We had some lovely mild sunny days towards the end of March giving us the warmest day of the year so far as the temperature reached 19.7°C or 67.5°F. However, it was just to fool us into thinking that spring had arrived as this week winter has certainly returned with cold frosty nights and snow showers by day.
The average temperature for March finished up on the mild side for the month, however there was an unwanted cold spell for the last few days of the month. Unfortunately, the cold spell has continued into the beginning of April and the forecast suggests below average temperatures will continue for the next week at least. This comes just as our main seed sowing season arrives.
I sowed some seeds a few weeks ago, which were left in the greenhouse and some of these are beginning to germinate. The sweet peas and beetroot are showing signs that they are now germinating producing some tiny shoots. The leeks and parsley are more reluctant.
Seeds requiring a bit more warmth, to encourage them to germinate, are normally brought indoors and placed under our growlight. A small tray of coleus was sown a few days ago and brought inside and they are already germinating.
I’ll have to move them into the greenhouse soon or they will grow into very leggy seedlings. With temperatures forecast to fall low enough to give a frost each night moving them to the greenhouse isn’t such a good idea.
It’s time to start sowing more tender seeds like tomatoes and peppers. These will germinate quickly inside but the weather needs to have warmed up a bit by the time they need to be transferred into the greenhouse. Hence the dilemma, should I sow now or wait for another week hoping that temperatures will have recovered sufficiently.
Seedlings growing inside become leggy and I’m never sure they recover although tomato plants can be transplanted deeply up to their first leaves to help overcome any legginess.
Any jobs to be done at the allotment have gone on hold, waiting for some better weather. Last year we were very late planting onions, potatoes, carrots and parsnips but they all produced good crops in the end even if they were a little bit later than normal.
Below I’ve added the March temperature and rainfall records from 2010 to 2022.
Still not much warming up going on here. It’s just coming up to 18:00 and the temperature is down to 4.8°C. We might be going to get a keen frost tonight. I’ve just moved some stuff from the greenhouse into the cold frame so that should ensure we get a frost. Glad the photo of the coleus came in useful.
Yes it is a dilemma. My greenhouse is ram packed with sensitive plants I rashly started in February. No real losses to frost yet thanks to deployment of the paraffin heater whenever frost threatens. Thanks for the coleus seedling picture. I have attempted to some home saved seeds this year and the resulting few seedlings have the same characteristic cotyledons. Very reassuring to know I am not nurturing weeds!