Tuesday 15 April 2014
RHS Harlow Carr in April
Tuesday continued where Monday left off with lots more sunshine. The early hours of Tuesday morning provided the coldest temperatures of the month so far with the thermometer down to 1.4°C. Despite the excellent weather recently the warmest day of the month remains the first of the month with 18.3°C
As the forecast was for another nice sunny day we’d decided on another trip to the Royal Horticultural Society’s garden at Harlow Carr. We thought that by now some of the many rhododendrons in the forest area would probably be in flower.
It was tricky finding somewhere to park and there is lots of parking available at Harlow Carr. We eventually managed to find a spot in the overspill car park. As it’s school half term lots of the next generation of plant hunters had descended on the gardens.
We were correct in our guess that the rhododendron would be coming into flower. Spring bulbs still formed a large part of the more formal display areas with lots of daffodils still in flower but the beds planted up with Hyacinths looked particularly attractive.
On a still sunny day the scent from the display was very intense. My favourite was this dark blue variety.
We had a quick look around the kitchen garden display but just like the allotment it still very early with most vegetable still to be planted out. The main display was the collection of rhubarb and the fruit trees coming into blossom.
Wednesday 16 April 2014
Blowing Hot and Cold
Wednesday was another super spring day and it set a few little weather records. Starting off in the early hours of the morning it was our equal coldest night of the month with the temperature falling to 1.4°C but with blue skies and sunshine all day it then became our warmest day of the month and year as the thermometer rose to 19.2°C.
I’ve now kept rainfall records since the beginning of 2010 and April 16th is the first day of the year when no rainfall has been recorded in any of the five years. That’s 106 days into the year before a day that has been consistently dry in the five years from 2010 to 2014.
At Harlow Carr on Tuesday I noticed that, in some places alongside the stream, their Marsh Marigolds were on flower and thought that ours which are only in bud were a little behind, however Wednesday’s sunshine brought our Marsh Marigolds out into flower too.
Don’t plants sometimes do their best to annoy you. I posted about giving our violas a second chance after they’d been left to over winter in the cold frame. I thought I’d picked out the best ones to move into a pot and produce some better plants. The other stragglers have been left in the cold frame. Last night, as I watered the other plants hardening off in the cold frame, I saw this one defiant viola in flower and crying out to be saved.
I can feel another potting up session coming on.
Thursday 17 April 2014
Baby Incas
A complete turn around in the weather for Thursday as sunshine was replaced by clouds and a strong wind returned.
Our Inca Berries seeds sown on 07 April have germinated.
We’re trying Inca Berries for the first time this year and I’m always a little bit dubious how untried seeds will germinate but these have germinated very well. According to James Wong they’re incredibly easy to grow so I guess we’re going to put that claim to the test. You can find out more about Inca Berries from James Wong’s web site here.
I’ve never really understood why Easter is considered to be potato planting time as the date of the holiday varies considerably from March into mid April. In any case I’m planning on taking part in this tradition.
I’m hoping to get these Winston potatoes planted as soon as I can now. They’re certainly well chitted and ready for the plot. Hopefully with a good weather forecast for Friday and Saturday they’ll be in the plot by the end of the holiday.
Friday 18 April 2014
Blue Sky
The weather turned on its head and from no sun on Thursday we had dawn to dusk sunshine for Good Friday.
Woody took up an early morning pose on the finial at the top of the summerhouse on guard in case I mistakenly left the brassicas hardening off in the cold frame uncovered. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and it continued like that throughout the day.
It was a busy afternoon on the plot planting some Winston, Nicola and Marfona potatoes and getting all our remaining onion sets that were growing in modules planted out.
We still managed to find time to have a couple of cups of coffee and attempt to photograph a goldfinch singing in the hawthorn tree. Of course by the time we had our cameras trained on it, off it went. This was my best and only picture.
Our cherry tree Summer Sun is now in full flower. If any of these flowers set fruit the main problem will be keeping the birds from pinching the cherries as they ripen. We haven’t yet mastered the art of protecting our cherries from the birds.
I’m hoping that we might have another chance to practice our protection techniques this summer.
Saturday 19 April 2014
Coldest Day of the Month
Our somewhat topsy turvy weather produced the coldest day of the month so far. After Good Friday’s sunshine we had cloud for much of Saturday with the sun only managing to break through late in the afternoon. Saturday morning was the coldest it’s been this month with the temperature falling to 0.1°C in the early hours of the morning managing to climb to 12.6°C by 17:15 in the late afternoon sun.
Our tomato seeds germinated well under the indoor growlight but it was time for them to be transplanted to give them more room to grow on.
These are Sungold seedlings after transplanting. We have similar seed modules with Alicante, Amish Gold, Brandy Boy Hybrids, Kings of Colour and Sioux. That should be plenty of plants to supply both home and plot greenhouses. The seedlings will be left in the cold greenhouse now and will need to be covered with fleece to keep them as warm as possible during the night.
It still can get pretty cold in the greenhouse overnight. On Saturday morning as the outside temperature fell to 0.1°C the corresponding temperature in the greenhouse was 2.1°C. That’s a little bit too low for my liking for tomato plants so if we have any more nights as cold they might get a little bit of a set back.
Easter Sunday 20 April 2014
Teased by the Weather
I supposed I’d have to say Easter Sunday was typical Bank Holiday weather. Most of the day was cloudy with enough dampness in the air at lunchtime to wet the ground but not disturb my rain gauge. It was enough to put us off visiting the plot. Then like Saturday late in the afternoon the cloud broke up a bit and the sun broke through.
I made use of the late afternoon sunshine by sowing our second set of brassicas in the greenhouse.
Brussels sprout -
If you’ve never had club root then you really should look after your patch and do all you can to avoid introducing this disease. Nowadays there are no chemical controls for club root and the spores of the disease are able to remain active in the soil for up to 20 years. Once you’ve got club root you’re very much stuck with it.
There are a few measures to take to try to reduce the effects one of which is liming the soil and growing plants in good quality compost to a reasonable size before planting them out.
This is how your brassicas look when club root takes hold. Planted last year, this bed was supposed to be our over wintering cabbages and this is how they looked by November 2013. These weren’t club root resistant varieties as the temptation is always to try some different varieties as the list of resistant brassicas is very limited.
What makes our problem frustrating is knowing which beds have the club root spores in them and which are clean. Wallflowers are also subject to club root and if you look closely at the photo above the bed at the top of the picture has wallflowers planted in it.
This is how our wallflowers look now. They’ve gone on to produce excellent plants and are flowering just as we had hoped. In the top right of this picture are the remains of our club root infected cabbage plants that still need tidying up. I need to ensure that I clean any equipment used to dig the infected bed before using it on any other part of the plot. The roots of the plants and any weeds removed will be added into the Council’s Waste Recycling bin to avoid further contamination.
There’s more information on club root on the RHS web site here.
Easter Monday 21 April 2014
Good News About Brassicas
It wasn’t too bad on Easter Monday. After a cloudy morning the sun broke through around lunch time a little earlier than the last few days resulting in a lovely warm sunny afternoon. The clouds thickened up again late in the afternoon enough to give a bit of light rain. This was the first measurable rain for almost two weeks.
Our cabbage and calabrese plants bought from Marshalls at the end of March have come on a treat with a bit of care and attention.
Cabbage -
Calabrese -
These plants spent their first couple of weeks recuperating in the relative luxury of our cold greenhouse before being moved on into the cold frame to allow them to acclimatise to life outdoors.
Cabbage -
Calabrese -
In the fine weather of Easter Monday afternoon Sue planted out these cabbages and calabrese on the plot. We haven’t had any problems with club root in the bed they’ve been planted in so we’re hoping for great things from them. They’ve been planted through weed control fabric to reduce competition from weed growth and save us time not having to do any weeding. As a final precautionary measure they were covered with butterfly proof netting to hopefully keep the plants caterpillar free.
It turned out to be a productive day down on the plot. This is the list of other sowings and plantings for the Easter Monday.
