Just been to lottie and sure enough my french beans are all blasted by the cold weather which I sort of thought would happen. The sun was shining beautifully but I can barely move my hands now because they are so cold! In addition I had to get hosepipe out to water spuds, peas and onions because the soil was bone dry (even down 2" on my clay). When I thought about it realised have not had rain for 2 weeks....
Very odd weather - hope it sorts itself out into a nice warm summer.
It's been very strange. We had the first rain in weeks yesterday. Rained all afternoon and evening yesterday and the slugs were certainly enjoying that!
Before that the ground was bone dry - I planted an aquilegia (surprise, surprise) at the weekend and after digging down 6in the ground was still bone dry. (we're on clay too).
I'm hoping that we're not going to get all the year's rain in July and August like last year. Mr Aqui reckons it's going to be a hot dry one again. I hope he's right! (as long as we are still allowed to water the plants!)
Yeah i was thinking this last night i've picked a bad year for starting a lottie.
I think every year is a bad year to start an allotment. Can only get better as they say.
My first year, but a softie from the south.
Sorry Northerner, I have to disagree with you.
One of the great "joys" of gardening is remembering the adversities that you have coped with and still managed to produce an edible crop.
If all were sweetness and light, warm/hot days with sun/rain in the right quantites (and at  the right times)  during the summer with short sharp frosty spells in the winter to kill of the bad bugs, it would leave us with no excuses when crops are not as seen in the seed catalogues or on the supermarket shelves.
So be grateful and rejoice in adversity! Â ;)
Phil
so far cant complain
yes the weather has been mixed - what with the cold wind last week drying out everything. having said which - my potatoes which hadnt been watered for about three weeks were perfectly moist down there (i have one of those fancy hygrometers), as was all of my plot about an inch and a half down (clay too)
i have only watered the seed drills this last fortnight
it's certainly been cold though - of my 30 odd beans sowed a total of 5 have come up. i consider this a resounding failure. have started some off indoors but i must say the germination rate isnt phantastic!
must be something in the water this year...
svea
Phil but what if you don't produce edible crop? I'm pi--ed off because my chilli plants are near on dead,my marigolds and sunflowers have fed the local slug population and the rest of my toms haven't germinated. Deep joy. Oh and the spuds have frost damage.
It can't be worse than last year. The beginning of summer was so dry my veg just sat there doing nothing and I got no crop worth mentioning. I have GCSE marking in June and I didn't have a chance to get down and water. Then the latter part of summer was so wet the bees just went backwards and I ended up with next to no honey either.