Wednesday, 21 March 2018
Somebody Tell The Weather!
Both meteorological and astronomical springs have sprung but the weather still thinks it's winter. I sowed our sweet peas and planted some Casablanca potatoes in a potato sack on Tuesday afternoon. It was reasonably pleasant in the greenhouse as some afternoon sunshine lifted the temperature into the mid teens centigrade or around 60°F but overnight the temperature in the greenhouse fell to -0.4°C or 31.3°F.
Potatoes - Casablanca
Sweet Pea - Kingfisher
Somehow it feels a bit like I'm trying to garden in the middle of winter. At least now astronomical spring is here we have more daylight Than darkness each day so I'd hope colder overnight spells are shorter but it's odd to note that last November, December and January were all warmer than March 2018.
Average High & Low Temperature November 2017 - March 2018
There doesn't seem to be much improvement if the current weather model forecasts turn out to be accurate as temperatures are set to remain on the cool side with more snow showers from early next week.
I'm sure spring will arrive eventually it's just a case of when!
All our March sowing can be found here.
Friday, 23 March 2018
Germination
Thursday was a much better day than we've been having recently and there were some rumours around that it produced our warmest day of the year. Unfortunately for us that wasn't quite the case as the temperature maxed out at 12.5°C or 54.5°F our warmest March day of this year. Amazingly as we approach the end of March our warmest day of the year is still 28 January when the temperature reached the dizzy heights of 13.8°C or 56.8°F.
The one thing that is noticeable is that the wind has moved out of that bitterly cold easterly flow into a milder westerly direction.
Wind Direction Records 16-22 March 2018
Given the better weather you might have thought we'd head for the allotment but we didn't and instead did the next best thing and had a trip to the garden centre. We picked up some different dahlia tubers for the perennial bed at the allotment. We don't know yet whether or not last year's tubers will have made it through this winter's cold spells.
If last year's tubers don't make it through winter hopefully these 5 different varieties will make a splash of colour in our perennial bed this summer. Whilst we were at the garden centre we couldn't resist the temptation to buy a few herbs so that we've some early picking while we get this year's herbs sorted out.
As I was sorting out our newly purchased herbs and dahlias into their spot in our home greenhouse, I noticed that our first seeds of the year have germinated today.
Broad Bean - Witkeim Manita
Lettuce - All Year Round
I'm always happy to see the first seeds of the year germinate. Hopefully it's just the beginning as we've lots more seeds to sow.
Sunday, 25 March 2018
Done All We Can!
What could possibly go wrong. The clocks have gone forward so we're now on British Summer Time. Sunday morning has started off bright and sunny but with a bit of a chill in the air.
We've spent a couple of afternoons on the plot getting our first beds ready for planting. Beds for early potatoes, onions, broad beans and peas have all had their weed control fabric removed and the edges of the beds have been tidied up.
We have now done as much as we can to get the beds ready for planting up but the main problem is that they are still too wet to dig over. We need a few good drying days so that the beds can be dug over, some fertiliser incorporated and the weed control fabric replaced. A couple of the beds could be planted up without being dug but the beds needed first, to get our onion sets planted, aren't suitable without a bit of cultivation.
Sue has weeded our perennial bed and raked in some fertiliser.
Our fruit beds have had a similar treatment so should be ready for the growing season to get into full swing.
Now we need the weather to play ball so the soil can dry out a little bit. However, the forecast for next week doesn't look like it's going to play nicely with rain forecast for most days next week. With a bit of luck it will be dry on Sunday and Monday so I'm planning to see how the beds dig over on Monday afternoon. The rest of the week doesn't look to be drying out sort of weather!
Monday, 26 March 2018
Warmest Day
I posted yesterday morning that Sunday morning had started off bright and sunny and it continued like that for most of the day.
Sunday Afternoon at The Allotment
There was a little more cloud around in the afternoon but it didn't stop Sunday from becoming our warmest day of the year so far as the temperature reached 14.0°C or 57.2°F.
Temperature & Rainfall Records 19-25 March 2018
We haven't had a great deal of rain in the last week so I'm hoping the soil at the plot will have dried out a little and be okay for digging over.
Tuesday, 26 March 2018
Beds Dug In The Nick Of Time
The forecast for rain in the early hours of Tuesday morning turned out to be correct. Another 5.8mm of rainfall, so far on Tuesday, have made this March the wettest I've recorded.
Although we've had plenty of rain this month over the last week it's been a bit drier and so, bearing in mind that rain was forecast, I was determined to see if some of the beds on the allotment had dried out enough to be dug over with my cultivator.
Temperature & Rainfall Records 01-27 March 2018
Once I started the cultivator digging over the first bed I was pleasantly surprised by how well the soil turned over. In the odd spot it was a bit wet, where the soil was a little bit more compacted, but in general it wasn't too bad and progress was fairly speedy. Fish,blood and bone fertiliser was added and raked in. Rather than cover the ground with the appropriate piece of weed control fabric I thought it would be a better use of my time to get more beds dug over while conditions were suitable. Weed Control fabric can be put in place even if the soil is very wet as it doesn't involve me standing on the cultivated ground.
Beds for Broad Beans, Potatoes and Onions Dug Over 26 March 2018
By the end of the afternoon I'd managed to get six beds dug over. All the soil cultivated well enough and broke down into a suitable tilth for either planting or sowing directly into it. All the beds still need to be covered with weed control fabric before we start planting or sowing. Hopefully, that will get done fairly soon and we'll actually begin the growing season proper.