Topic: Mud Glorious Mud!

[George the Pigman]

Well I haven't planted or sown anything it the allotment to date. Attempted to do some planting of onion and shallot sets and sow peas, broad beans, carrots and peas today but when I got there it was far too wet as it has been for the last 7 weeks here in Birmingham (We have clay soil). Cold too. We had a sharp frost only a few days ago. Never known such a cold March and April. Combined with the rain its made planting and sowing very hard. at this rate the spuds will be going in at the end of May!!! Others on the site are also well behind.
How's everyone else doing??

[Harry]

Well I haven't planted or sown anything it the allotment to date. Attempted to do some planting of onion and shallot sets and sow peas, broad beans, carrots and peas today but when I got there it was far too wet as it has been for the last 7 weeks here in Birmingham (We have clay soil). Cold too. We had a sharp frost only a few days ago. Never known such a cold March and April. Combined with the rain its made planting and sowing very hard. at this rate the spuds will be going in at the end of May!!! Others on the site are also well behind.
How's everyone else doing??

Hi,
60 miles north of you. With decent soil which is starting to warm up. it's been a good couple of weeks for weeding and sowing. We didn't suffer that frost.
I'm still behind in sowing, which is really down to a lack of commitment more than bad conditions.
Weeds are sprouting nicely.

Seeing very little activity on neighbouring plots.

[Paulh]

80 miles south of Birmingham, clay soil. A lot of very wet days when the soil goes "squelch" if you just look at it, but also some dry and sunny ones.

Onions planted on 8 April and sprouting nicely now.

Potatoes went in on 16 April, I hope they will surface after any frosts.

Both a week or two later than some years.

I have lots of peas to plant out this weekend, then broad beans to follow. Tomatoes, peppers, chillies and winter squash going nicely indoors, will need to pot them on.

Then it wil be sowing summer squash, sweetcorn, beans: a week away at the end of May messes up the timetable a bit!

[JanG]

100 miles east of Birmingham. Silt soil. Fairly well draining. Conditions have been squelchy through some of April but managed to beat the squelch earlier in the month with potatoes, peas, broad beans, onions etc. Let’s hope for some warm and dry very soon. It’s not been the best of Aprils.

[Obelixx]

It's been cold here too and reasonably wet but not sopping.

Normally by now I'd have taken the citrus and fuchsia pots out of the polytunnel and stashed them along the south facing front of the house so I can clear the bed they've been on, add manure and plant out tomato babies but it's been too cold at night so far.   By May 1st the fuchsias andmints are usually ready to go round to the north facing terrace and the big ficus elastica and benjamina, scented leaf geranium, Xmas cactus and the oriental hibiscus join them.   Not this year.

Meanwhile, I have all those toms and chillies and trays of assorted brassica seedlings waiting to go outside along with the curcubits and sunflower seedlings.

Let's hope next week warms up enough or there'll be no room at the inn as I have more seedlings to pot on.......   

[Digeroo]

This is where my underlying gravel comes in very handy.  Normally it is like trying to grow in a sieve.  It is usually a case of water, what water?
I am going very well.  Mangetout snow peas, broadies, parsley, and shallots doing well.  I think the deer ate the carrots.  The blackcurrants are looking very happy. 
I do not think there has been enough sunshine to kick start the parsnips.  Planted out broccoli last week and it is looking good. 
It is so different from last year when we only had three or four very brief showers in April.  We were basically in a desert. 
Apple trees very happy too, lots of blossom.
We had quite a bad frost one morning this week, I had not realised how cold it would get.  But I had managed to throw some bubble wrap over my cold frame.  I was amazing at the amount of ice on it come morning, but it had protected everything including some dahlia seedlings.

[saddad]

Cold and wet, on clay here in Derby, but not that bad... have all the potatoes in, and just coming through. Onions in, but lost a lot of the overwintering ones to the waterlogging. 6 rows of peas in, started in the greenhouse in pots. Parsnips refusing to show.. sown in a raised bed 30th of March... sowed carrots yesterday in other raised beds, usually wait for the parsnips to show but fed up of the delay.

[George the Pigman]

Well it looks like you folks are doing better than we are on our allotment in Southwest Brum.
A lot of our problem is due to our underlying geology and altitude.
We are on what was the floodplain of an old river (River Rea) which is now just a stream nearby but used to be much larger many thousands of years ago so that gives us the clay soil. I have worked in lots of compost over the years but it still retains a lot of water.
We also have an underlying sandstone ridge which in places is quite close to the surface leading to surface water accumulating on it giving a high water table. Once one exceptionally wet spring and summer I remember seeing the potatoes literally floating in water in places. Needless to say most of them just rotted.
So excess water is a common problem on our site and takes a long time to drain away. On the other hand on the plus side we need to water less than if we were on sandy or gritty soil where the water drains quickly.
The other thing is we are on nearly the highest point of the Birmingham plateau at nearly 500ft so it gets colder than areas below it. I always find when I see predicted minus temperatures for Birmingham I know it will be a couple of degrees lower where we are.
However I have a greenhouse which is now heated so I have my tomatoes and peppers already pricked out and growing as are some brassicas. A drier spell forecast for this coming week so we will see what can be planted or sowed.