Monday, 16 March 2020
To Sow Or Not To Sow
It's about time I'd normally be starting to get some seeds sown but I'm not sure that would be such a great idea at the moment. Although the weather has been a bit better over the last few days, we've had a little less rain at least, the allotment is still very wet and not fit for sowing or planting. All our beds need some sort of treatment to prepare them for spring after the winter's heavy rainfall. I decided to have a look and see if we'd had similar conditions in March over the last ten years.
Running 12 Month Rainfall Values
The above chart shows the rainfall in the previous 12 months for each month. The high spot at the very end of the chart indicates we've had 867.1mm (34.2in) of rainfall in the previous 12 months between March 2019 and February 2020. The only other time we've been in this position was in March 2013 when the previous 12 months had resulted in 926.1mm (36.5in) of rainfall between April 2012 and March 2013.
I looked back at March 2013 and found that not only was it wet but it was cold and snowy too. However, much of that rainfall had fallen through the very wet summer of 2012 rather than through the winter months unlike this spell of wet weather.
March 2013
Checking through my planting records it was mid way through April before the early potatoes went into the ground. I'm not sure there is anything to be gained by planting potatoes into cold wet ground so my plan is to leave them chitting in the summerhouse for a few more weeks. Of course, the downside of planting them later is they may be more susceptible to blight but that's a risk I think I'm going to have to take.
I'm considering sowing our leeks this week as they take a long time to grow and they will remain in the greenhouse under cover for a good few weeks. I'm not so sure about when to sow our early crop of broad beans. They are quite slow to germinate but grow pretty quickly and soon need transplanting into the allotment or they become very leggy and can't stand up to the strong winds we get at the allotment.
We did get some tidying up done at the plot over the weekend.
The grass paths were strimmed for the first time since the middle of September last year. It made the plot look a little more cared for once the strimming was done and a few of the edges around the beds cut back. The ground still looked far too wet to dig. Hopefully, we'll get some drier and warmer weather as we head further into spring.
At least the daffodils this year aren't covered in snow.