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Saturday 07 April 2012
More Cool Weather
Saturday was another disappointingly cool day with virtually no sunshine.
We didn’t visit the plot put off by the cool weather. I’m not too worried about delaying sowings made directly in the plot whilst the weather remains as cool as it is. Our parsnips, potatoes and carrots are the crops due to be sown and planted but delaying planting potatoes by a few days shouldn’t be a problem and I don’t think carrot seed would germinate so well at the moment. I’d like to get our parsnips in soon as they benefit from a long growing season and are slow to germinate.
The poor weather has given me some time to sort out our holiday video from Scotland. We took some long walks alone the Caledonian Canal and watched this cargo vessel negotiate the locks at Fort Augustus before the swing bridge opened allowing it to sail up Loch Ness towards Inverness.
Sunday 08 April 2012
A Tad Better
Sunday was a little better in that at least the temperature managed to reach the expected average. If April carries on at this rate it will turn out to be colder than March!
It might turn out to be a mistake but I decided that our antirrhinums, celery and celeriac needed to be moved from under the grow light and transplanted. Unfortunately for them this means a move from the relative comfort of the spare room into our cold greenhouse. It’s been living up to this reputation too with temperatures down to almost freezing some night last week. Hopefully some fleece will keep the worst of the weather off if frost threatens again next week.
Both the celery and celeriac had produced masses of fibrous roots and separating out individual seedlings without damaging the roots wasn’t possible. I’m banking on these plants recovering from this set back and going on to produce our first ever celery crop.
Our antirrhinums were just about right for transplanting. There was a marked variation in sizes of seedlings but they were all transplanted large and small, enough to fill 2 trays each holding 24 plants.
Now we just need the weather to cooperate a little better.
Monday 09 April 2012
Queuing Up!
Monday was a pretty poor day with showers throughout the morning and then again late in the afternoon. Not a day for gardening outside. In the end though not a lot of rain with the day’s total amounting to 2.8mm.
Whist gardening outside is on hold due to the poor weather I decided to get more seeds sown in the greenhouse. The only problem is that it’s not been that warm overnight in the greenhouse.
For a cold greenhouse I’ve read that ideally the temperature shouldn’t fall below 7°C. So far this month that’s not the case as even last night the temperature fell below this value down to 5.6°C.
To get round this I decided seeds needing some warmth to germinate could go under the indoor grow light except that there’s no space left.
To give a few days breathing space I placed the newly sown seeds in a tray next to the grow light reasoning that they didn’t need to go under the light until they had started to germinate.
I expected this might give me a week to play with whilst the weather improved but in a good way it’s turned out not to be the case. Zinnias and Chrysanthemums germinated quickly and found a space under the grow light when the celery and antirrhinums were transplanted and moved to the greenhouse. Now the dahlias are just starting to germinate some tomatoes or peppers are going to have to move into the greenhouse. I’ll just to make sure I have plenty of fleece at hand in case some cold nights are forecast.
Tuesday 10 April 2012
Perfect Reflection
Tuesday was a breezy cool day but with plenty of sunny intervals it wasn’t too bad at times.
One day on holiday in Scotland at the end of last month we were heading to Fort William one morning along the shores of Loch Lochy. It was a beautiful spring morning with clear blue skies and virtually no breeze. The Loch produced a stunning reflection of the mountains making it difficult at times to appreciate that there was water there and not a giant mirror.
Wednesday 11 April 2012
A Tale of Two Springs
Some heavy showers on Wednesday some with hail and sleet mixed in. Sunny spells in between the showers made it feel quite pleasant especially in the morning.
Spring 2012 had now collided with spring 2011. The spring of 2011 started off with a cool March but then warmed up leaving us with the warmest spring for several hundred years. Spring 2012 started off with a very warm, but not record breaking March, so average temperatures for 2012 at the end of March were well above last year’s and we looked set for another record breaking year.
The green line represents last spring and the orange line spring 2012. Last year was certainly the better option for gardeners with temperatures steadily rising as spring progressed. This year has presented some problems with temperatures cooling down. As a gardener I don’t expect April to be colder than March but that’s the case so far. Hopefully the weather will improve soon but the forecast into next week doesn’t look too promising.
Thursday 12 April 2012
A Dangerous Visitor
By all accounts we did pretty well on Thursday to avoid the many showers that were around locally. It remained dry and mostly sunny and it was late afternoon before we had our first downpour of the day. Mind you having seen Stacy’s dry soil at Allotment Adventures of Plot 58 then I shouldn’t complain at all about a drop of rain for the plot.
Mr and Mrs Bullfinch have become regular visitors to our bird table. It’s situated in amongst the crab apple tree and as bullfinches have a notorious reputation for destroying fruit buds I’m just a little concerned for our John Downie crab apples.
They both seem to enjoy the bird seed mixture put out on the bird table each day. It’s easy to see where the bull part of the name comes from as the male doesn’t like to dine with anyone else at the table and soon sees off other birds arriving although he does allow his mate to dine with him. We’re hoping that they just leave all our fruit buds alone and stick to their daily supply of seed.
Friday 13 April 2012
What Will the Tomatoes Make of It?
Friday continued along the month’s trend of sunny intervals with scattered showers and cool temperatures.
Even under the indoor grow light our tomato seedlings were starting to become a bit leggy. I’ve left them there thinking that they were better off than in the greenhouse where the over night temperatures have been falling pretty low. I finally decided to transplant them and move them into the greenhouse and hope I could give them extra protection overnight with some fleece.
The seedlings didn’t look too bad once pricked out and set deep in the cells to overcome as much of the legginess as possible. Of course as expected the weather forecast was for an overnight frost so late in the afternoon the plants were covered with fleece.
Just as well that I gave them some extra TLC as the temperature outside fell to just 0.1°C whilst the greenhouse temperature fell to 1.5°C. It’s not the sort of temperature recommended for growing tomatoes.
This morning when the fleece was removed the seedlings looked to have survived. I’ve got some more tomato seedlings to prick out and move into the greenhouse. With more frosts forecast I’m going to have to trust in fleece for protection. Hopefully the weather will improve soon and give some better growing conditions.