seasons shifting ???

Being relatively new to SERIOUS gardening, I think that I am forgetting just how early we are in the TRADITIONAL gardening year, because of the unusual gardening conditions I'm not sure this year was the best year to embark on serious gardening. The weather conditions this year are a bit freaky, 26 degrees and as far as I can remember no significant rain for over a month. This is the third year now where we have had hot sunny weather very early in the year followed by a pretty rubbish summer. I am wondering at what point we as gardeners change our gardening habits .... if ten years down the line this pattern continues are we going to shift our gardening habits or are we still going to wait until mid may before we consider the risk of frost has passed. My runners have been outside for two weeks now and I planted the courgettes out yesterday and some tomatoes that had out grown their pots.....

Watering stuff is a major chore at the moment which makes the old adage of March winds April showers seems a bit wrong now....

How many of you have changed your habits or are you sticking to what was the norm twenty years ago.

Mrs Chopper

 

It's true, we do get 'freak' weather occasionally, just as we have for the past week or so, but I think in the great scheme of things, the weather - and thus gardening habits - tend to 'average themselves out'. I too remember snow in April, the winter of '62/'63 (or last winter for that matter), but I also remember spending hours holding a hosepipe, or walking about with watering cans because of a hosepipe ban. Sometimes, like now, things rush ahead because of the warm weather, only to come to a standstill later because it's turned colder. I've got main crop strawberries in flower, but there are some things I'm still keeping an eye on in case of frost - last week the night time temperatures were in double figures - in my area some of this weeks' night time temperatures are forecast to be as low as 4°C.

Overall, I suspect most gardeners do what they've always done, try to work with the weather, watering where necessary, protecting from frost and winds - the trouble with us humans is, we have 3 or 4 nice days and get used to it and expect/hope it will continue, whereas plants generally, take a more long-term view.

 

Hi Mrs Chopper

We still get frosts in august on clear nights, as many of us that have slept out under a blanket will testify to.

The ground should be warm enough to keep the plants safe by then.

Last frost down West Bay was a couple of weeks back & i'd not protected the spuds. Went down in the morning to find they had closed their leaves up against the cold & were fine as soon as the sun came out.

Planted out some Mizuna & Lettuce yesterday, watered it in and then put a mulch of wood chip down to conserve the water.

 

It's going to be a good summer here. My son being a fair weather biker (of the motored sort) has sold his bike recently. You could guarantee whenever he had the chance to ride it the weather was foul.
So now it has gone, we can look forward to some sun! :yess:

 

When I was at college early 1980's, we had a very 'old school' lecturer (didn't really seem to approve of girls doing gardening as I recall...but that's another story!) He was always telling us the most important thing in gardening was 'timeliness of operations. Not looking at a calendar, but looking at conditions. Digging before frost if possible, making a seed bed when the soil was friable and sowing when the soil had warmed up etc. He was always grabbing handfuls of earth and assessing the situation.
I think it is a balance between reading the conditions...but also sticking to a few basic rules too! However much this Easter hols is feeling like July, I think putting out tender half hardy plants before the end of May is an act of attempted murder!

There was something on telly the other morning, where some BBC gardener was planting up a container in three minutes...with geraniums etc! If we get some hard frosts now, any non gardeners who spent money following that advice will be put off for ever1

About five years ago, I FINALLY started using a few less hardy shrubs in gardens I planted for ppl, despite being taught these shrubs were not reliably hardy ...as the previous 20 years or so seemed to be disproving the theory. After three cold winters in a row..the last one being REALLY severe and prolongued, I have not replaced any Bay trees with the same!

 

I think its a human thing to want to tie nature down and try to make a pattern or sence of something that is basically random.
Having said that, I have noticed that the weather tends to follow cycles, hot dry is always followed by very wet, its just variable in how long it takes to make the change.
We could go hot and dry all summer, or it could end next month, but it will always balance itself out.