Spring time in Brussels can make a gardener consider moving country or giving up gardening altogether. This most sensitive time of the gardening year, when young plants are first exposed to the outside conditions, is highly unpredictable in Brussels.
Violent hail storms over several days bashed all the beans to bits. Even more damaging was the fluctuations in temperatures between day time highs of 16 degrees and night-time lows of 0 degrees. However salad seed sown in trays outside survived un-scathed under the hail.
These types of weather events in spring are becoming more regular. The gardener has to hold back moving plants outside at this time and thereby delay the planting season. This effect of climate change, disruption in growing cycles, is likely to become the norm for gardeners in the future.