For the most part Sunday was a lovely sunny day but the easterly breeze meant it felt pretty cold especially when the showers arrived some with hail mixed in for good measure.
Then with clear sky's overnight into Monday morning we had our coldest temperature of the year -2.4°C It’s not unusually cold for late March but we've been spoilt by a mild winter and we could do without a cold spell now the growing season is about to get under way. For the record the previous coldest temperature for the year -2.1°C was on 12 January 2014.
Our brassica plug plants have arrived from Marshalls. These have been potted on to grow on in the greenhouse and cold frame for a while before they are planted out on the plot. I still can’t say I'm over impressed by the quality of the plants but I'm hoping with a bit of luck we’ll get some early cauliflowers, cabbages and calabrese.
These are our 16 calabrese “Marathon” plants potted up in the greenhouse where they will remain to establish some new roots before moving to the cold frame to harden off. I use the term harden off as it the standard jargon in any gardening magazine explaining how plants need to acclimatise to cooler outdoor conditions when moved out of the greenhouse. The temperature fell to -1.5°C in the greenhouse on Monday morning so I'm wondering just how cold it has to get to harden them off!
Posts
Plug plants are never terribly impressive to start with are they, but hopefully these will take off and do well for you.
ReplyDeleteYou'd think I'd know by now that plug plants always arrive looking a bit worse for their journey but I think with a bit of care and attention that they'll be okay.
DeleteWe had some hail stones this weekend too. A bit cold, however some good sunny spells too.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you've had similar weather to us Kelli. It's been better today as we've avoided any showers.
Delete