Snug as a Bug

Brrr – there was a frost yesterday morning – Jack nearly caught me out! I acknowledge I’d taken a risk planting my sweet peas out, but I had looked at the night time temperature trend and it seemed safe. Then, for one day only, I discovered the temperature was going to plummet below zero. I sprung into action and swathed my babies in fleece and bubble wrap – they look really snug don’t they? Despite a heavy frost they seemed to be OK the next morning, so hopefully no damage done.

I found some very snug bugs last week – two lily beetles – I think they’d taken a wrong turning. They were on my day lilies as opposed to their favourite treats, the oriental ones, coming through bang next door to them. Fingers crossed they didn’t have time to create any babies before they were despatched.

I’m hoping that despite the arctic temperatures my blue tit tenants are nice and snug in the tit box. They’ve been incredibly busy, flying in and out with nesting materials. I wonder if they’re the same pair as last year? I noticed that at first one of them would spend several minutes tapping the inside of the box on a regular basis. I wondered what this was about – there seem to be a number of theories. One is that they’re trying to mould the box into a more curved shape – that would take a lot of doing with a tiny beak! Another is that they’re making little holes to press their nesting material into. I think it could be that, combined with maybe simply checking that the box doesn’t collapse when exposed to incessant hammering. I really hope I might see the babies fledge this year – I may need to set up camp in the conservatory where I get a good view of their comings and goings.

Talking of the conservatory – seedlings abound – some looking more healthy than others. I have potted some of them on and moved them to my outdoor greenhouses to get them used to being less snug. My February tomato seedlings are looking pathetic – I treated them to some fresh compost yesterday, so I’m hoping they get their act together and start performing! The March sowing looks marginally better, but still a poor effort in my opinion.

I shall be monitoring the night time temperatures carefully over the next week – I’m itching to get planting – although then there will be the disappointment of devastation by slug and snail to look forward to.