Still snow – still no work on the plot
We’ve been to the plot to harvest some parsnips from the raised bed which were only a bit frozen in, and to collect some of the leeks that had been heeled into a sheltered corner of the plot in expectation of the rotten weather, but we really hadn’t expected rottenness of this duration! Some of the purple-sprouting broccoli has flowered nicely, but as it’s also frozen solid, we left it in place, hoping to get up as soon as there is a thaw and harvest the lot.It feels very strange not to be able to do anything vegetable-growing wise – we wandered around and I managed to take a few atmospheric photographs of the sun going down over the snowy site.
I peered at my broad beans which are poking through the snow and seem to be fine, but who knows? Snowdrops have a special enzyme in their cells that allows them to survive minus temperatures without damage, but I’m not sure that broad beans do and I’m bracing myself to discover that when the snow goes, so do the broad beans. It would be a tragedy if they do, but as snow acts as an insulator, removing it at this point would be more likely to damage the seedlings than help them.The bed in which we should have been planting our shallots is under six inches of snow, as it turns out to be in an area where a drift has built up. The shallots themselves are in a cupboard under the stairs – who knows when they will eventually get into the soil?
Labels: allotment-broad-beans, allotment-leeks, allotment-parsnips, allotment-shallots, allotment-snow
Posted by The Allotment Blogger on Monday, January 11, 2010
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4 Comments:
I can understand what you mean. Last year we had snow on the ground from the beginning of December until the beginning of April and I was surprised what had survived under the 2 foot of snow. Swedes and Swiss Chard both survived and gave us some early greens, along with the leeks although they did have an odd shape, probably nibbled by the deer. Marjoram also survived well. Not sure about this year though as the temperatures tumbled before we had much snow so I am guessing that some things will not have survived in the same way, although I did take the precaution of covering lots of stuff with evergreen branches which is what the Latvians do, so who knows.
my broad beans seem to be fairing the bad weather to as does the garlic. I just hope they are hardy enough to cope with the thaw...if it ever comes!!!!
It's exactly the same here still. Heaven knows when we'll be back to the gardening.
Yes, Joanna, that's what worries me too, we had a heavy frost before snow so who knows what's happening underneath?
Jo and Tanya, it's nerve-wracking isn't it, watching the crops and wondering if they will cope with this awful weather!
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