All the plants on the plot went on strike this month to protest against the poor growing conditions. Until the weather improved they just refused to make any growth.
Seedlings that had popped their heads through on the plot just refused to come out of the ground any further. Those plants that attempted to defy the weather were punished.

Strawberry plants, flowering prolifically were prevented by the frost from setting fruit. Potato shoots that we just couldn’t earth up quickly enough were badly frosted; the frosts even nipped back some of the shoots of a rosemary shrub Our excitement at the sight of flower buds on the kiwi turned to dismay as its leaves were devastated. Flower buds that offered such promise still seemed to be in tact and survived the onslaught so will possibly go on to produce fruit – just one kiwi freshly picked from our own plant would be enough to satisfy!
Bushes in the gooseberry and currant family and the cherry have set fruit, while bees braved the cold conditions and seem to have successfully pollinated the blueberries and apples.
Fortunately as May progressed the weather cheered up and so did the plants. For a few brief days it seemed that we were in the height of summer. Potatoes recovered and produced fresh new growth and new felty leaves began to re-clothe the kiwis.
Our attention turned to ensuring that our newly invigorated plants didn’t run short of water.

Broccoli and cabbage provided us with fresh vegetables and a few over-wintered spring onions were added to our salads. A highlight was when we noticed that our cauliflowers had produced much anticipated white curds. Anticipation has turned to disappointment in the past and so this event was all the more special. Not only did we enjoy fresh cauliflower but we even had some to give away.

After holding back from planting and sowing until conditions improved, we started again in earnest, planting out brassicas and more broad beans. To give the plants a good start in the exceptionally dry soil, we filled each planting hole with water before placing the plants in there.
As the ground is very dry and hard, it is difficult to hand weed. Turning over the earth dries it out even more so most of the weeding has been courtesy of the hoe. Small weeds chopped off at ground level soon dry out on the surface. Care needs to be taken not to chop off young plants or some fairly surprising welcome ‘weeds’. We always have a few volunteer potato plants which have grown from tiny tubers inadvertently left in the soil but this year we seem to have young lettuce plants coming up in all over the plot. Lettuces that had gone to seed last season must have self sown and despite the poor conditions over winter germinated and are producing healthy looking lettuces. Had we directly sown lettuce seeds and left them to over winter I doubt that we would have had any success. Nature has its own way of doing things!

You can read my full diary from Green Lane here.

Sue

5:41 pmin allotment, fruit, vegetables by admin Comments Off