Warmth works

Courgettes and Dwarf French Beans

 We bought a heated propagator earlier this year. It costs tens of pence to run for the time it takes to encourage plants to germinate and it seems to have made a big difference to the germination rate for some seeds. The sweetcorn, dwarf French beans and courgettes have all come through quickly and completely. If anything they have come through so quickly that they are a bit early. They can go up to the greenhouse to gently strengthen for a few weeks, until the frosts are over; none of them would survive any frost at all.

Sweetcorn

The cold, wet weather continues. The ground is nicely soaked without being over done. The cold weather is holding things back a bit, but that is strengthening shoots and roots I think. As the amount of daylight increases plants respond and grow if there is enough moisture, though they may grow much faster if it is warmer. I'd like to see the spinach flourish, that is the next crop I'm eagerly waiting for and we have the next follow-on plants waiting to go out too.

The handful of strawberry flowers show they are trying to come on. They will withstand frost, but unripened fruit wouldn't. The much-damaged raspberry canes are all throwing out new shoots, but I do wonder if we will see any fruit this year. There are still stray raspberry plants appearing in a few places around the plot and I might yet transplant a few to be with the others to enhance our chances of fruit next year.

We are up-to-date with jobs, so we are just waiting for the best time to plant more young plants out.