We've had plenty of rain this month and from planting and weeding last week I knew our ground was fairly wet, really on the limit for planting and sowing. The weather forecast for Sunday night and early Monday morning was for thunderstorms accompanied by torrential rain with 75mm (3in) falling in a matter of hours.
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| Broccoli - Rudolph & Cauliflower - Clapton |
We decided to pull out all the stops and get our remaining brassica plants into the ground. Any heavy rain was going to make our ground unworkable. Sue was in charge of planting whilst I sorted out the protection. On our plot it is pointless planting out brassica plants and leaving them uncovered as pigeon fodder. They've even taken to attacking our dahlia flowers this year. Some hoops were already in place for the broccoli and cauliflower plants but they needed erecting for a batch of cabbage plants going into a new brassica bed.
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| Cabbage - Kilaton |
Once planted all the plants were covered with environmesh. There was time to plant out some lettuce seedlings where winter onions and garlic had been lifted. Once again some protection measure had to be put in place using some coppiced hazel poles and old pieces of chicken wire.
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| Lettuce - Great Lakes, Mixed Varieties & Salad Bowl Onions Radar & Senshyu Yellow |
It was a busy afternoon but at least we'd got everything that was ready for planting out in the ground. Of course you can probably guess the punch line that is coming and that is, of course, that the thunderstorms and rain never materialised. We did have a little bit of overnight rain amounting to 0.6mm or 0.02in.
The forecast is for some hot weather this week which should see our hottest day of the year which currently stands at 24.6°C or 76.3°F dating way back to the 21st April. Of course the hot weather might turn out to be like last night's rainfall.
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Pigeons: bad new, Jackdaws: worse! They seem to take a delight in uprooting new planting. I saw one work his way along a row of onion seedlings, discarding them one after another. Having covered with fleece they have taken to tearing holes in the fleece!
ReplyDeleteI watch some sparrows pulling apart the string tying the runner bean poles together. Must be looking for nesting material for a second brood. Thankfully we haven't any jackdaws - yet!
DeleteI envy you the rain! In my region there are droughts now so it is very hard for people to keep their plants in a good condition. Every day together with my grandchildren we take watering cans and water plants so they have everything what they need. Especially I take care of my new seedlings that I bought this year. It is the first time that I grow pac-choi cabbage (I bought it here: https://gardenseedsmarket.com/bok-choy-pac-choi-joi-choi.html ) and I am waiting till it will be edible! I am very sorry for the pigeons that attack your brassica plants but maybe you will work out a solution for them? Or protection for these plants?
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