March Full Moon and The Garden

 The March Full Moon tonight  seems to have  had lots of names in history- the Plough Moon, Lenten Moon, the Worm moon - when worms emerge, the Sap Moon, Crow moon or Storm moon. We are not in the right place on earth to see  the moon's total eclipse happening, although the moon hasn't been very visible lately with so much cloud every night.

 March weather can be as cold and unsettled  as February, but the sun is rising higher and it's now just 17 days until the Spring equinox and 26 days until the clocks go forward. At this latitude Suffolk gains two more hours of daylight by the end of the month and the week ahead is looking to be fine here in the East of England which is very good news. 

Yesterday was the first mild day of March......I had the patio door open to let the fresh air in....lovely

It is the first mild day of March:

Each minute sweeter than before,

The redbreast sings from the tall larch

That stands beside the door

There is a blessing in the air

Which seems a sense of joy to yield

To the bare trees, and mountains bare,

And grass in the green field.

William Wordsworth.

Last week BiL kindly came and cut the grass for me, it's hardly stopped growing all winter but also hasn't been dry enough to cut with my battery mower for weeks. He also pressure-washed the patio which was getting very slippery. I can get the weeds out of the cracks but the mould remover I tried for the slabs was useless and pressure washing is the best.

I had to move all the pots off the patio for the pressure washing, most things have survived the winter but the few strawberry plants in two planters that were OK last year have almost vanished. I emptied one compost bin onto one of the veg beds, there's still another to empty but I need to do some serious weeding everywhere..

The  summer fruiting raspberry canes didn't get watered enough last summer they haven't put up many new canes, I think it will be a poor year, not sure about the other canes some fruit early and some late, I cut most of them back in the autumn as it's impossible to know which are which.

The slab under one  of my water butts that collects off the greenhouse had tipped backwards so I emptied it in the autumn and need to level the slab before I can put it back. 

So many jobs to do as soon as my gardening mojo returns properly - it always happens -  sometime.