Imbolc (Imbolg) – Cross Quarter Day
The commencement of spring is celebrated in Ireland on February 1st, even though the weather may not seem like it!
(Imbolg) the festival marking the beginning of spring has been celebrated since ancient times. It is a Cross Quarter Day, midpoint between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox, it can fall between the 2nd & 7th of February when calculated as the mid point between the astronomical Winter Solstice and the astronomical Spring Equinox.. The astronomically derived date is later than the traditional date of January 31st / February 1st.
The cross-quarter time between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox marked the cosmic beginning of spring. They innately understood how the season was created and timed by the earth’s elliptical journey around the sun. They called this phenomenon Imbolg (also Imbolc), deriving from an older vernacular of Irish (Gaelic) it refers to “in the belly”, a reference to the swollen bellies of ewes with lambs soon to be born, and and also the Earth pregnant with all the new life of the Spring.
In the Garden
The Irish climate is different to the UK climate which has an earlier, drier Spring. It pays to wait until the soil is warm enough for planting.
General
- Keep feeding the birds and wildlife. Keep bird feeders topped up.
- If you have snowdrops growing in clumps you can separate them now before they start to flower, and thus increasing you crop for next year!
- Leave the dandelions for the bees! When bumblebees come out of hibernation they need nourishment so dandelions and gardens are important refuges and sources of food with their early-flowing shrubs and blooms.
- Start collecting plastic bottles to make into cloches which protect young plants from weather and slugs.
- Install water butts now ready for the summer.
- Move any deciduous trees or shrubs that need repositioning now as long as soil is not frozen
- Find out what type of soil you have by using a soil test kit
In the Vegetable Garden
- Start chitting early potatoes- stand them on end in a module tray or egg box and place them in a bright, cool, frost-free place.
- Plant garlic
- Mulch perennial vegetables such as asparagus and artichokes with well-rotted manure or garden compost.
- Prepare vegetable seed beds by removing all weeds and yellow leaves off brassicas, and fork in plenty of compost. Cover prepared soil to keep it drier and warmer in preparation for spring planting and to keep weeds down.
- Prepare vegetable beds now and build raised beds if you want soil to warm up and drain faster, which is good for clay soils.
- Plan your vegetable beds to ensure good crop rotation and to prevent pests and diseases building up in the soil.
- Order seeds and plug plants online now.
- Buy onion sets and asparagus crowns ready for planting in the spring.
In the Fruit Garden
- Prune raspberry canes by cutting the tips of summer-fruiting raspberry canes just above the bud.
- Prune blackcurrant bushes, gooseberries and redcurrants
- Mulch fruit trees with well-rotted manure or garden compost, taking care not to mound mulch up around the trunk.
- Winter prune apple trees and pear trees while they’re still dormant but leave plum trees, cherry trees and apricots until the summer as pruning these fruit trees now will make them susceptible to Silver Leaf disease.
- Force rhubarb plants for an early crop.
- Cover outdoor strawberries with cloches to encourage an earlier crop.
- Add a slow-release, potassium-rich fertiliser to fruit bushes
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Flower garden
- Divide snowdrops still while still green to move or seperate them
- Cut back vines such as ivy and clematis.
- Order flower bulbs for spring planting.
- Choose fruit trees now for planting in early spring.
- Shred or chop any woody prunings before you add them to compost bins, to speed up decomposition.