks like it might be a good year.

Here's hoping.