Feeling needled

The weather at the moment is really needling us.  It’s conspiring to hold up progress on the allotment. We went months when all it seemed to do was rain and the ground was soggy and too wet to work. Now the tap has been well and truly turned off and the earth is on the verge of being too dry to work. Night temperatures are consistently plummeting to freezing and during the day we have latterly enjoyed warm sunshine.

All in all it is not conducive to raising seedlings or sowing and planting outdoors. Even the weeds are struggling.

The goosegrass above displays the reddish tints that indicate a plant is stressed. On the plus side, weed seeds are not germinating so beds that we have cleared are remaking weed free. If weed seeds refuse to germinate what chance have we in germinating carrots or parsnips?

We are having to water the plants that are already out there. The more tender seedlings are being transferred from the greenhouse to the kitchen on a nightly basis and seeds are itchy to jump out of the seed packets.

We paid one of our regular visits to Nostell Priory last week. It was a lovely day and from the photos below you would think everything in the garden was rosy. The sun was shining, the sky was blue and cloudless and greenery was transforming many trees and hedgerows.

Incidentally, the patch of bare earth in the distance in the photo bottom left was the location for what resembled a lake throughout winter and into March.

Ruby enjoyed running through the dandelions and this year even resisted snapping off the flower heads. 

In the garden and on the plot, tulips are providing splashes of colour.

I was pleased that the tulips planted in tubs a couple of years ago have performed again but I’m planning to plant them in the garden when they die down. Hopefully, I’ll feel safe enough to visit the garden centre and buy new bulbs later in the year.

Some garden plants appear to have shrugged off the frost better than others. Whilst the camellia flowers are untouched, the magnolia flowers are tinged with brown.

The blossom of the cherry tree planted in a pot in the garden has fared far better than that of the tree planted at the plot.

The open aspect on our allotment site gives less protection than in our more enclosed garden. I’m hoping that the apple blossom avoids being ruined by the frosts.

There is no shortage of willing pollinators. The area in front of our allotment shed is the site of many perfectly excavated holes made by solitary bees.

Seeds are being sown in the hope that shortly conditions will be more favourable and the night temperatures will climb. The forecasts indicate that we may have to wait a few more weeks before that hope is realised. I’m glad the potatoes already planted haven’t yet nudged their way through the soil. We planted more potatoes on Sunday, this time Apache and Osprey. Lots more tubers are waiting to be planted.

More beds have been prepared ready for planting but things are still looking very bare. Martyn, has been busily rotovating beds as I have managed to clear them. It’s a race against time before the ground becomes just too dry.

There is very little to harvest at present but we did manage to cut a red cabbage and another tiny cauliflower.

The red cabbages seem to be made of tougher stuff than their green cousins. They also appear to be less attractive to wood pigeons and white butterflies although as they are planted amongst the greens they are grown under enviromesh.

The weather wasn't the only thing needling us last week. We all had our second Covid-19 vaccination. Martyn was on Friday, my sister on Saturday and I had mine on Sunday. Now we need to hope that no mutations sneak in that can tolerate the vaccines.

As always in these uncertain times keep safe and well.

This I'm joining Harvest Monday on Dave's Our Happy Acres blog so I have linked to him this week  

Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett