Now we are into April we are hitting the sweetspot for sowing just about everything. Already in March the broadbeans and first early potatoes have been planted out.
The broadbeans were looking strong before and after planting out.
The potato variety is Epicure. We like floury potatoes and these fit the bill. Also they are about the hardiest potato variety known to me and will shrug off any frost damage. (Famous last words)
Looking at my recent posts you wouldn't think I was interested in gardening. To dispel that, here is the current state of play. As you can see these are outdoors during the daytime at least. Others have progressed from indoors to the protection of the greenhouse, newly vacated by hardier plants
Some other greenhouse crops are still in the dark on lower shelves of the greenhouse. Once they sprout they will be turfed outside too.
I had not reckoned on the protracted period of cold nights when I started sowing, but so far there have been no frost victims
And in case you are wondering I decided to have a go at growing onions and shallots from seed as well as the usual leeks. Early brassicas and some flowers (e,g, lobelia, marigolds and rudbeckia) also feature. After a long stint in the home nursery thank goodness I can soon move them on to the open garden, school and allotment.
The weatherman advises that the risk of frost is past! It's time to release those cramped plants from their night time confinement in the greenhouse. 20 cucurbits went off to the school garden today. More to the allotment over the weekend. Time to sow the sweetcorn. Time to reconfigure the greenhouse shelves for tomatoes and peppers and cucumber. Also the last impediment to direct sowing has been removed.
Cucurbits for the Allotment
Dwarf French Beans and Italian Climbers (Barlotti)
Peas and leeks at the ready
Brassica seedlings
A selection of flower seedlings itching to be released!
The song should be "Happy Days Are Here Again" but I have gone for something more contemporary:
All the alliums and other hardy veg has been moved to the path outdoors. And here is an unheated propagator with spring salads that gets the lid popped back on at night.
Everything is labelled
Up above I am delighted with the progress of my basil seedlings!
Living in Scotland I might be a bit rash growing frost sensitive plants so early in the year. The other side of the coin is that the short growing season means you have to make an early start to stand a chance of a harvest. It looks like this year I have got away with it. Tonight the temperature is set to drop to one or two degrees and I will be dragging everything I can fit into the greenhouse, shed and coal cellar for the last time. (The greenhouse gets the benefit of a paraffin heater if there is a threat of frost.) After that the minimum night temperature is set to be no lower than 4 degrees C until the end of the month. I will, of course be checking the forecasters don't change their prediction, but it looks like everything will left in the same place day and night hereafter. Just as well as there are more seedlings indoors under lights waiting to be pricked out.
The task of wheeling everything out each morning and back in each evening is a tiresome one
But if the weather forecast is correct it could be coming to an end: We are due to get a touch of frost tonight (Tonight's the Night) and then the night time temperature should be good for the next couple of weeks.
After lolling about in the doldrums at 6C or below for a week the temperature today has followed the following pattern
7am 7C
8am 8C
9am 9C
10am 10C
11am 11C
12noon 12C
1pm 13C
Unbelievable! And on the subject of bees. the bumble bees have woken up and are prospecting for nest sites. So far they have evaded my camera lens. Above is the best shot to date.
Here's the most uplifting song I can think of to reflect the mood:
Edinburgh temperatures are due to abate for a day or two (with even the promise of double figures tomorrow!!!) before another spell of nigh time frost threatening again. I took the opportunity to clean the greenhouse glass this morning, because a paraffin heater keeps off the frost but the payoff is a coating of soot on every surface. After three or four nights the greenhouse looks more like a blackhouse and light levels are markedly lower. So I have emptied it out and given the windows a good clean. Not having any covering lid these cauliflowers are decidedly mottled with a film of smuts! They are out in the fresh air and sunshine today.
Fleece is wonderful at trapping smuts! I won't be reusing this bit.
The temperature here has just gone sub zero for the third night in a row and I have again deployed the paraffin heater in the greenhouse. My personality has changed recently because now I have always got half an eye on the thermometer. I've been a bit apprehensive about the temperature.
-0.7 C registered on the outdoor thermometer last night. Ice on cars this morning. Like a punctuation mark at the end of a sentence we had our first frost of the season. So it is goodbye to these Bishop of Llandaff dahlias that have been so stunning by the front door all this summer.
I will of course attempt to dry them out and store over winter, but the greenhouse temperature was down to 0.6 C and the shed was down to 0.9 C so I am not sure I will find a suitable home for them.
With the forecast for frosty snap overnight it was time to deploy my new weapon in the greenhouse. Since buying this bizarrely shaped heater and 4 gallons of paraffin in March the weather has been uncharacteristically benign in Edinburgh (no frost and also not much by way of rain). But we know there is always going to be a frost in April and even one in May so we were ready!
Paraffin Heater
It's only a small greenhouse but I crammed everything I could in, Everything down to and including tomatoes:
Stage Right
Stage Left
It was a bit of a kerfuffle setting it up for the first time and I even managed to drop the wick into the paraffin reservoir while trying to adjust the setting of the flame in accord with the (impossible to follow) instructions. Still I got it lit and it kept the temperature up. Success! I was even a bit gleeful that the outside temperature dropped to -2C in our garden. The greenhouse minimum temperature was +6.3C.
Now in keeping with tradition I need a name for the new toy piece of kit. Any suggestions?
Mind you achieving this particular goal has left me on a high. The weather has been ... unfavourable, but I had to do something with my Christmas shopping days off work.
One remnant of the old rotation still clinging on in the middle of the new soft fruit area is parsnip:
They've certainly had their required frosting!
A substantial part of the soft fruit is already in the right place, but I will have to relocate or replace the raspberries. The blueberries already have their own pool of acidic soil and their own cage so i won't be moving them.
Height, Tanya - 6ft 6 inches but the ground slopes so it's 7ft on the other side.
