Spring is sprung - the grass is riz.....and the tractor-tondeuse has broken. Our amazing engineer called round at very short notice to fix it and also to repair a flat tyre on my wheelbarrow (or brouette in French). He is incredibly busy at this time of year, so we were very grateful for his help.
Spring in SW France arrives in a whirlwind - one day it is cold and rainy and the next the sun starts to shine, we see skeins of cranes migrating from Southern Spain to the Baltic and their summer breeding grounds and we know that warmer weather is following behind them. Their extraordinary calls as they thread their way across the sky makes our hearts sing and it is common to see lots of posts on social media as others also celebrate the birds flight across our skies.
As February barrels into March everything starts to grow, seeds have to be sown and the last transplants of self seeded plants need to be made so that their root systems can establish before the hotter summer weather arrives. If the soil is wet - following a few days of rain, it is a great moment to mulch the soil surface, both to help condition the underlying earth but also to assist in water retention later in the year. It is also essential to weed, and weed and weed - pulling the little menaces out before the have the chance to establish themselves and, worse still, set seed (which they can do incredibly quickly) and so create more problems over the coming weeks. Early spring bulbs need deadheading, possibly dividing and maybe even feeding before they retire underground to hide from the hot, dry summer.
Assorted Hellebores, Iris siberica, Euphorbia robbiae and the first signs of lily of the valley as it pushed up through the soil.
So starts the gardening year for us and it will not be long before the first crops are harvested, the first recipes tried out and the flower garden reaches its best. This year I am going to do my best to document it here so that, even if you are not in France, you can share day to day life in our French garden with all of the joys and setbacks that it encompasses.
Well the tractor is fixed - so I am going back into the garden to make a start on Spring 2021.
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