Monday, May 6

Winter makes a comeback

I continued to plant up our new strawberry bed last week as some of the plants just wouldn't hang on in the cold frame any longer.
There are still a few plants waiting in the cold frame but, after the forecast of frosty nights to come, we decided to leave the remaining plants in the relative protection.

We spent an afternoon last week preparing for the onslaught of winter - not quite as desperately as shown in the episode of a current TV programme but with just as much urgency..

Unaware of the frosty welcome, quite a few of our open ground planted potatoes had pushed through the soil. If the frost touched the young leaves they would shrivel and, although experience tells us that the plants would recover, we wanted to try to avoid the setback in growth that this would cause.

The bed of the earliest planted potatoes were not planted though weed control fabric and so we hoped that earthing up the soil over the new leaves would offer them sufficient protection.

We had some straw that had been used to protect the carrot bed over winter, so we covered the next most advanced potatoes with most of that.  The remaining potatoes were less advanced with only the odd shoots pushing through the soil so we used the remaining straw more sparingly and when the straw ran out we used some dry material from the compost bins.

We also wanted to try and avoid the flowers on the newly planted strawberry bed from being frosted so we decided to cover the bed with a double layer of enviromesh. Enviromesh isn't expected to offer much protection against frost but we are hoping that it helped. It certainly was better than nothing.
Another candidate for protection was the newly planted out kiwi berry - Issia. You may remember that soon after planting frost burned and shriveled all it's leaves. New leaf buds had just started to develop and so we decided to cover that too with a double layer of enviromesh.
Everything else was left to fend for itself. I'm sure that the newly emerging peas will have survived.
We did have cold weather at the end of last week but the temperatures didn't fall quite as low as predicted so hopefully not too much damage will  have been done.

We hope to get to the allotment this afternoon so we will see!

Our harvest last week was miniscule.
30 April
The cauliflower and small cabbage above made up our total usable harvest. We did cut another cabbage later in the week.
2 May
Unfortunately as I peeled back each layer of leaves it became apparent that all this was good for was the compost heap.

I guess this week's harvest will be limited to rhubarb so it's a good job that we have peas, green beans and red cabbage in the freezer to tide us over.



This week I am embarrassingly linking to harvest Monday hosted on 

Dave's blog Our Happy Acres


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32 comments:

  1. Your weather is the same as ours at the moment and it's very cold today as it's so cloudy. It's a real shame that weeds don't suffer from frost!

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    1. Isn’t it just, Belinda? If only it killed bindweed.

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  2. Weather is a fickle thing. Good job on the preparations.

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    1. The environment will have to come off today, tpals as wind is forecast.

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  3. I rigged up the roll of silver insulation stuff onto the rafters of my greenhouse just in case .For me it was that annoying situation where the chilly North wind blew ,but the sun still shone and the greenhouse was getting too hot , but if I opened the greenhouse windows they would be in danger of being torn off by the wind ! Anyway...all is well here . Enjoying all your pictures and seeing what you're doing :)

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    1. Thar is always a problem with greenhouses isn’t it. Debs especially when it is sunny and windy during the day and cold at night.

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  4. Looks like a slow week before a weekend warm up. I deployed fleece over the two rows of spuds I have that are up. As it is hardy Epicure and the frost didn't quite materialise I am hopeful that all is well so far. Also had the paraffin stove on in the greenhouse for a couple of nights.

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    1. We don’t have any heating in the greenhouse, Mal. We used to use fleece on the allotment but the wind ripped it to shreds and if anyone had a fire the ash sparks burned holes in it.

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  5. Planting early - and even on time - these days seems much riskier these days than in the past. Hopefully your preventative measures were effective.

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    1. I hope things survived, Margaret. It wasn’t quite as cold as predicted. May is always a bit of a tricky month, It can go either way.

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  6. We've all been fleecing this week, I think all my stuff survived. I picked the last of my early cabbages this week too, gorgeous : All the best - Steve

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    1. Yes I guess the brassica bed can be cleared now, Steve

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  7. It's an ever increasing battle against the weather these days. We have yet more winds heading our way in a day or two, having not yet recovered from Storm Hannah. Wishing you good luck!

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    1. I guess it has always been so, Deborah. Good luck to you too.

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  8. Don't the weather gods know that it's May! Frost, bummer. The fickle weather event here was not unwelcome, it rained last night, rain is not unheard of here in May but it is unusual.

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    1. It’s not unheard of here for May to be cold, Michelle. At least we have had some much needed rain.

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  9. This seems late for a frost. Here we would call it a "blackberry winter". Sometimes it gets quite cool when the blackberries are flowering but no frost usually. That cauliflower looks mighty good.

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    1. It’s late, Lisa but not unheard of. May is a tricky month, it can go either way. There may be another cauliflower to pick.

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  10. I'm so sorry. Mother Nature sure likes to remind us who is in charge. Hope things rebound.

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    1. We shoulldn’t grumble, Bonnie compared to your weather we are spoiled,

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  11. It's been a bit of a shock to the system having frost warnings after all the gorgeous weather we had so early on.

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    1. I don’t suppose our weather should ever surprise us, Jo.

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  12. Those late spring frosts and freezes are always a challenge. Thankfully yours wasn't quite as cold as predicted!

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    1. It wasn’t, Dave but we daren’t risk it.

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  13. The weather certainly turned nasty after that lovely sunny Easter weekend. I'm amazed you have anything to harvest, it's all growing again which is always good to see.xxx

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    1. It’s a shock to the system isn’t it, Dina?

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  14. Gosh, we haven't had and late frosts. Seeing how much you've had to do to prepare for them, I feel quite fortunate

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    1. It wasn’t as bad as forecast, Julieanne but better safe than sorry.

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  15. I agree, weather is a fickle thing Sue. What frost are you expecting? we have no low temperatures here in North in May. But all my plants are in the greenhouse till now.

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    1. A frost was forecast for a couple of nights, Nadezda. It wasn’t as bad as predicted with temperatures of `2C at the lowest

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  16. Hope that everything is ok Sue. At least warmer weather is on the horizon for next week!

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