You can’t rush nature!

It was exceptionally hot in the month of April in both 2010 and 2011. And that was when I started putting together an allotment  calendar, to tell me what jobs need doing when.  Unfortunately, the April of 2012 was very cold, followed by several weeks of cold wet weather in early/mid May (nature’s response to our hosepipe ban). 

I was seduced by the warm springs in the last 2 years and put my plants out too early this year, as my calendar dictated.  It was a disaster. My carrots and parsnips refused to come up. My beetroot transplants just sat there doing nothing, miserable and blue.  Brassica seedlings that I took from the conservatory to the greenhouse, were too tender to survive April frosts.  The early cabbage and cauliflower plants that I bought in to replace the casualties turned blue and just sat there in the cold wet soil, sulking.  My neighbour planted out his runner beans mid-May, as he has for the last 2 years, and is now having to re-sow.

There is a huge tree in the middle of the allotment site, and I’m very happy that I don’t have to garden where it’s effect can be felt. Kevin, a long-term allotmenteer on our site, told me something another old boy, long gone, told him about the tree many years ago. It was: “Nothing will start growing until you can see leaves on that old tree.” And he’s absolutely right.

Last year the tree started showing leaves at the end of April. This year, however, I couldn’t see any green on it until late May, a good 3 weeks later.

And suddenly everything started growing! The plants which were miserable and blue one day, started showing fresh green growth the next.  The carrots and parsnips which had been sulking under the soil until now, pushed through energetically.  And spring finally arrived!

So the lesson learned this year is: Be guided by the weather, not by the date! You can’t rush nature!