A month ago I was telling you how I couldn't do all the plot prep I wanted to do because the ground was frozen, or, when it did thaw out, too wet!
Well one month on, the soil is once again unworkable, but for the totally opposite reason. Since I last updated this blog we've had virtually no rain (although we have had snow!). And we've had night frosts for almost all that time too - certainly a much colder climate than we'd normally experience in March and April - occasional frosts are the norm, but persistent frosts have not been so prevalent in recent years. Anyway, whatever the weather, my clay based soil is once more doing a pretty good impersonation of concrete.
And thinking back, it was also true last year that we had a drought in the middle of spring...in fact it seems to me to be becoming a regular feature of a British spring these days that a number of these important growing weeks are rain free.
This is not just disrupting the soil preparation process by leaving the over wintering weeds from last years's brassica patches superglued into position, it would also normally be a time for sowing some seeds direct (parsnips, carrots, onions). They would be naturally watered by regular rainfall to aid germination and help establish the seedlings, and whilst the current sunshine is welcome, this years northerly winds along with night frosts combined with the lack of water have seen virtually nothing that I have sown direct emerge.
So what to do in the meantime? Well many a gardener will spend at least one miserable Saturday reviewing and planning what seeds they need for the forthcoming season (and if they are really sad like me, start sequencing the packets by sowing date when they arrive ;)
I have got some seeds sown in the greenhouse in early April starting to show now (sprouts, peas and mangetout, leeks, and cabbages) and some of the more tender ones that need to germinate in warmer temperatures (cucumbers, sweetcorn and, for the first time from seed, aubergine) started off indoors
I'm also building on last years experience growing potatoes in 'bags'. Last year the quality of potato was good but the bags, even though they were marketed as 'potato' bags, I felt were too small and the yield was poor. This year I've upgraded the bags to bigger ones and started them off in the greenhouse .
And speaking of potatoes, the first early potatoes (Swift and Charlotte) are now in the ground - at least I did get them in the ground whilst it was workable.
I'm also still harvesting from last year. The sprouts finished in March as did the red cabbage, and the kale will go too at the end of the month. There are a fair few leeks still to pick and we are now entering purple sprouting broccoli season - and I have more broccoli plants survive this far into the spring intact than ever before (including 2 from 2019!). Result!
Can I keep harvesting until the first of the 2021 crops come through? I'm going for it...seeing if I can have all year round veg...I've also got some radishes, lettuce and beetroot in a growbag from last year (yes I find growbags are good for at least 2 years' worth of service!). The radishes should be ready in 6 weeks so just got to keep the leeks and brocolli going till June...unless the rhubarb (just starting below) gets there first,
It's now a full 12 months since I started this blog. As I look back on the reason why I did it, (as part of our effort at work to support each other through the unknown pandemic world we were just entering - I just wanted to replicate my face to face kitchen lunchtime conversations about the allotment in a lockdown friendly way!), well, we're still in a lockdown world 12 months on.
But apart from enjoying doing it, and hopefully shining a little light on how everyone can grow something, I also now find I have a complete 12 month journal of an allotment year. And whilst all gardeners will know no two growing years are ever the same (take my first paragraphs of this blog if you want proof of that fact) it is really useful now having a record to compare to. So I might just keep going for one more year...let's hope its a plentiful one.
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