Spring Will Come Again

The weather outside is just about as depressing as Scottish weather can get. It is sort of snowing, sort of raining. This makes for a sticky sort of sleety situation that sticks to everything, but doesn't look pretty. To add to this the wind is forcing this stuff to come in sideways.

Having said that, I can tell that the days are starting to get just a little bit longer. The buds on trees are getting fat, even though it is the dead of winter.

Spring is even starting to work its mysterious ways on me. Something drew me into a garden centre after work today.

I didn't get anything but I did look at seeds. I didn't plant a vegetable garden last year and I really missed it. I'm going to plant a garden this year though. I also looked at replacement bits for the greenhouses. I have to buy new glass and try to fix the little greenhouse again. I wonder if I can get the door reglazed this spring. In any case, all the glass needs to be washed. It is very green. The greenhouse shouldn't have actual green glass on it. The glass should be clear and algae free.

Here is the thing, one can kill a plant by overwatering it. Especially in the winter. The little lemon tree in our window sill that I thought I had killed isn't completely dead. The little lemon tree has a sprout! If the tree were bigger, the sprout could be said to be on the trunk. I overwatered this little tree by accident. I assumed that the roots had not grown sufficiently to get to the bottom of the pot and I would let water stay in the little tray that catches the overspill. This was wrong. You should never let houseplants sit permanently in water as I did.

One week in late autumn, all the leaves fell off this tree. This is a very bad sign for citrus trees that tend to hold on to all their leaves. I knew right away that I had overwatered the poor thing. I changed some of the compost to fresher, drier compost, trimmed all the unripe fruit off the tree and put it in the strongest sunshine available to me. After that, I kept the soil on the dry side of damp. I did notice that some of the smaller twigs had turned brown, so they got snipped off. On Saturday morning, I saw my reward. Two little little sprouts showed up. The tree is going to make it!
This is a slightly out of focus shot of one of the new sprouts. I love how nature forgives me my overwatering sins and shows mercy with these bright tender little shoots.

I'm making pizza for dinner. The dough should be almost ready. After dinner I'm going to sit in front of the fire with some seed catalogs and imagine how lovely the garden is going to look this year.