Saturday 16 February 2019

Spring's Here ?

The last few days have been very mild for the middle of February and with the afternoon temperature on Friday reaching 15.8°C (60.4°F) it felt very spring like. That makes it our second mildest February day in the last 10 years only being beaten by 23 February 2012 with 16.6°C (61.9°F).
February High & Low Temperatures for 2019
However, there was a sting in the tail as early on Friday morning the temperature fell to -1.5°C (29.3°F).

With the pleasant early spring weather, at the allotment, we're getting on with a few jobs that need doing before the main planting season begins. So far February has been reasonably rain free and following on from a dry January it means our clayey soil is in good condition for digging over. This week one of our hazel trees was coppiced for pea sticks and bean poles.
The larger of the two trees was cut back and it will take it a couple of years to grow back to a similar size. The coppiced poles will be used for pea sticks and bean poles but will need some further trimming before they can be put to use.
At the moment the coppiced branches are all in a rather large pile on part of the allotment. The top more twiggy parts of each branch will be cut for pea sticks and the remainder will be used as supports for sweet peas or runner beans.
I'm hoping that we wont get a repeat of last year when the "Beast from the East" descended on us in March bringing exceptionally cold and snowy weather delaying the start of the growing season.

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