A wild gusty wind shaking the trees and lifting road grit and leaves to stream along the roads but the wind is warm, no hint of the chilly snow-covered peaks in it. By afternoon the wind had dropped and although high cloud filtered the sun, the day was the warmest yet.

Filled planters with bagged soil from last summer’s tomatoes and sowed the Black Fennel from Diane and the Utrecht Blue Wheat which was in my Christmas stocking from DD. The Minulus cardinalis Red Dragon from Folian Kay L which I sowed and rather neglected last year has already produced some small green plantlets. I really hope that they survive. I will give them a little longer in the planter and then transplant them to a bed. Along with the cardboard planter containing the Welsh onion and a pot of overwintered Parsley, these planters are all on the patio, where the last fist-fulls of snow are melting.

Sowed two planters of Mr Fothergill’s Calendula ‘Art Shades’, one of Red Poppies from DD’s garden, one of Mr Fothergill’s California Poppies single mixed, and one of D’s mystery plant – the packet says in my writing “small, yellow, grandifolia”. I assume it is something grandifolia and D couldn’t remember its name; having googled I can’t find anything that might fit and can’t remember what the plant plant looked like! These are at the south end of the garden. All the containers are marked with spare pottery plant labels. I noticed that a lot of the pottery plant labels in Shade had split in half down to soil level; I am not sure whether this was frost, the constant snow then rain, or the weight of snow falling on top of them.

Emptied some very old bags of manure around the roses and clematis. The last of the disintegrating bags should finish that job. Emptied some of the disintegrating leaf bags onto the compost. Manoeuvred the Camilia down the porch steps to its Summer position beside them. That was more lifting than I needed.

The Crinum is now sitting on the porch with several pots on top, including Parsley and Sage, Rosemary and the Primrose I bought in the Winter which is still going strong; and a newly planted Calla next to it. They have some plastic loosely wrapped around and I can pull it up to give more protection if the temperature drops. The pots of Parsley and Sage were sold in the supermarket for cooking and were cheaper than buying cut fresh herbs; I will plant some of the Sage plants in with the Welsh Onion when they have hardened off a bit. The Parsley, what remains after making stuffing, will also get planted out. One Calla had dried out or got a dry rot. Too bad, I might have to look around for some more Callas. The other had little shoots, I detached some of its baby tubers to plant separately but I don’t expect much from them this year.

The two citrus from the kitchen window sill got repotted as did the Myrtle. Bagged soil, a pinch of bone and blood and a pinch of shrub fertilizer as it has iron, which I think the citrus lack.

The rain gauge got set up again. I think that I will put together the ‘greenhouse’ frame and use its shelves for all the indoor plants that go out for the summer, then they will be less likely to get woodlice nesting in the bottom of them.

Photos: Bumblebee in Blue Pearl snow crocus of which only a little clump remain; the same Bumblebee in Snowbunting sc; and more Snowbunting; primulas coming up in rosettes; the lone Scilla