The Waiting game

Waiting is definitely the order of the day for gardeners in the UK at present. We are waiting for Spring - perhaps even for Summer. The early part of 2012 has seen some very odd weather patterns: the warmest March for ages; the wettest April since records began, and now the prospect of the coldest May ever. In common with many other gardeners I have space in my plot which would normally be full of vegetable plants, but this year is not:

Two of my raised beds are to all intents and purposes empty. One has just 3 lettuces left in it; the other has one solitary Broccoli plant. In normal circumstances these would have been discarded by now to make room for new things, but this year they have been allowed to remain, since I dare not plant out the things I have waiting to replace them. It's just too cold and wet.

This is the last of my Swiss Chard, optimistically removed a couple of days ago to make room for the Three Sisters.

In the mini-greenhouses the Sweet Corn element of the Three Sisters languishes, constricted in its tiny 3" pots. I had hoped to get this in the ground at least 3 weeks ago, perhaps a month:

Next door to them are some of the Chillis. OK they won't go into a raised bed, but I would like to put them into the big 12" pots which are earmarked for them, but if I did I would only have room to keep a few of them under cover. The rest would be exposed to the elements - which they would certainly not enjoy!

My Runner Beans took ages to germinate, even though I had them in pots in the garage. Since then they have grown slowly and I would say "unenthusiastically". I haven't yet erected the support system I will be using for them. It seems premature.

I have four pots of Runners waiting to go in. These ones are "Scarlet Empire", a new variety said to be an even better version of the old favourite "Scarlet Emperor". My others are "Red Rum", a variety I have grown successfully several times before.

The Tomato plants that got frosted the other day look as if they will pull through all right. I had already arranged them into Team A and Team B, so to speak, choosing the best ones to plant out and the weaker ones to discard, and it is very obvious that the stronger A team ones have coped better with the frosting ordeal. Compare the two following photos to see what I mean.

The Team A ones are looking quite lush now, and are beginning to outgrow their pots again. They really need to be planted out into their big containers as soon as possible. Maybe next weekend??

Team A

The Team B ones are not looking good - some of them lost almost all their leaves - but at least they are all alive still.

Team B

Still "confined to barracks" on a windowsill are my Aubergine plants. I'm only planning on growing two of these since I'm not convinced that either they will produce any fruit, or that if they do I will like them, but in my usual way I have four plants, so I will be able to choose the best / strongest ones. I know that Aubergines need as much warmth as they can get, so there is no way they are going outside just yet.

Ironically, since I started putting this post together a couple of days ago, the weather has improved a bit and we have had a bit of sunshine and the daytime temperatures have been in the mid teens. Woohoo!