The unpredictable weather certainly lasted longer than we anticipated! A few weeks of snow, ice and high winds have meant that we have not been able to get down to the plots much at all. We would normally have started sowing our tomatoes and chillies in our heated propagator at home but once they germinate they need to be potted on quite soon afterwards and the greenhouses just aren’t warm enough yet. With the forecasts only now getting to be more appropriate for the time of the year we are starting them this week.
The onions are still in the greenhouse. Some have sprouted quite tall, others haven’t, but all of them have made really good root systems. An added bonus will be that when we plant them out in the next week or two the chances of pesky birds or squirrels lifting them will be reduced if they already have roots. This is also good for those gardeners who like neat rows uninterrupted by random gaps!
The Easter weekend and its bank holidays gave us a good block of time to do some more soil preparation. All of the beds on plot 97 now have multiple trugs of well rotted manure dug into them. We had added some manure to plot 118 a couple of weeks ago on top of the compost layer and so we did a fair bit of digging it over. The difference in the soil quality on the left side of plot 118 is really noticeable compared to a few years ago. Even the patch of clay we have in one area is much lighter and finer, all through what’s been added over the last couple of years. It feels like a good achievement, albeit a bit of a geeky one!
There are quite a few signs of Spring finally visible. The raspberry canes, gooseberry and currant bushes are budding. The garlic we planted a few weeks ago has sprouted, seemingly having enjoyed the cold snap! The rhubarb has gone crazy, particularly on plot 118. It looks like it’s sprouting up all over the place! Hopefully now the weather is milder we are looking forward to getting caught up with sowing things in the next couple of weeks, but we wouldn’t be surprised if we end up working about a month behind schedule due to the weather. Surely we must be due some normal weather next year?!
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