Friday 15 April 2016
To Prune Or Not To Prune
Friday was dull and cool with a north easterly wind blowing which didn't do anything to improve matters.
I've been planning to repot our potted fig trees for sometime now. They have spent the last few years in the greenhouse and have produced a small crop each year.
Now we have a nice sheltered spot in the courtyard garden I thought it might be a good time to see how they get on outside. I thought growing in the greenhouse they might produce two crops a year but that hasn't been the case so I'm hoping they'll produce a single crop outside.
They certainly took some getting out of their old pots although I didn't think that they appeared too pot bound. They're both now potted on and in their new location.
I couldn't decide whether to cut the main stem of the smaller fig back by about a half.
It has grown out of proportion to the rest of the tree. Cutting it back would keep the tree in a more compact form. I'm going to give it a bit more thought.
Saturday 16 April 2016
More On Our Exotics
Saturday wasn't a particularly good day despite some sunny spells. We had a little bit of hail over lunchtime and it remained cold all day with a cool wind blowing.
As you will know from yesterday's blog I repotted our fig trees and moved them out of the greenhouse. I'll take this opportunity to do an update on the progress of our grapevine, nectarine, peach and apricot fruits all growing in our cold greenhouse.
First of all our grapevine Himrod is now starting to shoot.
Grape Himrod
Of our other exotics the apricot Flavourcot was the earliest into flower and Sue's done a fine job of substituting for a bee and pollinating those early flowers.
Apricot Flavourcot
Our nectarine and peach flowered later and didn't have anything like as many flowers as the apricot. At first it didn't look as though any of the flowers were going to set fruit but now we're a bit more optimistic.
Nectarine Fantazia
Peach Avalon Pride
The apricot has set so many fruits that it's now possible to see that some of the immature fruits are ready to fall off the tree.
Apricot Flavourcot
Things are looking very good at the minute though.
Sunday 17 April 2016
Late Chill on Saturday
I didn't notice at first that Saturday's chilly conditions were a sort of record for my weather station. The average temperature on Saturday was a rather pathetic 4.8°C (40.6°F) despite some decent sunny spells.
That's the coldest average daily temperature so far into the year over the last seven years. The temperature on Sunday morning fell to 0.7°C (33.3°F) although that's not unusually cold for the middle of April.
Our latest frosts dates over the last few years are 06 May 2012 when the temperature fell to -1.0°C (30.2°F) and 16 May 2013 with 3.1°C (37.6°F).
I notice the forecasters are suggesting the possibility of another cold snap next weekend with a chance of it extending into the following week. We might have had a very mild winter but I'm not sure how much of an advantage that is to a gardener. Now when we could do with some warmer weather, as we head into a busy time in the garden and greenhouse, it turns cold.
Over the last few months we've noticed that our goldfinches have been missing from the garden. On Sunday though we spotted a couple back eating sunflower hearts.
Monday 18 April 2016
Chilly For Tomato Sowing
The forecast is for it to become a bit milder before turning cold again. All I can say is that I hope it hurries up or we're in danger of missing out on the warm stuff. Monday certainly wasn't very warm and a stiff cold wind made it feel even cooler.
For various reasons I'm sowing my tomato seeds a few weeks later than I normally do. Each year I find that they need to move from indoor heated growlight into unheated greenhouse too early when the temperature in the greenhouse isn't warm enough for them to grow on unchecked. This year they're being sown a couple of weeks later. I'm hoping we'll be having some decent warm weather by the time they've germinated and are ready to move into the greenhouse.
It was a bit of a hectic afternoon in the greenhouse as I sowed our tomato seeds, aubergines and parsley before pricking out some Little Gem lettuce seedlings. Some lettuces have been left in the greenhouse and some planted out in our raised salad bed to hopefully produce some salad leaves or full size lettuces.
Sue sowed a few more flower seeds just for good measure some going alongside the tomatoes in our indoor growlight and some remaining in the greenhouse to germinate. I think the table below covers our sowing and planting activities for the day.
We need to get on sorting out some beds on the allotment before more rain arrives.
Tuesday 19 April 2016
Much Better
Tuesday was a super sunny day. After a chilly start it warmed up nicely in the sunshine reaching 16.3°C (61.3°F) in the afternoon sunshine.
The allotment beds have dried out reasonably well although there's still some very wet areas but the bed where I'm planning to plant our 'experimental' potato crop dug over well.
All that needs to be done now is for the weed control fabric to be positioned and our crop of new variety potatoes can be planted through it. We have five tubers of each new variety which are Setanta, Amour, Vivaldi, Blue Belle, Orla and Valor.
Amongst the weeds growing beneath the greengage our first bluebells are coming into flower.
Wednesday 20 April 2016
Another Brilliant Day
Wednesday was another beautiful April day with dawn till dusk sunshine. It seems such a shame that we're due this blast from the Arctic over the weekend and into next week. Tuesday and Wednesday both reached 16.3°C (61.3°F) but surprisingly weren't our warmest day of the year which is still 13 April with 16.7°C or 62.1°F. The downside of those lovely sunny days is the cold overnight temperatures.
It was back in the second week of February when I posted that our first daffodils were in flower.
15 February 2016
But of course if you have a few different varieties then the flowering season is extended and even now we have a fine selection of daffodils still in flower.
So a couple of months on from when they first came into flower our daffs are still putting on a spectacular display.
Thursday 21 April 2016
Planting Our Potato Day Potatoes
Thursday was another glorious spring day and this time, after a couple of near misses, we had our new warmest day of the year at 17.0°C or 62.6°F.
It was back at the end of January when we visited a local potato day held at the Horticentre garden centre. We treated ourselves to six varieties of potatoes we had never tried before. These have been happily chitting away in the greenhouse ever since.
They were planted on Thursday through weed control fabric so they can be left to get on with growing without any weed interference. That's the plan anyway.
Their positions have all been carefully noted so we will hopefully know which varieties are which when it comes to lifting them.
I've also put a little video together showing the blossom on our allotment fruit trees.