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The New Season/ Winter Problems.
Back in 1975 I was an 18 year old just leaving School and I seem to
remember that we had much colder and snowier Winters then in the 70’s
and through the 80’s than we do now.
On leaving School I started work first as a Bank Clerk and later a Sales
Representative working in the garden Centre Trade. According to CoPilot
my memories of snow and ice are true and I remember one year in
particular when we had a snow flurry in June! I think it was 86 and by
then I was selling Goldfish from outdoor Tanks at my Parents Garden
centre. You couldn’t say that we even had a sprinkling of snow though as
it was only a very brief flurry, but Buxton, a higher and more exposed
Town, actually had some of its roads temporarily blocked with Snow and
it was worse further north in the country! It might have been that year,
but one year we had a late frost that took everybody’s Runner Bean
plants. How word spread I don’t know as we didn’t have social media back
then, but we had people coming from miles around to buy the Seed, from
my parent’s little garden centre, to re-plant, as my Mother had over
stocked on seed and nobody else had got any!
However, I do remember the Winter of 2010-11 when we had exceptional
snowfalls through some of November – December. In fact, it was a special
year for us here on the Allotments because it was the 17th May 2011 that
was the official opening day for our Allotments!
That was 15 years ago and we have had one or two other snowy years since
the Allotments started as in the next Winter of 2012-13 we had repeated
snow in January and on and off through to March.
2017-18 saw the “Beast from the East,” when we had another cold blast in
late February that went on through to early March with some quite heavy
snow. Since then, we have only really had spells of a few colder nights
and days in Winter with nothing very prolonged. Indeed, we have become
used to such mild Winters it was a surprise early one January morning
this Winter when, after an unexpectedly cold night, I found the door on
my Heated Greenhouse frozen shut! As we are still only in February, we
can expect a few more cold nights, but it won’t be long now before I can
start Seed sowing in earnest. Last year we had an early and dry Spring,
followed by a hot, and for the most part dry, Summer. What we will get
this year after a wet Autumn/Winter and the wettest January on record, I
don’t know. Last Season some things coped well with the Weather and
others didn’t, but it is always the case that some things do well some
years and others don’t. What grows well is different every year which is
why I often say to new Plot Holders that you are best to grow a variety
of things so that you will always have some successes.
With this in mind, it might be early in the New Season still, but there
are things that can be sown now. Onion Seeds should already be in, in a
warm place to get them going and other vegetables such as Spring Onions,
Leeks, Brussels Sprouts and other Brassicas can go in soon as they need
a long growing Season as well. I put some Broad Bean seeds in trays in
my Greenhouse when there was a mild week forecast as some of the older
varieties of these can go in about now, but they don’t really need any
extra warmth. Indeed, if the weather is not too bad, they will even
germinate outside in the ground at this time of year. Seeds that do need
plenty of warmth and a long growing season include Peppers and
Aubergines. Some years I try Peppers and Aubergines, but they are best
in a warm Greenhouse and up until now I haven’t bothered much with
Brassicas because of Caterpillars. I have found a more interesting
alternative to Spring Onions and those are the Welsh Onions. These look
the same when harvested, but are a perennial, that grow in a bunch and
they will over winter after which you can harvest a few individual
Onions from the growing bunch quite regularly leaving some in the ground
to multiply up again.
It will be a few weeks yet before even the 1st Early Potatoes can go in,
but I found that some of mine were throwing out roots already when I
recently dug them up. I had of course left them in too long and the
relatively warm, wet, winter weather was encouraging them to root back
in. Some that were near the surface had been frosted, gone soft, were
weeping and stank, but there were not many green ones. There were a lot
of Slugs in them though from the wet Winter. However, it was still a
surprisingly good crop. I hadn’t dug them up earlier because the Shops
were selling Potatoes at 5p a Bag before Xmas! I will make more of an
effort with them this coming year though because I am sure that prices
will go up with the wet Autumn that we had and if we have another hot
Summer, it may cause shortages.
The Autumn and Winter are good times to plant Trees of any sort,
especially “Bare Root” that are generally much cheaper than Pot Grown.
Also, of course if they are “Bare Root,” they are free of Pots and so
can be posted to customers much more easily giving you an opportunity to
buy trees from a wider range of suppliers on-line and by mail order and
therefore making it possible to buy less common varieties. Having said
that, I recently went to a local Garden Centre where I was delighted to
find a fantastic range of Fruit trees that they had just had in. I was
particularly taken with a Sweet Chestnut and Walnut that were both “Pot
Grown.” Being in Pots they were not cheap at about £60 each, but I was
very enthusiastic as I had a space on my Allotment, for a Tree, that
wanted filling. A £50 voucher that I still had to spend brought the
price of one down very nicely, so the Chestnut was sold! After planting
it on my
Allotment I thought about the Peach Tree in my Garden at home that I had
removed last year because the top had died back leaving just the “Root
Stock,” growing. That gave me another suitable spot for a Tree,
consequently, without any more need for persuasion, a couple of days
later, I took a trip back to the Garden Centre where I was pleased to
find that the Walnut was still there, so that was sold as well! I do
have a number of Tree Seedlings growing on in Pots, including Sweet
Chestnut, on my Plot, but they will take some years before they will
Fruit and if you can, it is always better to buy Grafted Trees. Yes,
they are a lot more expensive and perhaps not quite so much fun as
growing one from Seed, but they will fruit a lot more quickly as they
should be almost mature when you buy them. Also, they will be Grafted
onto a “root Stock,” that will control their growth – usually making
them into smaller, more manageable trees. “Bare Root,” Fruit Trees will
still usually be Grafted, but if you plant them in the depths of Winter
you need to do it when there is no Frost about, whereas, Pot Grown Trees
can be planted at pretty much any time. However, it is still better to
plant any Tree when it is Dormant and without Leaves to reduce the
stress on the Tree. Never try planting any Tree when it is hot though,
especially in the Summer, and if the ground is dry.
As I said I put in some Seeds/Nuts of various trees a while ago that are
growing on nicely into small Trees now, but back in the Autumn I put in
another batch at the Charity where I work and after sowing I put the
Seed Trays on the Floor of the Propagation Greenhouse to germinate. A
week, or two ago I thought that I had better water them to prevent some
of the Nuts from drying out, which would prevent germination, and when I
looked, I could see little Holes where Mice had burrowed into the Trays
to get at the Nuts. When we tipped them out, we could see half eaten
shells in the Trays with the Nut Colonels gone! We have had problems
with mice nesting in the warm greenhouse before, but I never gave it a
thought when I put the Nuts in.
I think that I am going to have a similar problem with my Hügelkultur
Bed, but not with Mice so much as Rats! Basically, the Bed, or Mound of
Compost is built on a pile of old Wood be it Branches, or old Boarding
and as we all know Rats like piles of old Wood! So, when I looked at the
Mound a few weeks ago, I was not surprised to see little Rat holes all
around the base of it! As I intended to grow Squash and Courgettes on
it, which can be prone to attacks from Rats and Mice anyway, I don’t
know how successful it will be! On another note, the Hügelkultur mound
has sunk much more than I expected, so I can understand why the
instructions were to make it so tall. My traditional English Compost
Heap is coming on next to it and getting bigger every week. Hopefully,
when Spring comes, which won’t be long now, I can plant them both up to
see what comparable results they produce.
 
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