Monday, 09 March 2020
Started Planting - But Only Inside
The last week has seen a bit of an improvement in the weather or at least it's fair to say we haven't had as much rain. That's not to say it's been dry but the rain arrived as showers rather than prolonged spells.
Temperature & Rainfall Records 03-09 March 2020
On Saturday the temperature reached 14.2°C (57.6°F), becoming the warmest day of the year. The previous high had been set 3 months earlier on 07 January 2020 at 13.8°C or 56.8°F.
There doesn't appear to be any change from the wet and windy weather for the next couple of weeks, but there are hopefully signs that, towards the end of the month, some drier weather is possible. However, it's going to be a while before the plot is in a fit state to start cultivating, so we've decided to make a start sowing some seeds in our home and plot greenhouse. We've planted lettuce and parsley in our home greenhouse.
Lettuce - All Year Round and Parsley - Moss Curled
At the plot we've sown some carrots (Aron) and radishes (Multicoloured Breakfast) in one old recycling crate and made use of two more old crates to plant potatoes. If the worst comes to the worst, and the poor weather continues, all these plants apart from the potatoes can be grown to maturity in the greenhouse or cold frame. The potatoes will need to come out of the greenhouse to make way for tomato plants, probably sometime in May, and hopefully the weather will be much improved by then.
Last year, we filled the recycling crates up with compost and planted two potato into the compost using a trowel. This saved us having to top up the compost as the potato haulms grew. It worked very well last year and so we're giving it another try this year.
Once planted up the tubs were given a good watering. The potato varieties we planted were Casablanca and International Kidney.