Thursday, 21 March 2019
Winter Goes Out On A High
Wednesday marked the official end of winter, going out on a high note, with a lovely sunny and warm day and the highest temperature of the year reaching 20.3°C or 68.5°F.
Temperature Record for 20 March 2019
That made it the warmest day since 13 October 2018 when the temperature reached 22.6°C or 72.7°F.
On the plot there are now some signs of spring, as the first of the fruit blossom is starting to open. First of the tree fruit into flower is our Oullins Gage plum and our Honeyberry bushes are also just coming into flower.
Plum - Oullins Gage
Honeyberry
There is plenty of blossom on the honeyberry bushes, which I think are now on their last chance, as even though they produce plenty of flowers they never go on to produce any fruit. Maybe this year will be different!
Monday, 25 March 2019
Lots of Preparing But Not Much Planted - Yet!
The first couple of weeks of March were pretty poor with some rain most days which meant visits to the plot were limited. The last few days have been much better and plotting has resumed. We’re continuing to get more beds ready for sowing and planting but as yet only some of our onion sets have been planted.
Onion Sets - Sturon, Rumba, Red Karmen, Centurian & Hercules
We've got another three beds on this plot ready for planting up with our early potatoes Casablanca, a first sowing of peas and our early brassicas which are now in the cold frame at home hardening off.
Early Brassicas - Regency cabbage, Helsinki cauliflowers & Aquiles calabrese
Checking back over the last few years our early potatoes are normally planted in either the last week of March or very early in April. The weather for the next week looks settled so we should be able to plant our early potatoes next week. We're in no rush to plant our other potatoes as we've had good results from planting as late as the middle of May providing they're not affected by the dreaded blight.
We have already got some beds prepared for most of our potato crop. These were prepared during that lovely spell of weather in February. However, we haven't managed to prepare a second bed for our remaining onions sets and shallots. I removed the weed control fabric, which had been covering the bed all winter, and the soil beneath was too wet to dig over. It's a reminder that the first half of March was very wet with the best part of two months rainfall in the first couple of weeks.
I did have an exploratory dig with both fork and cultivator and came to the conclusion that I would do more harm than good attempting to dig over the ground in its current state. I'm hoping a few days of dry weather will soon dry it out.
Meanwhile we still have a few vegetables to harvest on the plot.
Our purple sprouting broccoli is cropping well now and we've still got a few leeks to harvest although they'll start to grow and become unusable in the kitchen any time now. All last year's beetroot has now been harvested. I composted some of the roots which had become homes to slugs and woodlice. Sadly our carrots and parsnips have come to the end of their cropping period too and the remaining roots will be dug up and composted. We've been harvesting these since last September so we are not complaining. Our early rhubarb, which we think is Timperley Early, is providing us with a steady supply of succulent stalks to pull.
If the weather remains favourable the next few weeks will be busy sowing and planting both at home and down at the allotment.