A Slow Start. 22nd March 2018

It’s been a slow start to the growing season this year. We tried to get ahead of ourselves in early February by planting a few seeds in the back garden, inside plastic rings and covered with glass. This worked really well last year and by now we had lettuce ready to plant out, but the cold weather this year means that the seedlings are still only a centimetre high. We will probably have to buy some some lettuce plants to get us started.

Another problem is that part of our allotment land has been sold for building which means that we retain half of our plot but take on an overgrown patch which will become the other half. We have had some help with the digging over but at some point we need to re-organise our beds.

Seed potatoes are ready for planting (see photo) and broad beans are planted up and in our little greenhouse but the soil is still too cold and damp and seeds and potatoes won’t be happy outside unless we get a little warmer weather. We used to live opposite a farmer who grew his own vegetables and every year we tried to get an early start by getting crops in the ground early, whereas the farmer left his until much later. Inevitably his crops caught up with ours and were often better quality as they hadn’t been out in the cold getting stressed.

We never cease to stop learning as growers and this year we are having a severe lesson in patience and resisting the temptation to plant out too soon.