Pre-Spring Cleaning/ Limpieza de pre-primavera

I was tyding up in the garden today. It was the perfect day for it, sunny and quite warm - it felt like a nice spring day! (No frozen fingers while digging in the compost...). However, it is too early to plant or sow almost anything outside (we may still get bad frosts, or even late snows). With days like today it's really difficult not to get carried away, but so far I've resisted temptation: My seedlings are still safely indoors.

In preparation for next month's planting, I've started clearing the beds from winter's home-made cloches. A few things haven't done as well as I wished. The onions in particular are very disappointing - I planted one lot under a plastic mini "tunnel" and another lot directly outside, and both are barely visible (I think I lost most of the bulbs). I'm going to wait until April or so and see if they kick into life with the warm weather, but I don't have hopes. And the leeks have completely disappeared (they were also under the plastic; the soil didn't feel too dry, I was watering during the winter, but I wonder if they dried out during December when I didn't go out watering that much).

On a positive note, the elephant garlic, which I thought I had lost, has sprouted one leaf! I'll be monitoring closely (I'm really excited about that one, never grown it before!). A lot of the spring flower bulbs are already poking through (bluebells, daffodils), and the crocuses have just opened their flowers!

Hoy estuve preparando el jardin para la primavera. Hizo un dia ideal para trabajar fuera, sol y buena temperatura (no se me congelaron los dedos al meter las manos en el compost!); pero todavia es demasiado pronto para empezar a plantar al aire libre, aun hiela por las noches e incluso puede nevar. Con dias como hoy es dificil no dejarse llevar por la tentacion  y empezar a plantar fuera, pero de momento estoy resistiendo: mis plantitas y semillas estan todas a cubierto...


He quitado las protecciones del invierno que ya no hacen falta, para ganar tiempo y tener todo preparado el mes que viene cuando empiece a plantar. Las cebollas y los puerros, que estaban debajo de un mini-tunel cubierto con plastico, han sido una decepcion: casi ni se ve donde estan! La mayoria han simplemente desaparecido. Y de unas cebollas que habia plantado directamente al aire libre, ni rastro. 


Por otro lado, el ajo elefante, que ya habia dado por perdido, ha echado una hoja! Que ilusion, tengo muchas ganas de que este vaya adelante porque es la primera vez que lo cultivo. Otros bulbos de flores de primavera tambien estan empezando a salir (campanillas, narcisos), y los crocus acaban de abrir las flores!