The weather's dramatic shift from perfect spring warmth to a chaotic mix of snow, torrential rain, hail, and wind serves as a powerful reminder that April gardening requires vigilance and protection strategies. This sudden weather whiplash threatens newly planted seedlings and emerging growth after weeks of productive sowing and planting.
Hardening off becomes crucial during these transitional periods. Whether using a cold frame to gradually introduce outdoor conditions or bringing trays in and out daily, this process gives seedlings their best chance of survival when weather turns hostile. Bio-netting and enviro-mesh provide essential protection against April's weather extremes while still allowing airflow and moisture to reach your plants. Creating proper hoop supports prevents protective coverings from damaging tender growth during wind events.
Beyond weather challenges, spring brings opportunistic pests. Pigeons swoop in to feast on brassicas and lettuces when little else is available in the natural landscape. Slugs and snails emerge with increasing moisture levels, particularly threatening dahlias and hostas as they first peek through the soil. For warm-season crops like tomatoes, daily gentle brushing of foliage triggers stem-strengthening hormones that create more resilient plants before their final move to polytunnels.
Understanding your local last frost date allows proper timing for heat-loving crops while implementing these protection strategies ensures continuous harvests through proper succession planting. These simple yet effective techniques transform vulnerable spring plantings into resilient, productive garden plots despite April's weather rollercoaster.
Share your gardening journey or questions through social media - I'm active on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok! The podcast is also available weekly on YouTube. Have a specific gardening question? Message me on any platform, and I'll address it in an upcoming episode. Happy gardening!
If there is any topic you would like covered in future episodes, please let me know.
Email: info@mastermygarden.com
Master My Garden Courses:
https://mastermygarden.com/courses/
Check out Master My Garden on the following channels
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mastermygarden/
Instagram @Mastermygarden https://www.instagram.com/mastermygarden/
Until next week
Happy gardening
John
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
how's it going everybody, and welcome to
episode 273 of master, my gardenpodcast.
Now, since last week's episodewas recorded, and that was, uh,
you know, we got a greatresponse to that episode.
Um, the weather has changedslightly.
So when I recorded last week'sepisode with siobhan from a
matney garden, we were right inthe middle of that beautiful
(00:36):
spell of weather that we had,which was, you know, probably a
little bit unusual in that itwas longer, warmer, uh, drier, I
guess, than what we would beused to in those earlier months
of March and April.
And then the kind of change inthe weather has happened since
then and it is certainly givenus a very, very mixed bag across
(01:00):
the country here and even, youknow, know, locally you get
serious changes.
So to kind of give a give, aflavor of that and how it
affects the garden.
Um, so we've had, we had thewednesday of last week.
We had quite a fall of snow.
We had about two inches overthe course of a couple of hours.
(01:24):
Then that turned to rain, sothe snow disappeared and we had
torrential rain then for 24hours.
So ground that was previouslyrelatively dry got a lot of
rainfall over a short period oftime.
And then Friday of last week,wednesday, thursday, friday of
(01:45):
last week, wednesday, thursday,friday of last week we got some
periods of really high winds andwe got a lot of rain then in
the week gone out.
So Friday, last Friday, forexample, it rained pretty much
non-stop around here for 24hours, so it wasn't always heavy
, but there was periods ofreally, really heavy rain within
that.
And, yeah, it has gone frombeing, in terms of weather
(02:11):
conditions, perfect to very,very, very mixed.
This week alone, we've seenapril, given you know what april
can do.
April can give you anythingfrom can do.
April can give you anythingfrom warm summer summer-like
(02:31):
temperatures to winterconditions, and it can do that
very, very quickly, even withinthe space of a day, and a good
example of that was earlier inthe week.
We had a beautiful, brightmorning, lots of sunshine, a
little bit cool, but not very,very cool.
A little bit of a wind therewhich made it feel cooler than
it actually was, but therewasn't much by way of you know,
(02:51):
it wasn't a frost or anything.
And then by 12 o'clock in theday it was completely dark,
almost like it was heading forfor late evening, and then we
got hailstones, really heavyhailstones and heavy rain on top
of that, and a couple of daysthen of wind, and now we're back
(03:12):
to kind of nice conditionsagain, looking into next week
and the week coming up, we'relooking at temperatures getting
right back up again and, youknow, hitting sort of 18 20
degrees, which is going to be,you know, that's going to be
really drive growth.
But the reason I'm talking aboutthis and highlighting this is
(03:34):
that it's it's actually reallyimportant to understand and to
be aware and I said it at thetime, a few weeks ago, it felt
like spring and it certainly did.
But there is always the the thepossibility of something like
this happening or going on for aperiod of a couple of weeks.
And why it's relevant is thatwe've done a lot of sewing and
(03:58):
you know a lot of the, the cropsthat you've sowed, some of them
you'll have planted out at thisstage, and they've they've gone
from being in your, I suppose,under your, care for a few weeks
to going out into the openground where they're getting
battered with all of thischangeable weather.
(04:18):
So everything that I'vementioned there the 24 hours
torrential rain to heavy winds,to hailstones, to cold
temperatures, to wind you knowall of that and it has gone on
for a few days and what ends uphappening is your little plants
that have gone out, your bulbsthat are starting to peep up out
(04:40):
of the ground.
You know, your summer floweringbulbs that are starting to peep
up out of the ground, thingslike dahlias.
They've, they've uh, they'restarting to change their mind
about peeping up and, in termsof you know, your vegetable
plants going out, they'redefinitely going to be feeling
sorry for themselves and notthriving because they're getting
battered around.
So that's what we're going totalk about.
(05:01):
We're going to talk about thingslike hardening off, we're going
to talk about precautionarymeasures that you can do, things
that you can do to improve yoursuccess, because what we don't
want to do is do all this sowingand have all these seedlings
and young plants ready to go,willing to ready to go and start
growing, and then they go outin conditions that are not, you
(05:25):
know, that are not conducive togrowing, and what we don't want
to do is lose them.
So we don't want to lose themand find that they're they're
gone or disappeared or batteredor broken, which will, will
happen and does happen, but ifwe know, kind of the steps that
we need to do to, I suppose,combat.
That it makes it a lot easier,and there's some other things
(05:45):
they're going to look out.
So that's what we're going totalk about.
Next week episode is the sewingguide for May, and again, that
will be quite a big list,comprehensive list again, but
we're going to be sewing all thetime, but what we want to be
doing is ensuring that we'reable to look after these and
give them the best possiblechance.
(06:07):
So what can we do?
So, obviously, you're sewingyour seedlings.
Potentially you're putting themoutside into your beds, outside
, kind of four weeks later, sixweeks later, depending on how
they do.
Then, if it's things like, youknow, tomatoes and so on,
they're they're not going to beready for for going out yet.
But what we can do is hardenoff, and there's ways of
(06:29):
hardening off and I'll talkabout the different things.
Ideally, what you would have issomething like a cold frame
outside.
So you'd have a cold frameoutside, and I've spoke about
cold frames before and howbeneficial they are and how
useful they are in the garden.
But in terms of hardening offseedlings, they're a super thing
to do.
You take your, your seedlingsin your module trays from your
(06:54):
greenhouse and then you put theminto the cold frame.
So it's kind of replicating theenvironment that they've come
from and on the you know thenext day that they're out there.
You leave them out there for aday or two.
On the next day you can open itup a little bit, open up the
cold frame a little bit, let alittle bit of air circulation in
, close it down again at nighttime the next day, open it up a
(07:15):
bit more and over the course offour or five, six days a week
you introduce more and more airby opening the, the sort of lid
or the door of the cold framemore and more each day.
And that process over a fewdays acclimatizes the plants to
(07:36):
to the cold or to the conditionsthat are outside.
Now they're still not exposedto the hail and things like that
, but they're getting used tothe temperatures, particularly
now.
As I said, temperatures nextweek are going to go right up,
so that's going to be good.
But that process of hardeningoff is quite important.
You know, as we get later on inthe season that will become
less significant because thevariability in the, in the, you
(08:00):
know, in the weather andparticularly in the temperature
is not there.
So you don't get necessarilyhail showers once we start to go
a little bit further down theline and it's the likes of those
that can do real, real damage.
So you can imagine if yourlittle cabbage plants or your
little lettuce plants gone outinto the beds you know some of
the onions and leeks and thingslike that just because of the
(08:21):
nature of the leaf they't catchthat much wind, they don't catch
that much rain and hail, butgenerally leafy things.
When they go out, if they'regetting battered with hail or
wind, they get blown around alittle bit and they feel really
sorry for themselves and they'lljust get weak and typically
then they either break off orthey'll be vulnerable to
(08:41):
something else when they're,when they're kind of weak and
not thriving.
So the first process is tryingto harden them off a little bit.
If you, if you don't have acold frame, you know you can.
Depends on how much you'redoing.
If you're doing a lot of sewing, you're not going to do this,
but if you're doing a small bitof sewing, take in and out your
trays, take them out in themorning time, allow them to get
(09:02):
acclimatized for a few hours, oreven for the day, if it's not
really bad conditions, and thenbring them back in for the night
time and do that over thecourse of a couple of days and
that will sort of acclimatizethem to it.
The you know, if you're notinto moving all of those in and
out, in and out, then what you,what you definitely need to be
doing is, you know, open ventsor doors and allowing a little
(09:23):
bit more of that outer airflowin there.
And that can be tricky as wellif you've, you know, some of
your, your warmer crops thatdon't want that.
But if you are able to do that,then that that's quite
important.
But when we get them out intothe beds, then this is where we
can really kind of do thingsthat will be really beneficial.
So I've spoke about it on thepodcast before.
(09:45):
Something like bio netting orenviro, enviro mesh these are
sort of names of a mesh productthat is used predominantly.
It's used predominantly to keepthe likes of cabbage white
butterflies off or carrot rootfly off.
It's a net that has a really,really fine hole in it but it
(10:06):
allows airflow through them,allows moisture through as well,
but it sort of breaks thathardness.
But for springtime planting andfor protecting against the
likes of those hail showers,that really heavy, intense rain
that I was talking aboutsomething like biometting,
netting or enviro mesh arereally, really beneficial.
(10:29):
So in a scenario like that, youget your seedlings, you put them
out, you get little wire hoopsor little hoops made out of you
know pipes or something likethat, and you just create a hoop
over it.
Then you put your mesh overthose hoops so it's not sitting
directly on the plants.
If it sits directly on theplants, you'll get that wind
(10:51):
damage from the material blowingacross and and lying down on
top of the of the ceilings,which we don't want either.
So you create a hoop ideallyyou're going to create it that
it's going to be maybe two footin the center of the bed, two
foot above the plants.
That's kind of what you'relooking for and then obviously
it's arcing out to the edges.
Keep it as high as you can atthe edges as well, and, you know
(11:13):
, hold it down on the edges,whether you're using little pegs
or whether you're using wireclips or little stones or
however you do that.
But that bio netting, enviromesh, that netting is going to
be superb at protecting thoseseedlings and giving them a
chance over the next few weeks.
So you will.
You will have the likes of ahail shower, just won't be
(11:35):
hitting them directly, reallyintense rain, won't be hitting
them directly.
You will get rainfall goingthrough it so that you know the
moisture levels will still, willstill stay there.
You do get good airflow throughit, but they will protect and
sort of break those seedlingsfrom the brunt of of this harsh
weather that we're getting andthat will give them the best
(11:56):
possible chance to start.
That's really important in termsof your successional sowing as
well, because if we keep sowingthe seeds which we want to do
because we want to havecontinuity of crops if we break
from that, or if we plant andthey just sit there and sit
there for three or four weeks,then by the time the next batch
(12:19):
are ready and the conditions areperfect, they'll be at the
almost exactly the same level.
You know when, when you'replanting out your next batch of
seedlings.
So the the more you can protectand get the the current batch
growing, the better chance youhave of maintaining your, your
continuity as a supply.
So it's really important fromthat point of view, and
obviously as well as that, thatwe're not wasting.
(12:41):
You know we haven't put thisenergy and effort into sowing
and minding these over the lastfew weeks that we're not just
losing them straight away afterputting them out.
You can also, you know, be alittle bit clever and keep an
eye on.
You know the weather conditionsover the next few days and if
you know that something isparticularly harsh is coming,
then you can just sit back for aday or two.
They're better off to to tostay in your propagation area
(13:05):
for another few days, as opposedto going out and getting
battered or or blowing aroundthe place.
So keep it.
Keep an eye on that as you'redoing it, but continue to sew on
that.
As I said, next week's episodewe'll talk about that.
The the other factor, then thebionet, is massively important.
The other thing that you canuse is frost fleece.
Now it's.
It's quite good for, obviously,for frost, and it is good for
(13:29):
keeping certain conditions youknow, heavy rain and things off
them.
The only thing about it is isthat it's a little bit more
difficult to leave there longterm.
It's typically used again.
You can cloche them, so putlittle hoops and like put it up
on top of it, but because,because of the nature it's going
to hold moisture a little bitmore, it'll get a little bit
heavier, tends to get blownaround a little bit more as well
(13:51):
.
So it's not perfect for doingit.
The bio netting is probablybetter for it.
But if you do have fleece, thatwill be useful as well.
Then ground temperatures, justin terms of sowingowing we will
talk about this next week.
But in terms of sowing, groundtemperatures are up and down and
that can you know.
(14:11):
In terms of seedlings going out, that can mean kind of slow
growth or maybe you see a burstof growth, then it stops, then
it starts again and that's notideal for for seedlings.
And that's where the bionetting will, will give you a
kind of a more steady.
You know that environment underthere will be a little bit more
steady and less harsh than what, than what it would be without
(14:33):
it.
So that's important.
The, the, the sowing outside nowof you know things like carrots
and that that's going to bevery sporadic at the minute
because just temperatures are upand down, moisture levels are
up and down.
It's just not very, very kindseed sowing weather for outside.
So I actually haven't sownanything from seed directly
(14:54):
outside yet.
Obviously, carrots, parsnips,are on the agenda as soon as, as
soon as I feel that there'senough, kind of seven or eight
days in front of us, which itlooks like there there is now
you're looking at next weektemperatures, as I say, up to 18
and 20 degrees Celsius.
So that's, I'm happy then toget you know the likes of
(15:14):
parsnips sown, the likes ofcarrots sown outside.
Obviously, a lot of theseedlings are gone out and
they're all not doingwonderfully, but they're.
They're okay, they're fine,they're hanging in there and
they are getting protected andthey will, they will burst on
once the time is right.
So that's the first thing.
The next thing to watch out forand I've suffered a little bit
(15:37):
with this in the last week is Iput out some nice cabbage plants
.
They actually had got off toquite a good start because they
were in a you know kind of acouple of weeks before that kind
of harsh weather kicked in andthey were off to a nice start.
And just in the last week theyweren't covered, by the way, and
in the last week they've gotfleeced to the point where
there's nothing left, onlystalks with pigeons.
(15:59):
And yeah, why not?
That's what they're going to dothey?
They?
They see an opportunity.
There hasn't been much growthin nature generally over.
You know.
Up until now grass has beengrowing, but other than that,
trees are still are not fullyopened up yet and you know that
full growth is not there.
So nice little new bit ofvegetation goes into the
(16:21):
vegetable beds and the pigeonssee this and great opportunity
to to get something nice to eat.
So they've they fleeced them.
So just watch out for that.
If you do have pigeons in yourarea, they're going to be
definitely going for thebrassicas particularly, and
there will also certain lettucesthey'll go for as well and they
can get cleaned out of it quitequickly.
(16:41):
With the moisture levels comingup, slugs will start to become a
little bit of an issue.
They're not just yet, because Istill think it's a little bit
cold.
It generally feels a little bitcold and you'll know that.
You know when.
That when you get that warmthalong with the, along with the
moisture, then you will see sortof slugs and snails coming to
(17:01):
the fore again.
So just watch out for thoselittle things I mentioned.
You know flower bulbs coming up,the likes of dahlias, for
example.
They're peeping up now, onceyou know from that warm weather
a couple of weeks back.
They certainly have haltedtheir progress and said hold on
a minute here.
Are you sure about this?
And so they are.
They are sitting back a littlebit now but as they, as they
(17:23):
peep up now that we havemoisture, definitely keep an eye
out for slugs, who will be morethan happy to just come along
and munch off, particularlythings like dahlias at this very
early stage.
If they're newly established,particularly so if you've only
just planted in your dahliatubers they'll be peeping up out
of ground now and that's reallyfresh lush foliage for slugs
(17:49):
and snails and they'll beworking just under the surface
and as that new growth comes off.
You mightn't even see it, itmightn't even be peeping up
above the ground, but they'llpeel off that.
So just keep an eye out forthat over the next couple of
weeks, particularly with thingslike dahlias.
(18:11):
Obviously you know the likes ofhostas and things like that.
They'll.
They'll be the same.
You know any of those typethings slugs and snails
potentially over the next weekor two will be a problem.
The the next thing to to do isin relation to your warmer crops
, so crops that we're going togrow on in the polytunnel or
greenhouse, and I'm thinkinghere about things like tomatoes
particularly so I I know somepeople have theirs planted out
(18:34):
and great, if you do, I don't.
Yet I've potted on.
Now they're, they're gone intoa good size pot.
They are doing quite well.
But what?
What they, what they will needagain, I have an open side of
tunnel so it's quite airy inthere.
It's cold, so if it's coldoutside, it's it's coldish in
there as well.
But they're getting what they.
(18:56):
What they do need now over thenext few weeks, is this again a
bit of hardening off.
So we want them to grow, sowhen we get the warm
temperatures they're going togrow strong.
They'll grow particularly big onthese warm days that we're
expecting next week, and whatwe're looking for is we're
looking to harden them a littlebit.
So a few little things to dohere as they're, as they're
(19:18):
growing along the foliage, justshake around the plant a little
bit.
It's kind of hard to do it onuh, on audio here as to what
we're doing, but we're basicallybrushing the top.
So if you have 10 tomato plantsin a tray, brush the tops of
them so run your hands acrossthe top of them, kind of push
them around a little bit andthat will.
That will trick the plant intothinking we need to strengthen
(19:41):
up our stems and they'll sendhormones into that zone and they
will strengthen up their stemsand thicken up their stems and
that's kind of important andit's important for down the line
.
What we don't want is thesetemperatures over the next
couple of weeks to keep risingand then these plants just keep
growing and growing and growingand growing and not get any
strength or or resilience inthem.
(20:02):
So we need to build up a littlebit of resilience in the plants
before we we start putting themout into the tunnels so the
likes of your tomato plants, getthem, give them a bit of a
shake, rub your hands along thetop of the foliage and do that
once a day.
Get into a habit of doing thatand that will strengthen up the
the foliage of the plants, orsorry, the stems of the plants,
and that will make a bigdifference when they're going
(20:23):
out in a couple of weeks time.
That brings me on to the nextpoint of last frost dates, and
that's different for everyone.
In fact, in some parts ofIreland, once we get kind of to
the first of May, their lastfrost date has passed.
For me here typically it's sortof the last week of May and
could even be, you know, thefirst week of june or
(20:45):
thereabouts.
So I typically won't gettomatoes going into polytunnel
until that, or at least if I doI'll be getting them in.
But I'll be keeping an eye andand staying a little bit
cautious on it and I know forsome people that might seem like
it's it's late, but just that'swhat suits here.
(21:05):
If you're somewhere else whereyour frost date is gone or
almost gone, then go for it.
It's, you know there'sdifferent areas, you know.
Get to know your area orwhatever, and really important,
but that that date, that lastfrost, is for your area.
If you're new to garden andyou're not certain what that is,
just you know locally, just aska couple of gardeners or people
(21:27):
who are gardening the wholetime what's typically the the
last frost date around here.
And it could be you can getlittle variances within within a
county or within a geographicalregion.
So again, if there's somebodylocal to you who's grown all the
time, just ask them what'snormally the last frost test and
they'll know because they'llhave been doing it for years and
(21:48):
they'll give you a good steeron that.
But for me here, tomatoestoughen them up over the next
few weeks.
The other thing you can do withthem is slightly, if you get
decent days where you have, youknow, warmish temperatures but
maybe not as warm as it might bein the polytunnel, you can put
them outside for a couple ofhours, put them outside for even
(22:10):
the day, and then bring themback in at night time and that
will give them that bit ofresilience.
Obviously then if they'reoutside, they'll be getting a
small bit of a breeze on them,and that moving around of the
plants is what I'm talking aboutsort of replicating by hand,
moving them around to strengthenup the stems.
So that's important for those.
(22:30):
We also now are getting to, youknow, the likes of pumpkins,
squash, sweet corn, withtemperatures coming up, and we
would be talking about all thesenext week in the seed sowing
guide.
But with temperatures coming up, the likes of those guys can be
got started now, or you canstart to sort of do more with
these, because up until now ithas been has been cool enough
(22:54):
and the opportunity to do thathas been less.
So all of those now, once thetemperatures are coming up and
once we're almost past this lastfrost date, then it's good to
go with all of those.
So there are a couple of thingsthe the big thing is, now that
we have all this sowing, we've,we've gone to this effort.
(23:15):
We've, you know, got ourpotatoes in, for example, and
the shoots are, are thinkingabout coming up over the next
few weeks.
Just protect those, mine, those, the last frost, keeping an eye
on things like hail, which canhappen anytime through april.
You can get it a little bit inearly may as well.
But once you're aware of thosethings and you're able to get it
a little bit in early may aswell, but once you're aware of
(23:35):
those things and you're able togive it a small bit of
protection, it means that yourplant doesn't get a check.
So after, after you plant out,typically speaking, even in the
best of conditions, a plant willjust get a check for a few days
as it comes out of a of aseedling tray and into the
ground.
But if that, if it's coming outinto weather conditions that
are way colder, way windier, waywetter than what you've been
(23:58):
nurturing that that in, thenthat check can be just too much
for them and sometimes they justdon't take off after that or or
worse, they, they die.
So what we want to do is makethat transition as easy as
possible.
There will be obviously alittle bit of a shock going from
one to the other, but if wemake that transition as easy as
possible, there will beobviously a little bit of a
shock going from one to theother, but if we make that
transition as easy as possible,then we have the best chance of
(24:18):
success.
And it means then that down theline that we're not getting,
you know, our next batch is notcatching up too quickly and
we're able to keep those littlegaps in order to have continuity
of supply.
So yeah, that's quite a short,short episode, but it's a really
, really important one we'vesort of talked about, you know,
(24:39):
every month we talk about theseed sowing and seedlings and
all of this type of thing, butthe care of them for those first
few weeks is vital, and youknow, it's rare that we get a
season that's absolutely perfectfrom start to finish.
And this has certainly been thecase, because a few weeks ago
we were talking about howwonderful it was, how warm it
(25:00):
was, how dry it was, and now allof a sudden it's kind of to
flip it out and there is acoolness there, there's a lot of
moisture has fallen and youhave things like wind and hail,
just to just to batter themaround another bit.
So what we're looking to do isprotect, ensure that they get
the best start, ensure thatthey're not getting as much of a
check as they possibly could ifwe didn't do anything.
(25:22):
And you know things likebionetting, enviro, mesh, those
type products, even fleece, youknow any of those that are going
to just give it a little bit ofa protection over these first
few weeks will certainly be ahuge help.
So that's a bit this week'srather short episode.
If you're enjoying the podcast,please share with all your
friends.
If I don't post much butinstagram, facebook, tiktok, I'm
(25:46):
on all of those places.
The video, the youtube everyweek.
The podcast goes up on youtubeevery week, so please help share
it, help get the message outthere.
If there's ever a question didyou want answered on the podcast
, I've done that quite a bit.
Continue to do that.
If you've ever a question thatyou want answered, just shoot me
a message on any of thoseplaces and I'll cover it in the
(26:07):
in the podcast in the comingweeks, and that's been this
week's episode.
Thanks for for listening andI'll tell you next time.
Happy gardening.
how's it going everybody, and welcome to
episode 273 of master, my gardenpodcast.
Now, since last week's episodewas recorded, and that was, uh,
you know, we got a greatresponse to that episode.
Um, the weather has changedslightly.
So when I recorded last week'sepisode with siobhan from a
matney garden, we were right inthe middle of that beautiful
(00:36):
spell of weather that we had,which was, you know, probably a
little bit unusual in that itwas longer, warmer, uh, drier, I
guess, than what we would beused to in those earlier months
of March and April.
And then the kind of change inthe weather has happened since
then and it is certainly givenus a very, very mixed bag across
(01:00):
the country here and even, youknow, know, locally you get
serious changes.
So to kind of give a give, aflavor of that and how it
affects the garden.
Um, so we've had, we had thewednesday of last week.
We had quite a fall of snow.
We had about two inches overthe course of a couple of hours.
(01:24):
Then that turned to rain, sothe snow disappeared and we had
torrential rain then for 24hours.
So ground that was previouslyrelatively dry got a lot of
rainfall over a short period oftime.
And then Friday of last week,wednesday, thursday, friday of
(01:45):
last week, wednesday, thursday,friday of last week we got some
periods of really high winds andwe got a lot of rain then in
the week gone out.
So Friday, last Friday, forexample, it rained pretty much
non-stop around here for 24hours, so it wasn't always heavy
, but there was periods ofreally, really heavy rain within
that.
And, yeah, it has gone frombeing, in terms of weather
(02:11):
conditions, perfect to very,very, very mixed.
This week alone, we've seenapril, given you know what april
can do.
April can give you anythingfrom can do.
April can give you anythingfrom warm summer summer-like
(02:31):
temperatures to winterconditions, and it can do that
very, very quickly, even withinthe space of a day, and a good
example of that was earlier inthe week.
We had a beautiful, brightmorning, lots of sunshine, a
little bit cool, but not very,very cool.
A little bit of a wind therewhich made it feel cooler than
it actually was, but therewasn't much by way of you know,
(02:51):
it wasn't a frost or anything.
And then by 12 o'clock in theday it was completely dark,
almost like it was heading forfor late evening, and then we
got hailstones, really heavyhailstones and heavy rain on top
of that, and a couple of daysthen of wind, and now we're back
(03:12):
to kind of nice conditionsagain, looking into next week
and the week coming up, we'relooking at temperatures getting
right back up again and, youknow, hitting sort of 18 20
degrees, which is going to be,you know, that's going to be
really drive growth.
But the reason I'm talking aboutthis and highlighting this is
(03:34):
that it's it's actually reallyimportant to understand and to
be aware and I said it at thetime, a few weeks ago, it felt
like spring and it certainly did.
But there is always the the thepossibility of something like
this happening or going on for aperiod of a couple of weeks.
And why it's relevant is thatwe've done a lot of sewing and
(03:58):
you know a lot of the, the cropsthat you've sowed, some of them
you'll have planted out at thisstage, and they've they've gone
from being in your, I suppose,under your, care for a few weeks
to going out into the openground where they're getting
battered with all of thischangeable weather.
(04:18):
So everything that I'vementioned there the 24 hours
torrential rain to heavy winds,to hailstones, to cold
temperatures, to wind you knowall of that and it has gone on
for a few days and what ends uphappening is your little plants
that have gone out, your bulbsthat are starting to peep up out
(04:40):
of the ground.
You know, your summer floweringbulbs that are starting to peep
up out of the ground, thingslike dahlias.
They've, they've uh, they'restarting to change their mind
about peeping up and, in termsof you know, your vegetable
plants going out, they'redefinitely going to be feeling
sorry for themselves and notthriving because they're getting
battered around.
So that's what we're going totalk about.
(05:01):
We're going to talk about thingslike hardening off, we're going
to talk about precautionarymeasures that you can do, things
that you can do to improve yoursuccess, because what we don't
want to do is do all this sowingand have all these seedlings
and young plants ready to go,willing to ready to go and start
growing, and then they go outin conditions that are not, you
(05:25):
know, that are not conducive togrowing, and what we don't want
to do is lose them.
So we don't want to lose themand find that they're they're
gone or disappeared or batteredor broken, which will, will
happen and does happen, but ifwe know, kind of the steps that
we need to do to, I suppose,combat.
That it makes it a lot easier,and there's some other things
(05:45):
they're going to look out.
So that's what we're going totalk about.
Next week episode is the sewingguide for May, and again, that
will be quite a big list,comprehensive list again, but
we're going to be sewing all thetime, but what we want to be
doing is ensuring that we'reable to look after these and
give them the best possiblechance.
(06:07):
So what can we do?
So, obviously, you're sewingyour seedlings.
Potentially you're putting themoutside into your beds, outside
, kind of four weeks later, sixweeks later, depending on how
they do.
Then, if it's things like, youknow, tomatoes and so on,
they're they're not going to beready for for going out yet.
But what we can do is hardenoff, and there's ways of
(06:29):
hardening off and I'll talkabout the different things.
Ideally, what you would have issomething like a cold frame
outside.
So you'd have a cold frameoutside, and I've spoke about
cold frames before and howbeneficial they are and how
useful they are in the garden.
But in terms of hardening offseedlings, they're a super thing
to do.
You take your, your seedlingsin your module trays from your
(06:54):
greenhouse and then you put theminto the cold frame.
So it's kind of replicating theenvironment that they've come
from and on the you know thenext day that they're out there.
You leave them out there for aday or two.
On the next day you can open itup a little bit, open up the
cold frame a little bit, let alittle bit of air circulation in
, close it down again at nighttime the next day, open it up a
(07:15):
bit more and over the course offour or five, six days a week
you introduce more and more airby opening the, the sort of lid
or the door of the cold framemore and more each day.
And that process over a fewdays acclimatizes the plants to
(07:36):
to the cold or to the conditionsthat are outside.
Now they're still not exposedto the hail and things like that
, but they're getting used tothe temperatures, particularly
now.
As I said, temperatures nextweek are going to go right up,
so that's going to be good.
But that process of hardeningoff is quite important.
You know, as we get later on inthe season that will become
less significant because thevariability in the, in the, you
(08:00):
know, in the weather andparticularly in the temperature
is not there.
So you don't get necessarilyhail showers once we start to go
a little bit further down theline and it's the likes of those
that can do real, real damage.
So you can imagine if yourlittle cabbage plants or your
little lettuce plants gone outinto the beds you know some of
the onions and leeks and thingslike that just because of the
(08:21):
nature of the leaf they't catchthat much wind, they don't catch
that much rain and hail, butgenerally leafy things.
When they go out, if they'regetting battered with hail or
wind, they get blown around alittle bit and they feel really
sorry for themselves and they'lljust get weak and typically
then they either break off orthey'll be vulnerable to
(08:41):
something else when they're,when they're kind of weak and
not thriving.
So the first process is tryingto harden them off a little bit.
If you, if you don't have acold frame, you know you can.
Depends on how much you'redoing.
If you're doing a lot of sewing, you're not going to do this,
but if you're doing a small bitof sewing, take in and out your
trays, take them out in themorning time, allow them to get
(09:02):
acclimatized for a few hours, oreven for the day, if it's not
really bad conditions, and thenbring them back in for the night
time and do that over thecourse of a couple of days and
that will sort of acclimatizethem to it.
The you know, if you're notinto moving all of those in and
out, in and out, then what you,what you definitely need to be
doing is, you know, open ventsor doors and allowing a little
(09:23):
bit more of that outer airflowin there.
And that can be tricky as wellif you've, you know, some of
your, your warmer crops thatdon't want that.
But if you are able to do that,then that that's quite
important.
But when we get them out intothe beds, then this is where we
can really kind of do thingsthat will be really beneficial.
So I've spoke about it on thepodcast before.
(09:45):
Something like bio netting orenviro, enviro mesh these are
sort of names of a mesh productthat is used predominantly.
It's used predominantly to keepthe likes of cabbage white
butterflies off or carrot rootfly off.
It's a net that has a really,really fine hole in it but it
(10:06):
allows airflow through them,allows moisture through as well,
but it sort of breaks thathardness.
But for springtime planting andfor protecting against the
likes of those hail showers,that really heavy, intense rain
that I was talking aboutsomething like biometting,
netting or enviro mesh arereally, really beneficial.
(10:29):
So in a scenario like that, youget your seedlings, you put them
out, you get little wire hoopsor little hoops made out of you
know pipes or something likethat, and you just create a hoop
over it.
Then you put your mesh overthose hoops so it's not sitting
directly on the plants.
If it sits directly on theplants, you'll get that wind
(10:51):
damage from the material blowingacross and and lying down on
top of the of the ceilings,which we don't want either.
So you create a hoop ideallyyou're going to create it that
it's going to be maybe two footin the center of the bed, two
foot above the plants.
That's kind of what you'relooking for and then obviously
it's arcing out to the edges.
Keep it as high as you can atthe edges as well, and, you know
(11:13):
, hold it down on the edges,whether you're using little pegs
or whether you're using wireclips or little stones or
however you do that.
But that bio netting, enviromesh, that netting is going to
be superb at protecting thoseseedlings and giving them a
chance over the next few weeks.
So you will.
You will have the likes of ahail shower, just won't be
(11:35):
hitting them directly, reallyintense rain, won't be hitting
them directly.
You will get rainfall goingthrough it so that you know the
moisture levels will still, willstill stay there.
You do get good airflow throughit, but they will protect and
sort of break those seedlingsfrom the brunt of of this harsh
weather that we're getting andthat will give them the best
(11:56):
possible chance to start.
That's really important in termsof your successional sowing as
well, because if we keep sowingthe seeds which we want to do
because we want to havecontinuity of crops if we break
from that, or if we plant andthey just sit there and sit
there for three or four weeks,then by the time the next batch
(12:19):
are ready and the conditions areperfect, they'll be at the
almost exactly the same level.
You know when, when you'replanting out your next batch of
seedlings.
So the the more you can protectand get the the current batch
growing, the better chance youhave of maintaining your, your
continuity as a supply.
So it's really important fromthat point of view, and
obviously as well as that, thatwe're not wasting.
(12:41):
You know we haven't put thisenergy and effort into sowing
and minding these over the lastfew weeks that we're not just
losing them straight away afterputting them out.
You can also, you know, be alittle bit clever and keep an
eye on.
You know the weather conditionsover the next few days and if
you know that something isparticularly harsh is coming,
then you can just sit back for aday or two.
They're better off to to tostay in your propagation area
(13:05):
for another few days, as opposedto going out and getting
battered or or blowing aroundthe place.
So keep it.
Keep an eye on that as you'redoing it, but continue to sew on
that.
As I said, next week's episodewe'll talk about that.
The the other factor, then thebionet, is massively important.
The other thing that you canuse is frost fleece.
Now it's.
It's quite good for, obviously,for frost, and it is good for
(13:29):
keeping certain conditions youknow, heavy rain and things off
them.
The only thing about it is isthat it's a little bit more
difficult to leave there longterm.
It's typically used again.
You can cloche them, so putlittle hoops and like put it up
on top of it, but because,because of the nature it's going
to hold moisture a little bitmore, it'll get a little bit
heavier, tends to get blownaround a little bit more as well
(13:51):
.
So it's not perfect for doingit.
The bio netting is probablybetter for it.
But if you do have fleece, thatwill be useful as well.
Then ground temperatures, justin terms of sowingowing we will
talk about this next week.
But in terms of sowing, groundtemperatures are up and down and
that can you know.
(14:11):
In terms of seedlings going out, that can mean kind of slow
growth or maybe you see a burstof growth, then it stops, then
it starts again and that's notideal for for seedlings.
And that's where the bionetting will, will give you a
kind of a more steady.
You know that environment underthere will be a little bit more
steady and less harsh than what, than what it would be without
(14:33):
it.
So that's important.
The, the, the sowing outside nowof you know things like carrots
and that that's going to bevery sporadic at the minute
because just temperatures are upand down, moisture levels are
up and down.
It's just not very, very kindseed sowing weather for outside.
So I actually haven't sownanything from seed directly
(14:54):
outside yet.
Obviously, carrots, parsnips,are on the agenda as soon as, as
soon as I feel that there'senough, kind of seven or eight
days in front of us, which itlooks like there there is now
you're looking at next weektemperatures, as I say, up to 18
and 20 degrees Celsius.
So that's, I'm happy then toget you know the likes of
(15:14):
parsnips sown, the likes ofcarrots sown outside.
Obviously, a lot of theseedlings are gone out and
they're all not doingwonderfully, but they're.
They're okay, they're fine,they're hanging in there and
they are getting protected andthey will, they will burst on
once the time is right.
So that's the first thing.
The next thing to watch out forand I've suffered a little bit
(15:37):
with this in the last week is Iput out some nice cabbage plants
.
They actually had got off toquite a good start because they
were in a you know kind of acouple of weeks before that kind
of harsh weather kicked in andthey were off to a nice start.
And just in the last week theyweren't covered, by the way, and
in the last week they've gotfleeced to the point where
there's nothing left, onlystalks with pigeons.
(15:59):
And yeah, why not?
That's what they're going to dothey?
They?
They see an opportunity.
There hasn't been much growthin nature generally over.
You know.
Up until now grass has beengrowing, but other than that,
trees are still are not fullyopened up yet and you know that
full growth is not there.
So nice little new bit ofvegetation goes into the
(16:21):
vegetable beds and the pigeonssee this and great opportunity
to to get something nice to eat.
So they've they fleeced them.
So just watch out for that.
If you do have pigeons in yourarea, they're going to be
definitely going for thebrassicas particularly, and
there will also certain lettucesthey'll go for as well and they
can get cleaned out of it quitequickly.
(16:41):
With the moisture levels comingup, slugs will start to become a
little bit of an issue.
They're not just yet, because Istill think it's a little bit
cold.
It generally feels a little bitcold and you'll know that.
You know when.
That when you get that warmthalong with the, along with the
moisture, then you will see sortof slugs and snails coming to
(17:01):
the fore again.
So just watch out for thoselittle things I mentioned.
You know flower bulbs coming up,the likes of dahlias, for
example.
They're peeping up now, onceyou know from that warm weather
a couple of weeks back.
They certainly have haltedtheir progress and said hold on
a minute here.
Are you sure about this?
And so they are.
They are sitting back a littlebit now but as they, as they
(17:23):
peep up now that we havemoisture, definitely keep an eye
out for slugs, who will be morethan happy to just come along
and munch off, particularlythings like dahlias at this very
early stage.
If they're newly established,particularly so if you've only
just planted in your dahliatubers they'll be peeping up out
of ground now and that's reallyfresh lush foliage for slugs
(17:49):
and snails and they'll beworking just under the surface
and as that new growth comes off.
You mightn't even see it, itmightn't even be peeping up
above the ground, but they'llpeel off that.
So just keep an eye out forthat over the next couple of
weeks, particularly with thingslike dahlias.
(18:11):
Obviously you know the likes ofhostas and things like that.
They'll.
They'll be the same.
You know any of those typethings slugs and snails
potentially over the next weekor two will be a problem.
The the next thing to to do isin relation to your warmer crops
, so crops that we're going togrow on in the polytunnel or
greenhouse, and I'm thinkinghere about things like tomatoes
particularly so I I know somepeople have theirs planted out
(18:34):
and great, if you do, I don't.
Yet I've potted on.
Now they're, they're gone intoa good size pot.
They are doing quite well.
But what?
What they, what they will needagain, I have an open side of
tunnel so it's quite airy inthere.
It's cold, so if it's coldoutside, it's it's coldish in
there as well.
But they're getting what they.
(18:56):
What they do need now over thenext few weeks, is this again a
bit of hardening off.
So we want them to grow, sowhen we get the warm
temperatures they're going togrow strong.
They'll grow particularly big onthese warm days that we're
expecting next week, and whatwe're looking for is we're
looking to harden them a littlebit.
So a few little things to dohere as they're, as they're
(19:18):
growing along the foliage, justshake around the plant a little
bit.
It's kind of hard to do it onuh, on audio here as to what
we're doing, but we're basicallybrushing the top.
So if you have 10 tomato plantsin a tray, brush the tops of
them so run your hands acrossthe top of them, kind of push
them around a little bit andthat will.
That will trick the plant intothinking we need to strengthen
(19:41):
up our stems and they'll sendhormones into that zone and they
will strengthen up their stemsand thicken up their stems and
that's kind of important andit's important for down the line
.
What we don't want is thesetemperatures over the next
couple of weeks to keep risingand then these plants just keep
growing and growing and growingand growing and not get any
strength or or resilience inthem.
(20:02):
So we need to build up a littlebit of resilience in the plants
before we we start putting themout into the tunnels so the
likes of your tomato plants, getthem, give them a bit of a
shake, rub your hands along thetop of the foliage and do that
once a day.
Get into a habit of doing thatand that will strengthen up the
the foliage of the plants, orsorry, the stems of the plants,
and that will make a bigdifference when they're going
(20:23):
out in a couple of weeks time.
That brings me on to the nextpoint of last frost dates, and
that's different for everyone.
In fact, in some parts ofIreland, once we get kind of to
the first of May, their lastfrost date has passed.
For me here typically it's sortof the last week of May and
could even be, you know, thefirst week of june or
(20:45):
thereabouts.
So I typically won't gettomatoes going into polytunnel
until that, or at least if I doI'll be getting them in.
But I'll be keeping an eye andand staying a little bit
cautious on it and I know forsome people that might seem like
it's it's late, but just that'swhat suits here.
(21:05):
If you're somewhere else whereyour frost date is gone or
almost gone, then go for it.
It's, you know there'sdifferent areas, you know.
Get to know your area orwhatever, and really important,
but that that date, that lastfrost, is for your area.
If you're new to garden andyou're not certain what that is,
just you know locally, just aska couple of gardeners or people
(21:27):
who are gardening the wholetime what's typically the the
last frost date around here.
And it could be you can getlittle variances within within a
county or within a geographicalregion.
So again, if there's somebodylocal to you who's grown all the
time, just ask them what'snormally the last frost test and
they'll know because they'llhave been doing it for years and
(21:48):
they'll give you a good steeron that.
But for me here, tomatoestoughen them up over the next
few weeks.
The other thing you can do withthem is slightly, if you get
decent days where you have, youknow, warmish temperatures but
maybe not as warm as it might bein the polytunnel, you can put
them outside for a couple ofhours, put them outside for even
(22:10):
the day, and then bring themback in at night time and that
will give them that bit ofresilience.
Obviously then if they'reoutside, they'll be getting a
small bit of a breeze on them,and that moving around of the
plants is what I'm talking aboutsort of replicating by hand,
moving them around to strengthenup the stems.
So that's important for those.
(22:30):
We also now are getting to, youknow, the likes of pumpkins,
squash, sweet corn, withtemperatures coming up, and we
would be talking about all thesenext week in the seed sowing
guide.
But with temperatures coming up, the likes of those guys can be
got started now, or you canstart to sort of do more with
these, because up until now ithas been has been cool enough
(22:54):
and the opportunity to do thathas been less.
So all of those now, once thetemperatures are coming up and
once we're almost past this lastfrost date, then it's good to
go with all of those.
So there are a couple of thingsthe the big thing is, now that
we have all this sowing, we've,we've gone to this effort.
(23:15):
We've, you know, got ourpotatoes in, for example, and
the shoots are, are thinkingabout coming up over the next
few weeks.
Just protect those, mine, those, the last frost, keeping an eye
on things like hail, which canhappen anytime through april.
You can get it a little bit inearly may as well.
But once you're aware of thosethings and you're able to get it
a little bit in early may aswell, but once you're aware of
(23:35):
those things and you're able togive it a small bit of
protection, it means that yourplant doesn't get a check.
So after, after you plant out,typically speaking, even in the
best of conditions, a plant willjust get a check for a few days
as it comes out of a of aseedling tray and into the
ground.
But if that, if it's coming outinto weather conditions that
are way colder, way windier, waywetter than what you've been
(23:58):
nurturing that that in, thenthat check can be just too much
for them and sometimes they justdon't take off after that or or
worse, they, they die.
So what we want to do is makethat transition as easy as
possible.
There will be obviously alittle bit of a shock going from
one to the other, but if wemake that transition as easy as
possible, there will beobviously a little bit of a
shock going from one to theother, but if we make that
transition as easy as possible,then we have the best chance of
(24:18):
success.
And it means then that down theline that we're not getting,
you know, our next batch is notcatching up too quickly and
we're able to keep those littlegaps in order to have continuity
of supply.
So yeah, that's quite a short,short episode, but it's a really
, really important one we'vesort of talked about, you know,
(24:39):
every month we talk about theseed sowing and seedlings and
all of this type of thing, butthe care of them for those first
few weeks is vital, and youknow, it's rare that we get a
season that's absolutely perfectfrom start to finish.
And this has certainly been thecase, because a few weeks ago
we were talking about howwonderful it was, how warm it
(25:00):
was, how dry it was, and now allof a sudden it's kind of to
flip it out and there is acoolness there, there's a lot of
moisture has fallen and youhave things like wind and hail,
just to just to batter themaround another bit.
So what we're looking to do isprotect, ensure that they get
the best start, ensure thatthey're not getting as much of a
check as they possibly could ifwe didn't do anything.
(25:22):
And you know things likebionetting, enviro, mesh, those
type products, even fleece, youknow any of those that are going
to just give it a little bit ofa protection over these first
few weeks will certainly be ahuge help.
So that's a bit this week'srather short episode.
If you're enjoying the podcast,please share with all your
friends.
If I don't post much butinstagram, facebook, tiktok, I'm
(25:46):
on all of those places.
The video, the youtube everyweek.
The podcast goes up on youtubeevery week, so please help share
it, help get the message outthere.
If there's ever a question didyou want answered on the podcast
, I've done that quite a bit.
Continue to do that.
If you've ever a question thatyou want answered, just shoot me
a message on any of thoseplaces and I'll cover it in the
(26:07):
in the podcast in the comingweeks, and that's been this
week's episode.
Thanks for for listening andI'll tell you next time.
Happy gardening.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.