Today I will mostly be growing

The weather was lovely and warm last week with temperatures higher than normal with the thermometers hitting 17 degrees on Friday 4th April 2008, I was happy thinking my seeds will finally get underway with their growing, until today Sunday 6th April where the temperatures dropped off the scale at a frustrating minus 2 degrees centigrade.

Heres a picture of my snowy vegetable plot:

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Last week we endured the gale force winds and heavy rains, of which my mini greenhouse door snapped under the force of the wind and is currently being propped up. The heavy rain however did seem to help my peas, broad beans and cabbages put on a spurt of growth. I did manage to transplant a few of the tomato and calabrese seedlings that survived the onslaught of the weather and my clumsy handling.

I also couldn’t wait and sowed the rest of my tomato seeds last week and bought some more cucumber seeds (variety: marketmore) and sowed them as well.
Somehow in the wind I managed to tip up my tray of pepper seedlings, however I have saved most of them and sowed some more just in case the current ones don’t survive!

This weekend the wintery weather has continued with heavy snow showers here in Essex, it did settle briefly on my broad beans and then turned to slush.

Update on Raised Beds on Week 6

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Saturday 8th March and my bumper Seed Sowing Master Plan 2008 has been put into action by sowing the following into my back garden plots:-

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It is very interesting learning about how temperature and light levels affect the growth of seeds at this time of the year. As I have been working on my plot since last April I can now compare times of sowings and emergence of seedlings at different times of the year.

For example Radish seedlings.

4 Weeks Growth (April - May 07)

4 Weeks Growth (Feb - March 0

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Oh how different the weather has been last week and this week since my last posting where I said and I quote:
it is sometimes a risky strategy to start sowing this early in February due to there possibly being more frosts before March. How true so please take note!

I felt really sorry for my first sowings of seeds in the mini greenhouse as there has been frosts most nights. So sorry I brought them into the house and put them on a windowsill above a radiator. (more…)