Journeys to transport plants to plot have been severely delayed due to the wrong kind of rain and high winds meaning our plant waiting room (aka cold frame) is full to bursting point.
The wrong kind of rain is the spits and spots that we have had when ‘proper’ rain was promised meaning that the ground remains arid and those plants that made an earlier trip to the plot have been battered and bruised by the strong winds that hurtle across our site. We haven’t really wanted to plant out our carefully nurtured plants in such unwelcoming conditions and so they wait!
The really dry earth also means stakes just won’t hammer in to the ground far enough to erect a support framework for our raspberries. There’s been just enough rain to penetrate a few centimetres - enough to make sure that weed seedlings are fully supplied with enough moisture to grow.
The winds have meant that I haven’t yet managed to mulch the strawberry plants which need doing before we erect the structure to support the netting. So our ripening strawberries are at the mercy of the birds!
Once normal service is resumed I anticipate quite a bit of overtime getting things planted out.
We also have plants waiting in the first class waiting room (aka the garden greenhouse). All the plants that I ordered for the front garden have now arrived. The penstemons have been potted up for a few weeks now and could be planted out.
The dark leaved dahlias are growing on a little in pots,
and the salvia collection arrived last week and is growing well. (Mark have you noticed that one is called Lara!)
Also waiting patiently are the dahlias grown from seed
and with a whole array of other flowering plants. There would have been more but somehow we have lost about half a dozen packets of seed and wouldn't you know it most were ones that I specially wanted to grow. None are available in shops and it’s too late to send for more seeds so it's a case of try again next year - I bet they'll turn up once it's too late to sow them!
Then we have excitement in the VIP - Very Important Plants - lounge (aka the indoor growing garden in a spare room). You may remember that I mentioned that I was going to try growing cyclamen from seed and didn’t really rate my chances of success. Well … wait for drum roll and pause of expectation … the ones being grown as pot plants germinated a little while ago – well 6 out of the 8 seeds have which is 6 more than I expected.
So why haven’t I mentioned this before? … well I was waiting patiently to see what happened to the cyclamen coum seeds. Until yesterday there was no sign of them at all but then I spotted a tiny leaf and looked closer to see that there was evidence of one or two more shoots shyly peeping from the vermiculite.
I've circled some as they are not easy to spot even in 'real life'
The wind has died down now and it has actually rained a little this morning so maybe we'll manage some planting this afternoon - fingers crossed!
Can't comment?
I've had problems commenting on blogger posts and know others have the same trouble. After writing a comment you are told you are not signed in and asked to do so - you do - it asks again - and again - and if you are allowed to comment your comments are posted as Anonymous. I only seem to have this problem if I use IE as my browser - if I use Google Chrome (not sure about FireFox) it works fine. Are we innocent victims of browser war?
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We gardeners certainly are at the mercy of the elements - and with Climate Change being undeniable, I suspect we are going to have to learn how to cope with more extremes of weather than we have been used to. Here in the South-East we have gone all weekend with dull skies, strong winds and negligible rainfall again.(Typical Bank Holiday weather, of course).
ReplyDeleteBTW: Hope the Salvia "Lara" is as full of vigour as my little granddaughter. She is a bundle of energy!
wow, your plants all looks os healthy and you are so organised. I am in awe. I hope the weather is kind to you soon.
ReplyDeleteI have the same problem with internet explorer as well for commenting had to switch into google chrome. I hope they sort it out soon. My goodness that so many seedlings ready to be transplanted. So many strawberries to pick! I don't have much success with strawberries other than the alpine ones. But my kids fortunately like alpine rather than the bigger ones. Do you freeze your strawberries?
ReplyDeleteBlogger problems here too.
ReplyDeleteYour Waiting Room plants don't seem to be suffering though - they all look in great condition. I hope you've had rain by now - it started here overnight and only stopped around 1.30 p.m. Real, genuine, wet and consistent rain!
We just have to battle on Mark.
ReplyDeleteSo do I Hazel.
We don't freeze the strawberries in their natural state Diana as they don't freeze well but we do make a fruit compote with them and freeze that, Then we use it on porridge, yoghurt etc.
We've had some rain today VH but not the sort to do any lasting good - better than nothing though.
It's been chucking it down here all day today Sue - at last! Our ground was as bad as yours, so I've been on daily watering duty for the veg I planted out earlier. I've lost some peas to the high winds and some stuff (spinach, kale and chard) hasn't germinated well but everything else seems okay.
ReplyDeleteMy greenhouse looks as full as your cold frame:)
Agree with Mark. Mercy of the elements indeed!
ReplyDeleteHaving a right torid time at the moment, so inconsistent!!
The plants are certainly stacking up! We've had a day's rain here at last, hopefully June will be calmer.
ReplyDeleteI'm using IE and am only having problems now when I tick the box to stay logged in. If I log in but leave the box unticked then it's ok. We've had plenty of rain here today, enough to put us off having a day out, but the ground is dry again already. My greenhouse is full of plants which are waiting to be planted out. At least the wind's dropped now so that's good.
ReplyDeleteEverything seems to coming along fine. Looks good
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jo, if I use IE and untick the box it works ok but I'm automatically logged out if I don't. Have you tried it?
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the planting out, conditions are much the same here, it's been dry and very windy, luckily i have some established plants to offer shelter, so I've had to sacrifice some of the crop rotation plans in order to 'intercrop' new plants to give them a good start.
Hi Sue, I am in awe of your growing accomplishments and sorry for the odd spring weather you've endured. I agree with Mark, Climate Change is something we're all going to have to learn to work around.
ReplyDeleteWishing you a turn in the weather to allow for your crop rotation.
Wow, thats a LOT of plants! I thought I had a load but mine are a drop in the ocean compared to yours lol.
ReplyDeleteThe wind is the worst thing NG not only does it batter but it dries things out too - our greenhouse is fairly full too with stuff waiting to get into the cold frame!
ReplyDeleteWe gardeners can never have the perfect weather can we M&A?
I hope for a calm June too Damo.
We had some rain too this morning but as you say it doesn't penetrate far and seems to dry up quickly. I'll try you suggestion with IE but must admit that I've now made Chrome my default only problem is I can't use it to edit my websites which are Microsoft based.
Hope it continues to grow well GT
Very resourceful Josephine.
Rain over-night and warm sunny but not too hot during the day would be ideal Jenni but I guess that's just a pipedream.
Just got to get them all planted now P&M
I arrievd to your blog thru Malay-Kadazan girl blog!
ReplyDeleteYour blog is great! You have so many seedling to be trasplanted! All of them look so promising!
Hello Malar - you are very welcome - hopefully things will start to move out into the plot soon.
ReplyDeleteYou've got some big jobs ahead of you (as do I with planting out). I went ahead and hardened off some plants in the gales & i've casualties as a result. Suppose I should have waited but i get impatient with all the plants outgrowing their pots.
ReplyDeleteWe have started to plant out now Kelli but it's still so dry - at least the winds have died down but for how long?
ReplyDeleteLooks like it's all growing great.....I am way behind on my posting and hope to get quite a lengthy post up this evening about the last week.
ReplyDeleteI don't envy you having all that planting to do in one go....I have got quite a bit done this week.
As for the comments problems...i haven;t had any and I use firefox as a browser....just so you know.
We're getting there Tanya - it seems to be IE that is playing up - the advice is to upgrade to IE9 but when Martyn did that it messed up his computer so I am loathe to do it.
ReplyDeleteOh Sue... a roller coaster with you, between chicks coming on and fledging, seedlings coming at different rates and the weather forcing a packed house. Your plants are looking good though. Well done for getting cyclamen to germinate!
ReplyDeleteI am quite pleased about the cyclamen Shirl.
ReplyDeleteI'm in awe of you growing dahlias from seeds. We are having the same weather issues you are. I've lost some verbena to the winds and my sunflowers look whipped. I haven't dared put out my carefully nurtured pepper plants. BTW some people have had trouble commenting on my site, too. I didn't know it could be related to which browser they use!
ReplyDeleteI don't know how successful the seed sown dahlias will be Barbara as it's our first time - will be posting on how well they do. If we don't get any rain soon they'll be very small and if they grow tall and the winds play up they will be very battered.
ReplyDelete