Sarah Raven is writing a series in the Telegraph on starting a vegetable patch from scratch.
One of the first things she advises to work out is where the patch should go. As I wrote here on my About page my garden doesn’t lend itself to a patch so instead I’ll be using containers and bags.
But the question of where to put them still needs answering.
As Sarah Raven reminds us, the UK’s short growing season means giving plants all the help we can. I.e. by putting them in sheltered sunny spots to get full sun. Her tip: this is likely to be your sunbathing spot. What happens to your sunbathing? Could it be that now having a vegetable patch, you’ll be too busy working in the garden to lie in it! Lucky for me, the sun and I are a match made in lobster or should I say tomato . So my plants are welcome to that prime sunning spot!
I’ve now got to work out where that is.
I remember something Alan Titchmarsh wrote about taking a day to sit in a deckchair and note the progress of the sun round your garden. Much as I like the idea of relaxation under the cover of research it’s too cold for that right now!
So I’ll use his idea but from the kitchen. But I’ll also need the sun which today must be warming the occupants of faraway deckchairs!
Sarah Raven also highlighted the need to provide plants shelter from the wind. Reminding us they won’t grow well if rocked at their roots and that leaves can blacken with windburn. And this will be worse on the windy western side of the plot.
So I also need to check out where the wind blows from. Definitely not doing that from the deckchair.
All this getting to grips with the weather must be one of the first signs of becoming a gardener. It’s no longer just about ‘shall I take a brolly’ or ‘do I need a coat’. But instead it’s ’ how does the weather affect my garden/plants’. If you are also starting out, I found the Met office site useful for an overview of the UK weather system.
Finally on the weather I had a message from a reader in the US who writes a wonderful blog on Raising Creative Children (that double mission puts the tomatoes and their particular growing requirements firmly in perspective!) who’d love to join in and grow tomatoes but is wondering how we compare in terms of seasons. She is in Michigan where they still have snow. Brrrr! Our snow at the 
beginning of February was magical but it’s even more special to be seeing and feeling spring arrive. (The photos are of my garden deep in snow).
So to give my tomato growing activities a weather context I’m going to add the daily temperature for my own location on to the bottom of each post.
Today’s day temperature range : 9°c- 17°c ( 48°f – 63°f)
