Wickedly chilly

It’s been a cold spring so far. Wickedly chilly, in fact. Overnight temperatures up here in the frozen north of Scotland are still hovering just above freezing, a good five or six degrees below where they were at this time last year. We need them to be consistently in double figures for any real growth.

Whereas this is ok for the cold-hardy seedlings that have been in the ground for the last four weeks, it is proving challenging for my heat loving Mediterranean veggies like tomatoes, cucumbers, chillies and courgettes which are backing up in my study.

The tomatoes have been planted out in the polycrub for a few weeks now, but they’ve stopped growing in protest at their cruel conditions and are giving me malevolent stares every time they see me. They’re looking a bit pinched. I’m their torturer, clearly.

We’ve been talking about making moveable frames for fleece or old bubblewrap that we could pop over them on cold nights to give them a bit of cosseting, and I think we’re going to have to do it if we’re going to get any crops from them.

The cucumbers, chillies and courgettes are all still in small pots indoors waiting for it to be warm enough to make the transition and they’re also giving me disbelieving stares as they rampantly entwine, desperate for some growing space.

I find myself studying the weather forecast daily, doing the growers planting-out dance. I think that we may have a window next week where things look as if they’re warming up to something a bit closer to ten degrees, so I’m remaining hopeful.