It may not feel as if we are heading into planting season at all, even though we are right at the end of March. It has just been so unbelievably wet with heavy rainfall for several months now, and it has set farmers back right across the country. Everybody is behind, struggling with waterlogged soil that is just not suitable for planting. Hardly any potatoes have gone in the ground, and fields are noticeably bare with little planting of even the tougher crops, like cauliflowers and cabbages. There have been crop failures too, winter crops that have suffered, like winter wheat.
We won’t be surprised if we do see some kind of food shortages later in the year. Don’t panic though, please…we really don’t all need to buy emergency potatoes and cauliflowers, or loo roll. These are only our observations, and there is still time to claw things back if we get a decent blast of sunshine and dryness soon. We’ll see.
Work With the Seasons
It is a good reminder to work with the seasons though. Farmers are waiting, even though they normally like to have potatoes in the ground by now. They know they will lose the crop if they plant while it’s so sodden. Too often, growers rush to plant things because it’s “the right time of year.” But that is not always the case. Late March this year is a very different kettle of fish to late March last year, and let’s not forget that first March lockdown when we had a long spell of uninterrupted sunshine.
So, how can you better work with the seasons when growing at home? Our simplest advice is to pay attention to the weather conditions and don’t plant out just because it’s ‘Spring’ or ‘Easter’ or even because it’s ‘April already.’ If there is sleet falling from the sky, if you’re still turning the heating on at night because it’s cold indoors, if you’re seeing frosts in the early mornings, if there are biting, forty mile hour, northerly winds – don’t plant out yet. Wait. Wait until the soil is warmer, the nights are warmer and the air is warmer. While you are waiting, you can temporarily plant plugs in bags of compost in a porch or a greenhouse, and don’t forget that you can ask us to delay your delivery as well. You’ll know it’s a good time to plant when you’ve switched off the heating, ditched the woolly jumpers indoors and stopped needing to wear coats when you’re out in the garden.
An Update from the Rocket Gardens Farm
While farmers are struggling to get their crops in the ground, we have the luxury (sort of – more on this below) of growing in polytunnels. Of course, these keep the seedlings protected from the elements, letting the sunlight through, keeping the rain off and sheltering the plants from wind, frost and snow. Our polytunnels are unheated, which means they’re not as warm as many large-scale growers, but we like to keep things natural, and all the water is from our own on-site mini reservoir (which as you can imagine has collected quite a lot of rainwater this year!)
So, since we are able to crack on in spite of the weather, we have seedlings coming up quite happily, and we’re sowing more each week to keep a good supply of plug plants through the next few months. The only downside is that it is difficult to keep the polytunnels covered in winds as strong as these. We replaced a few last week, only to be hit by strong winds again this week. It can be time consuming, but we do what we can, and hope for the best!
The other thing we can never predict, is when something will get into the polytunnel and have a nibble – we’ve lost whole blocks of seedlings before to mice, pigeons and rabbits. Cheeky!
But things are looking good this year, and we are still confident that we’ll be able to start shipping at full pelt from mid-to-late April, with one or two things available a little sooner than that too. If you have an order with us, you will be sent an email to confirm when your plants are scheduled for delivery, so please keep an eye out for messages from us.