Kitchen Garden Forum

we had a hard frost sunday morning but its back to damp and blowy this morning.... not actually raining at the moment... but could start anytime.

Time to start thinking about sowing my pepper & chilli seeds soon if I want an early outdoor crop. My overwintered chilli plants have flowered & cropped but sadly the whitefly has overtaken them now so I'll have to start from scratch again.

Am rather glad I didn't manure my vegetable patch and bean border in the autumn as all the rain and melting snow would surely have leached many of the nutrients out.I'd like to get it done soon but the ground is simply too sodden at the moment and I'm worried we might still have more snowfalls to come.

Looks like parts of the North of England could have a hose pipe ban this summer as water levels in resevoirs are well below normal levels for this time of year. Where does all the rain & snow disappear to? I suppose that as the population is rising, water consumption just goes up and up. Most of us are probably guilty of using water without thinking too much about it. If we had to walk to a well to lug it home or lived in the Sahara, we'd undoubtedly value it much more highly.

Hi Primrose, have you thrown your peppers out? Because I cut the tops down when the whitefly moved in and their new shoots are nice and clean with good strong growth.

I found the whitefly very bad in the greenhouse last year and am wondering how to tackle it this year. My problem is that I have quite a few things overwintering in there and so can't have a really thorough clean out and disinfect, and I try not to use insecticides on food plants. Common sense suggests that I take out all the ornamentals and treat them and start afresh, but in practice I don't want to get rid of them.

The garden is much too cold to do anything yet even though it is raining hard today. The paths are so cold that the rain is freezing on them and they are absolutely deadly, and the ground is still frozen so the shallots will have to wait a bit longer before they go out.

I managed to salvage about half of my seed potatoes and ones for eating when I checked them over at the weekend. There were a lot of frost damaged ones which was disappointing, but not unexpected. I've never known it to reach such low temperatures for so long while I've been keeping gardening records, although I remember when I was at school in 1962/3 our pond froze to a depth of 10 inches in that cold winter, so I think that was similar to what we've just had.

Plum Pudding - yes I've now thrown the chillis out after I havested the small winter crop as the plants were really badly infected and all the leaves were dying. They didn't look worth trying to revive, even to somebody like me who relishes a challenge to try and keep plants alive. I also have a couple of attractivee red leaved decorative plants on my bay window sill where the chillies were which have also now become infected. I'm spraying them with warm soapy water in an attempt to keep the problem under control, but to be honest, I'm not hopeful. In the past I haven't found those anti-whitefly plastic hanging containers with little clips to hang on the plants terribly effective and am at a loss now to know what else to use. I may try using an aerosol anti-fly spray I've got lurking around somewhere, but am slightly asthmatic and using that in a living room would really be a last resort.

These whitefly are really hardy blighters. When I picked some Cavalo Nero over the Christmas period, they were still active on the leaves despite all the sub zero temperatures we've been suffering, so they must be relishing being in such a comfortable indoors environment.

About the low water level in reservoirs: in spite of our heavy snowfall twice in December, the whole month was abnormally dry (even heavy snow produces very little water!). I recorded just over 30mm and another weather buff in the village even less than that. Our annual total for 2010 was 946mm. In the last 11 years, only 2003 (813mm) has been drier. Hence, the possible water shortage.

Having said that, this week promises to be rather wet!

I guess if we're going to have plenty of wet weather we should have it early in the year when it will be of most benefit as I understand that once deciduous trees and shubs start growing their leaves again, much of the rainfall is absorbed by them and goes into producing new life rather than draining down into the soil and into the water collection systems.

Hello All

Wet, windy and cold here. A garage day rather than a garden or even greenhouse day.

Remember I'm a greenhouse newbie. The lettuces are (remarkably) growing, to the point of maybe taking a few leaves to eat. The carrots in a pot are looking purposeful (if you know what I mean, the roots are showing out of a 10" pot), and the pelargoniums have survived. All at a cost of around £6 over the winter according to the clever little device I have my heater plugged into. Greenhouse kept just above freezing. Thinking now about when to sow. Not yet awhile I think! Also thinking about the upcoming clash between bedding plants (not yet sown) being hardened off, and greenhouse plants (toms, cukes, melon, peppers, aubergines) being settled down for the summer. Space will be at a premium. Shelves? What about light?

Regards

Ian

Very wet and blustery here this morning, not looking forward to going to Wisbech in a while.

At the moment calmer and finer than the gales and heavy rain forecast for today. Let's hope it stays that way.

Better weather forecast for next week

I've just watched a collared dove in our garden wandering around picking up bits and pieces of what looked like nesting material. I can't believe it has been tricked into believing that the current milder weather we've been experiencing over the past few days is the beginning of Spring. On the other hand I suppose that after the pre-Christmas sub zero temperatures, they could be confused into believing it is. After all, they don't have calendars to check, do they?

I'm just wondering whether this milder spell will tempt any frogs out of hibernation earlier than they should be. I've been checking for frogs & frogspawn in my mini pond - no signs yet, but with rapidly contrasting temperatures over a short period, it's small wonder that wildlife is getting confused.

It is very wet and windy here today. I was pruning Apples yesterday and was surprised how large some of the buds are already. They must have reacted very quickly to end of the freeze. It is also surprising how green the grass is, I suppose the snow cover protected it from the worst of the frost.

Yes, I noticed too how much buds have fattened in the last couple of days...

..and "my" seed potatoes have moved too..from Scotland..and have arrived at work...

The park land grass looked frazzled one day and the next had signs of a green colour again...

Despite the wet we got a lot more Winter digging progressed this week, renewing ties on some wall fruit prior to digging.. Grappled with Fantasia the Blackberry so could dig past it.. it was pruned out last week and is now restrained onto its trellis once more. One day on Climbing Rose pruning/tying..as the weather was more conducive to string tying and holding on to aluminium access. Also this week, on a day when it was just to wet too stand on the land, the 15 year growth "disappeared" from the top of two Leyandii in a section of hedge..it's amazing..or not..how they had shot up whilst we had been busy on other things....

Windy here..and Dark..

Clive.

I have had a couple of trips out today...Anwick Garden Centre this morning.... I got stocked up on Shallots, Onion sets and a net of Premiere Potatoes.

Then this afternoon down to Johnsons Garden Centre near Boston..it was busy there.. and got Lady Christl, Vales Emerald, Kestrel and Valor Potatoes for Dad.
Railway crossings undergoing Sunday works so I had a couple of detours..but after a round trip of E. Lincs I called at work for a weekend check...and I see the Aconites have appeared out of nowhere...and the very first of the Snowdrops are in flower. ...

Clive.

Progressed a bit more Winter digging at work this morning....and then with the arrival of our coppicing enthusiast Volunteer we changed location and harvested some assorted sizes of Hazel sticks. The big rotary mower was out to trim down some Nettle remnant behind Hazels. Set very high to clear the Snowdrops that are just showing through in that area.
Hopefully back to open ground digging tomorrow....then it will be back to fiddly forking around Roses once more..

Clive.

Received my seed potatoes from JBA today, very pleased with the look of them and also the service.

Feels like the start of a new year, now.

Done an extra half day at the big house this morning, and the aconites and snowdrops are bursting into colour, with this little bit of sun to encourage them.