|
Post by wilbarra on Jan 7, 2016 18:22:26 GMT
AFTER ALL THE RAIN WE HAVE HAD IN THE LAST MONTH ONCE AGAIN THE DOOM AND GLOOM BRIGADE TELL US ITS TO DO WITH CLIMATE CHANGE AND ITS ALL OUR OWN FAULT WITH WHAT WE HAVE DONE AND ARE DOING AS FAR AS POLLUTION IS CONCERNED. AS I AM OLD ENOUGH TO REMEMBER THAT IN THE FIFTIES THE SAME KIND OF PEOPLE WERE TELLING US THAT IT WAS THE ATOM BOMB TESTING THAT WAS THE CAUSE OF THE CHANGE IN WEATHER PATTERNS AND THAT THE WORLD WOULD BE COMING TO AN END VERY SOON, I TAKE ALL THAT THESE PEOPLE SAY WITH A LARGE DOSE OF SALT. EVEN STEPHENSONS ROCKET WAS THE CAUSE OF THE BAD WEATHER IN CERTAIN PERIODS OF THE VICTORIAN ERA. OR SO THEY SAID! MY OWN BELIEF IS SIMPLY THAT THE SEASONS ARE CHANGING AND HAVE BEEN DOING SO FOR MANY YEARS. WE DO NOT SEEM TO GET ANY WINTER WEATHER UNTIL JANUARY. ALTHOUGH RAIN WISE THIS DECEMBER WAS EXCEPIONAL IT WAS MORE LIKE AN AUTUMN MONTH THAN A WINTER ONE. A GLANCE AT GARDENING BOOKS PRE AND DURING EDWARDIAN TIMES AND IN THE MAIN THEY WILL TELL YOU THAT SEEDS SUCH AS PARSNIP, RADISH AND TURNIP CAN BE SOWN IN FEBRAURY. LATER IN THE TWENTY AND THIRTIES, BOOKS ARE SUGGESTING THAT THESE SEEDS SHOULD BE SOWN END OF FEBRAURY BEGINNING OF MARCH. WHEN I FIRST HAD ALLOTMENTS THE ONLY SEED YOU WOULD EVER TRY IN FEBRAURY WAS PARSNIPS,THE REST YOU LEFT TILL MARCH. NOW MOST PACKETS OF SEEDS WILL SAY MARCH OR APRIL ARE THE BEST MONTHS. ALL THROUGH THE LAST CENTURY RECOMMENDED SEED SOWING TIME SEEMS TO HAVE GOT LATER AND LATER. AND PLANTING AND SOWING TIMES ARE TASKS THAT WE SEEM TO DO A LOT LATER THAN OUR GRANDFATHERS DID WHICH TO MY MIND MEANS SOIL WARMING HAS GOT A LOT LATER TO COME AROUND THAN IT DID A HUNDRED YEARS AGO AND THAT THE SEASONS HAVE CHANGED. ANY THOUGHTS .
|
|
|
Post by Stuart@AmericaLane on Jan 8, 2016 7:55:08 GMT
Before I seriously got into gardening about 5 years ago I don't think I paid that much attention to the weather. Now days I am obsessed with it. Since I have had my plot we had a year where it didn't rain at all and the country was in crisis as we were running out of water. There was talk of piping it down from Scotland. Eventually the council enforced a hosepipe ban on the plots and then it started raining and has hardly stopped since. In the last 5 years we have also have cold spells with deep snow so the fact that we have had a particularly warm winter this year so far doesn't mean that is how it is going to be again next year. My view is that there is a whole lot more going on to influence the weather than what we humans do. The planet will go on long after we have burnt ourselves out. I guess the challenge is to adapt to the growing conditions each year. All the stuff in books and on packets is a very general guide. We have to look around us, see what the weather is doing and work with it.
One thing that does occur to me is that, as much as the weather, how stuff grows depends just as much on light and the number of daylight hours. If the growing season is shifting we can sow and plant later but once the days shorten later in year many crops stop or slow down. So I think the biggest difference now to growing in the past is that we may have to start far more crops off under cover or in pots and then plant them out when the weather is suitable. If we wait to sow direct we may not get a long enough growing season. Or at least do a bit of both to improve our chances of success. There wasn't much that I sowed direct last year. Parsnip, Carrot and Swede. Pretty much everything else I started off at home in pots and planted out once the soil dried up. Also with a mild winter it gives them a better chance against the pests that haven't been killed off as much as they should have been.
Well that is what I say now. What do I know? I've only been doing it a few years. Ask me again in 5 years time and I'll probably say something completely different. Every day in the garden is a school day.
|
|
|
Post by wilbarra on Jan 10, 2016 12:40:50 GMT
AGREE WITH YOU STUART ABOUT THE FACT THAT THERE ARE GREATER FORCES THAN HUMAN ONES THAT CAUSES CHANGES IN CLIMATE. THAT WAS ONE OF THE POINTS I WAS TRYING TO MAKE, ONLY YOU PUT IT MUCH BETTER. MY MAIN POINT THOUGH WAS THAT SEASONS COME LATER THAN THEY DID A HUNDRED YEARS AGO, OR EVEN FIFTY YEARS AGO. AS YOU SAY, INFORMATION ON PACKETS OF SEEDS AND IN BOOKS ARE FOR GENERAL USE BUT MY POINT IS THAT GENERAL INFORMATION HAS SLIGHTLY CHANGED FROM THE INFORMATION THAT WAS GENERAL IN EARLIER TIMES. IN "SUTTONS THE CULTURE OF VEGETABLES AND FLOWERS", THE RECOMMENDED SOWING TIMES OF BOTH VEGETABLES AND FLOWERS ARE,IN A LOT OF CASES,DIFFERENT IN THE VICTORIAN EDITIONS THAN THEY ARE IN THE NINETEEN THIRTIES EDITIONS. ALWAYS LATER IN THE YEAR IN THE THIRTIES EDITION THAN THE VICTORIAN ONES. I MYSELF HAVE KEPT AN ALLOTMENT AND WEATHER DIARY SINCE 1947 (APART FROM THE TIME I WAS DOING MY NATIONAL SERVICE) AND LOOKING INTO THESE I SEE THAT I MYSELF WAS REGULARLY SOWING CERTAIN SEEDS EARLIER IN THE FIFTIES THAN I DO NOW. I THINK THAT,BECAUSE THIS IS SUCH A SLOW PROCESS,IT IS NOT NOTICED BUT LOOKING at things i wrote in the FIFTIES DECEMBER WAS A MUCH COLDER MONTH, ON AVERAGE, THAN IT IS NOW,WHEREAS MARCH WAS WARMER THAN IT IS NOW. SO TAKING AS A ROUGH GUIDE WHEREAS DECEMBER USED TO BE THE FIRST MONTH OF WINTER IT IS NOW THE LAST MONTH OF AUTUMN. THIS IS NOT A NEW PHENOMENON AS FAR BACK AS ROMAN TIMES JULIUS CEACER INTRODUCED THE LEAP YEAR AND LATER POPE GREGORY IN TUDOR TIMES I BELIEVE, GAVE US THE CALENDAR WE BASICALLY GO BY NOW, THE GREGORIAN CALENDAR. BOTH DESIGNED TO COUNTERACT THE SHIFT IN THE SEASONS. WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN TO US GARDENERS? WELL BASICALLY IT MEANS: USE YOUR OWN JUDGEMENT AND INSTINCT IT WILL USUALLY BE BETTER THAN A CERTAIN SO CALLED TELEVISION EXPERTS
|
|
|
Post by wilbarra on Jan 17, 2016 8:18:47 GMT
well the frost and snow has arrived and people that have got there plots dug over will now be benifitting from it, with the frost getting into the ground and killing off all those slug eggs and the like. also the frost and the snow will be doing the job of breaking up the soil for you,instead of you having to break it up yourself in the spring. something you dont get when the uncultivated ground is covered over with membrane for the winter. looking back i can well recall farmers rushing to get on the ground and ploughing the first sprink ling of snow into the ground. they used to say "a sprinkling of snow is worth a load of manure" i myself have never been frighten of digging the frost in at this time of year. its when you get late frosts that you want avoid doing it.
|
|
|
Post by Stuart@AmericaLane on Jan 18, 2016 16:56:10 GMT
It is good to get some proper cold weather at last rather than constant rain. Fortunately I had managed to dig over the bed that I intend to plant the potatoes in this year. I did go down at the weekend to try and dig over another but I was only able to get there early and it was way to hard for any digging so that will have to wait.
|
|
|
Post by murrayc on Jan 20, 2016 15:07:43 GMT
Back on the forum for the first time this year, and indeed for most of December as well - a combination of the awful relentless rain and some car problems that prevented us from getting to the plot. The car probs still persist but are getting closer to being resolved now so we should be down soon to take stock of what the win dand the rain have left of the the broad beans, the onions and garlic, the kale and broccoli that we last saw in early December.
As both wilbarra and stuart have said, it is good now to finally get some crisp cold weather to kill off the bugs and break up the soil. I am painfully conscious that I still have a good-sized heap of muck that needs spreading, and hope to get it down soon. I agree with wilbarra from my own recent experience that digging over the late autumn and letting the muck leach into the soil has provided a wonderfully rich and fertile soil that makes spring preparation much easier. I know that others have different methods, and looking at America Lane site overall I'd guess that at least 50% go for the covered-over approach, whether to prevent weeds or to keep the soil firm. We did start off that way 5 years ago but it didn't really do much: it seemed that when the covers came off the weeds would still be there or come through very quickly and we still had to bring in muck or other fertisilers - and it is so much easier to have it delivered in the autumn, there to be used when needed.
|
|
|
Post by wilbarra on Jan 21, 2016 10:57:11 GMT
Spent a few days away last week in Hayling island and got into conversation with two local couples who had allotments near Portsmouth. Seems they have been getting the same sort of weather we have and they too have had difficulty in getting onto their plots but they were divided in their opinion of whether it is best to get the digging done or whether it is alright to put membrane down. It was interesting to note that the one who put the membrane down forked the ground over first,he said he put the membrane down to stop any weed appearing during the winter months. So the ground was being cultivated before the membrane went down. Evidently like on our site in america lane their are people who find that after taking up a plot they find there is a certain amount of hard work to getting it and keeping it up to a certain standard. their answer is to cover most of the plot with membrane and just do a little bit of it. They must have a more robust system of inspections on their site because when the plots are inspected the people doing the inspection not only make a note of when the membrane went down but look underneath to see if the ground has been cultivated. NOT A BAD IDEA. They also went on to talk of other people on their site and it seems they too have a wonderful collection of plot holders as you have on yours Mick Ended up getting an invite to spend a couple of days down on the site . Think i will keep that offer open until the weather gets better.
|
|
|
Post by Stuart@AmericaLane on Jan 21, 2016 14:15:21 GMT
Haywards Heath Allotments on tour! Love it.
|
|