Do Over!

Last week we had a cold snap.  It was a killer.  It was also a sharp reminder that this is the north.  We are at the same latitude as the Aleutian Islands in Alaska and Hudson Bay in Canada.  Places where you can see polar bears!

The days in the summer are gloriously long, but the risk of frost still holds until the end of May.  I've got another month to go before I can put tender things out.  Plants that are not frost hardy have to be kept in polytunnels and greenhouses until then.  If we get a late frost, those places really should have a heat source.

 I didn't bring the tomato and cucumber plants and seedlings home with me.  They died.  The fuchsia took a hit too but I think it will survive.

New tomato plants were purchased and I started some tomato seeds in the house.   I'm going to see which plants fruit first.  Do the seeds germinate and catch up to the established plants?

If a forecast is for frost, then I'm going to have to make a mad dash up to the garden and wrap up the tender plants or even bring a load of them back to the house over night.

There is also a mouse problem!  When carrying  in the new plants, I saw to my horror that mice had climbed up and eaten a lot of seedlings and germinated seeds.

Mice ripped a swathe through the corn and cucumber seeds.

You can see the empty seed shells lying on the top of the now empty potting soil.

I don't have any more corn seed but I re-sowed the cucumber seeds and moved them to a different bench that I hope is more mouse proof.

What I wouldn't give for a nice fat snake to sun itself in the polytunnel.  As there aren't any snakes that will eat mice in Scotland, I will have to set traps.