It's like gardening in January

Well we’ve been to the allotment this week and got a few things planted but I’m not entirely sure that what we’ve planted will grow. Sue covered the jobs we got up to at the allotment on her blog, so if you’re interested in what we planted have a read of her blog post.

My concerns are twofold. Firstly, it’s been unseasonably cold, with early morning temperatures well below freezing. Secondly, it’s now over a month since we had any rain to speak of. These conditions certainly don’t make good gardening weather.

We’ve just finished a spell of seven consecutive mornings when the temperature has been below 0°C or 32°F. That would be quite a cold spell through the winter months let alone April. The last couple of mornings haven’t been much above freezing at 0.1°C and 0.0°C respectively. Out of the first 19 days this month, 9 days have been below 0°C and a further 7 days have been below 3.0°C meaning we’ve had a ground frost on 16 of the 19 days this month. That's resulted in an average low temperature for the month of 0.4°C for the first 19 days of the month.

Average Low Temperatures December 2020 to April 2021

Amazingly, April's average low temperature really is lower than any of last year's winter months.

However, the days have generally been sunny even if temperatures have been below average but I’ve had problems germinating seeds which I think is a result of the massive temperature fluctuations  between daytime and nighttime in the greenhouse. I’ve managed to germinate some tomato seeds in the house and these are spending the best of the sunny weather in the greenhouse but coming inside to spend the night in the kitchen.

There's no real change in the forecast. Some milder weather is forecast for the next few days but a return to cooler weather with more overnight frosts is on the cards for the end of the month and the beginning of May. There doesn't appear to be much rain if any in the forecast before the end of the month. So far this month our rainfall amounts to just 1.6mm (0.06in) which will make it the driest month I've recorded in 12 years. However, it will only take a light shower to change that as the record currently is 2.4mm (0.09in) in April 2011. 

I'm rather reluctant to sow any more seeds at the moment. Whilst it's easy enough to germinate them indoors I'm not sure they'll cope in our unheated greenhouse with temperatures falling to around freezing point most nights. 

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