Glimpses of spring!

All the snow melted, the soil is surprisingly dry and crumbly: today it was the perfect day to weed the wildflower meadow around the pond and create my new umbrelliferae bed, next to the asparagus's.
I am very proud of the result, that you can see in the picture.

Digging and clearing the dried weeds was made much more pleasant by the fact that ladybirds were half awake and could move to a new suitable rest place when disturbed. I came across quite a few natives, and just one Harlequin: very good.

I decided to be brave and do some proper pruning, winning my reluctance to get rid of anything with buds on it. Managed much more ruthlessness than usual, and the suggestions from the RHS pruning book I read last autumn have been very useful. The only thing I did not feel confident enough to tackle was the vines.

The most disappointing thing has been my compost heap: I guess it is too dry so there's no compost at all, just branches, flourishing weeds and insects. I have to figure out how to take kitchen scraps to the allotment without too much mess.

It was great to be out and realise that days are getting longer again, and I am really looking forward to spring now!

The first glimpse of future crops was salad seedlings emerging in the greenhouse, and of course the leeks I planted last autumn have been growing through the snow and frost...