Well the problem with the courgettes hasn't been the cold but the wind. It's been ridiculously windy the last couple of days with the result that every larger leaf on the two courgette plants I put out has snapped at the stem. They still seem to be growing vigorously from the centre of the plant so hopefully when the wind dies off they will still be OK. I have them inside plastic slug collars to gives them some protection but probably makes the wind problem worse as they have a hard edge to snap against. I did my best to pad the inside of the collar with bubble wrap but the stems are still snapping. Maybe it will spur the plants on to grow sturdier stems on the new leaves If I do lose these, at least I still have some on the windowsill.
I also cleared a new bed next to the patio and have moved several baby strawberry plants from various spots around the garden, which have spread into unsuitable places by runners. They all seem to have taken root quickly and are growing very well, even the ones that my 2-year-old son has trodden/sat on! They are pretty tough plants. Looks like there are some flower buds already. Hopefully I will have a nice strawberry patch within easy picking distance of the garden chairs!
More success - I thought I had managed to kill our mint, which is meant to be impossible to kill but I have managed it before. It was in a pot sunk into the old veg patch, and I left it out for too long before moving it into the new one. It hadn't done anything and when I lifted it, the rootball was all mouldy so I had to bin it. Fortunately while digging through the veg patch I noticed some familiar looking leaves, which on further investigation were the tip of an extremely long mint shoot that had made its way to the sunlight from a broken-off piece of root buried about a foot down in the ground! I lifted it up, coiled it round in a new pot and sank that into a corner of the veg patch and it seems to be thriving again.
Less successful: the tomato seedlings which came up well a couple of weeks ago seem to have just stalled. They are not wilting, or drying up or dying, they have just.... stopped at the stage where the first true leaves are coming through. Very odd.
Edited by user
21 April 2020 08:34:39
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Reason: Not specified
Yateley, NE Hampshire, 73m asl
"But who wants to be foretold the weather? It is bad enough when it comes, without our having the misery of knowing about it beforehand." — Jerome K. Jerome