Extreme Gardening

Gardening in the recent extreme conditions is not for the faint hearted. While Tuesday (20 March) was the spring equinox, the first day of spring, the Sunday before (18 March), was the coldest 18th March recorded in Belgium since records began in 1901. However, with some simple adaptations crops can be started in these conditions such as this rocket started during the extreme cold.

The main challenge now is to warm up soil. This can take weeks. Black plastic sheeting over soil beds for the next few weeks will warm the beds and keep rain off to let them dry out. Clear plastic over trays will encourage newly planted seed or can be used to warm up soil before planting. The challenge of the next few weeks is to create reasonably dry and warm soil ready for planting.

The main problem with this extreme weather is the backlog it creates for starting plants in the house and moving them outside. It is too cold for plants to be outside even for a few hours. Thus windowsills fill up and plants are moved about indoors to catch whatever natural sunshine appears. The use of grow lights has proven extremely useful these past few weeks to get plants started.

Usually at this time of year beans are the first thing to get started indoors, hoping to move them outside early next month. The cold ground outside will prevent this. Instead it is time to push on with tomatoes, peppers and other crops which will be staying indoors for the next month anyway. If the temperatures do rise in the next week or two and look to stay that way, beans will be started.

This extreme weather will cause a delay in the planting programme for this year, mainly in the “hardening off” phase when plants move outside to catch spring warmth. Last year plants were starting this process at this time. Watching the 14 day weather forecast for occasional warm afternoons can help but even on sunny days cold winds can destroy seedlings. The gardening forecast for the immediate future is stay indoors and keep warm.

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