New Year, new start!

Today was the first gardening session at Windmill of 2012, and what a productive day it has been! Tracey was joined by Phillippa, Rosy, Helen, Dan, Ellis and Hugh who carried out a number of jobs which will hopefully get us back up and running.

New year, new life - daffodills begin to shoot by the stumpery

Year of promise - new buds forming on the blueberry bush

The first task involved giving the shed and it's smaller counterpart, the store cupboard a good New Year's spring clean.  Phillippa and Rosy did a fantastic job of removing any rubbish and any other items which belong elsewhere, sorting out equipment and tidying it up into meaningful piles, and basically clearing the thoroughfare so it is actually possible to get in without a massive struggle! The same would also apply to the storage cupboard outside the main shed.

Phillippa and Rosy pose inside their newly tidied shed!

Meanwhile, Helen, Tracey and Hugh were very busy scooping up and sieving compost which would be used to top up the raised beds ready for growing more lovely produce. Dan and Ellis also took it in turns to saw up old logs and willow branches which will be used to fuel the fire pit. These now have a new home in the store cupboard which Rosy and Phillippa did so well in tidying!

Helen digs away!

Finally, after all the fearsome gales and storms from the festive season, it was found that all our plant pots which were stacked up by the shed had been blown around, making the site look an awful mess.  All of us took a part in re stacking and tidying the pots as neatly as possible, where we will easily be able to find them when we need them. So all in all, a brilliant start to the new gardening year, despite Helen's issues with not having brought any lunch and having to go to Collin's!

Tracey and Dan - work in progress!

Some nature notes - today the warm sunshine bought out a honey bee, and there were some marigolds in flower - more evidence that the winter has been amazingly mild so far. We'll see what effect the expected cold snap will have. We feel sorry for the bee, but we would like to get rid of the happy colony of aphids that is in the over-wintering brassicas...