We're All In The Same Boat

BBC Radio Leeds reporter, Oli Woodcock visited our site early on Thursday morning to do a couple of roving reports for the Richard Stead Breakfast Show. The Breakfast Show item was how the extremely poor weather was affecting vegetable growing in Yorkshire. This involved having a chat with allotment holders, that was us, who grow vegetables because that's what we enjoy doing and then to a farmer who grows vegetables for a living. It's clear that it's a struggle to get crops in the ground due to the cold and wet weather this spring.

Thursday was showery all day and of course it managed one of its heaviest showers as we did our second little segment at around 08:00. I've included the video of the BBC Radio Leeds visit below.

We decided to head home, when BBC Radio Leeds left, to see if the weather would improve in the afternoon. It seems quite incredible that last Thursday we were basking in hot summer temperatures and this Thursday it was back to big winter coats.

The Tale of Two Thursdays

We did make it back to the plot in the afternoon and managed to sow a couple of rows of Onward peas. Fortunately, I'd managed to get this bed prepared before the latest spell of wet weather.

Last year's pea sticks were moved from their winter storage spot on this year's brassica bed and placed over the rows of newly sown peas to act as a deterrent to cats, dogs or foxes which seem to delight in investigating freshly cultivated soil.

I did test three beds that are waiting their turn to be dug over and they're certainly too soggy and will need a few days of decent weather to dry them out a little bit. The only bed that we've got left, that's ready for planting up, is our early brassica bed and then we're going to have to wait for some drier weather to arrive to get more beds dug over. As I'd earlier cleared the brassica bed of over wintering pea sticks, I took the opportunity to get some supports erected and the environmesh cover in place. If the weather continues to be showery I'll be able to plant out our brassica plants without the worry of getting the environmesh in place to protect them from the wood pigeons. One night is all they need to decimate a crop if they take a fancy to it.

Friday has started off on a damp note. It's forecast to rain all day. So far we've had an hour or so of very light rain. It's not been enough to register on my rain gauge but just enough to keep the ground wet. The forecast for the next few days isn't that promising either.

Copyright: Original post from A Gardener's Weather Diary http://ossettweather.blogspot.co.uk/ author M Garrett