Unfortunately no posts about the plot since the 12th of April, due to the recent persistent heavy rain, hail, wind and low air temperatures. I managed a visit to my plot yesterday but the ground is saturated throughout, so seed sowing or working the soil was out of the question. I watered the seedlings in my cold frames & shed & did some weeding, removing weeds which I could reach from the paths around my planting beds, to avoid walking & compacting the wet soil. Funnily enough very few weeds have been germinating recently, partly due to the cooler temperatures and it seems that the regular hand weeding of the plots over the past couple of years has paid off, with less and less perennial weeds re-appearing. Remember the old saying, 1 years seeds are worth 7 years weeds?
One bonus of the recent (and more to come), heavy rain is that my rainwater barrels are all full again. I had used almost 2 barrels of water, just watering seedlings during February & March. The following plants have benefited from the extra rain, Spring Onions, Leeks, Parsnips, Turnips, Cabbages and Rhubarb and especially the Lettuce and Carrots. The Carrots in fact, didn't germinate for some time, until after they had experienced the first heavy downpour of rain. On the downside my Sprouts and Peas don't seem to like the persistent very cool wind accompanying the rain. Usually by this time of the year I have already planted out my Runner Beans. They are still languishing in pots in my shed until the temperatures rise considerably more than at present. The 3 Tomato plants hanging from buckets, alongside my shed, don't seem to have been adversely affected by the cold and rain. I expect if they had been planted conventionally, they would be struggling by now. Tomatoes generally like warmth and warm soil around their roots. The extra rain seems to have aided the growth of my Potatoes, with several "earlies" and a few of the "maincrop" plants showing through the tops of their "earthing up".
By 2 p.m. yesterday the rain started yet again so I toddled off home after putting some life-jackets around my Sweet corn plants. My latest project of constructing a roof over my manure "bin" to harvest rainwater is on hold at the moment. I have decided to use the wooden pallets, which I scrounged, to build a " Noas Ark", along the top of my drainage ditch bank, and load it up with 2 species of each vegetable I like, just in case the rain keeps coming.
Gotta be prepared for tomorrow.
P.S. It rained from 2 p.m. yesterday until 10-30 a.m. today. The sun has just appeared for a change, but no change to this areas drought restrictions at the moment?
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| Paved area @ the bottom of my garden 10 a.m. today, waterlogged. |
One bonus of the recent (and more to come), heavy rain is that my rainwater barrels are all full again. I had used almost 2 barrels of water, just watering seedlings during February & March. The following plants have benefited from the extra rain, Spring Onions, Leeks, Parsnips, Turnips, Cabbages and Rhubarb and especially the Lettuce and Carrots. The Carrots in fact, didn't germinate for some time, until after they had experienced the first heavy downpour of rain. On the downside my Sprouts and Peas don't seem to like the persistent very cool wind accompanying the rain. Usually by this time of the year I have already planted out my Runner Beans. They are still languishing in pots in my shed until the temperatures rise considerably more than at present. The 3 Tomato plants hanging from buckets, alongside my shed, don't seem to have been adversely affected by the cold and rain. I expect if they had been planted conventionally, they would be struggling by now. Tomatoes generally like warmth and warm soil around their roots. The extra rain seems to have aided the growth of my Potatoes, with several "earlies" and a few of the "maincrop" plants showing through the tops of their "earthing up".
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| Oca plants & Peppers still indoors |
By 2 p.m. yesterday the rain started yet again so I toddled off home after putting some life-jackets around my Sweet corn plants. My latest project of constructing a roof over my manure "bin" to harvest rainwater is on hold at the moment. I have decided to use the wooden pallets, which I scrounged, to build a " Noas Ark", along the top of my drainage ditch bank, and load it up with 2 species of each vegetable I like, just in case the rain keeps coming.
Gotta be prepared for tomorrow.
P.S. It rained from 2 p.m. yesterday until 10-30 a.m. today. The sun has just appeared for a change, but no change to this areas drought restrictions at the moment?
The weather has been apalling all day here and I haven't set foot out of the house. Yesterday was glorious and I'm glad I did as much outside as I could. Things are very slow germinating no sign of parsnips, beetroot or carrots, reckon I will have to re-sow.
ReplyDeleteI know how you feel, most of my seedlings are developing very slowly. My Runner beans (potted in the shed) are showing signs of mould & suffering from lack of sunlight. Its a shame when all the effort care and produce is lost due to bad weather. Keep smiling though, bad weather is the only downside to gardening, usually. Just off to put the central heating on??
ReplyDeleteYes, so much rain! We're never happy are we? :-) But I think our spuds should definitely benefit from it. Pretty good timing really - though I'd like it to cheer up for the long weekend next weekend!
ReplyDeleteI hope it clears up for the long weekend too. Can't really complain, as one of my plots is almost fully planted and the only thing I'm behind with is getting my Runner beans planted out. Same as you, good timing with the spuds. As you say they should benefit from the extra rain, as long as they don't get left in "standing water".
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