Thursday, 07 March 2019
Wettest Month of the Year and Early Brassicas
I know we are only 7 days into March but it's already become the wettest month of the year as the total on Thursday afternoon notches up to 22.0mm or 0.87in.
Temperature & Rainfall Records 05-07 March 2019
After a lovely mild and dry February it's a shock to the system with a return to typically wet and windy March weather.
January and February were both very dry months with only around 17mm (0.67in) of rainfall in each month so it hasn’t taken an awful lot for March to become the wettest month of the year. I don't think there’s been enough rainfall to halt progress on the plot, although there does seem to be plenty more rain in the forecast, which might make the ground too wet for sowing and planting.
One of the first jobs we need to finish is the preparation of our early brassica bed.
This year's early brassica bed is on the right and has already been dug and had some lime incorporated into the soil. The weed control fabric covering the bed on the left needs to be moved across and then the bed will be ready for planting. I'll incorporate some fish blood and bone fertiliser into the soil before covering it over.
The plants to fill this bed arrived from DT Brown's today, and they've been potted on and will be left to recuperate from their journey for a few days before they move to the cold frame for hardening off and subsequent planting out on the allotment.
Hopefully, by early summer we'll be enjoying some lovely fresh vegetables.
In the past these early brassica plants haven't let us down and have produced some excellent crops.
Sunday, 10 March 2019
Is The Benefit Slipping Away?
After two dry months to start off the year something had to give, and up to know we are waiting for our first rain free March day. Those lovely mild February days seem a long time ago, as we try to plan a trip to the allotment avoiding wet and windy weather.
We'd made really good progress at getting beds dug over ready for spring planting and the soil was just in the right condition for sowing and planting. I'm guessing that will not be the case now, with 32mm (1.3in) of rainfall already in March. That's almost as much as we had in January and February combined. It's beginning to feel like that all that early progress made in February is beginning to slip away, especially with another wet and windy week forecast.
It's tempting to start sowing some seeds to keep up with the trend on social media. I'd managed to resist the temptation until now by not sowing any seeds until Friday. I'd been considering sowing our leeks earlier, as they seem to take a long time from sowing to the time when they’re ready for planting out so I decided to get them sown. They will stay in the greenhouse for the next month or so before moving outside into the coldframe.
I popped in a few lettuce seeds as well. I'm not sure if they will germinate or not but there's plenty of seeds in the packet for successional sowings.
Next on the planting list is some early Casablanca potatoes in boxes in the plot greenhouse. We're aiming to get that done in the next dry spell when we can get down to the allotment and also harvest some fresh vegetables.