Greetings from Great Britain

[triffid]

Hello all

I stumbled across this site during a websearch for the Barksdale wax bean, which I've been entrusted to grow for Russ Crow's bean network next season.

I've been hooked by many of the topics here, and slowly but surely reading through what I can in my spare time. A couple people here might recognise my username from TEG, Homegrown Goodness and the OSSI plant breeding forum.

There's always such a wealth of knowledge, enthusiasm and dedication to be found on seed saving forums; it continues to be a joy to discover new places to learn of others' passion projects and conservation endeavours.

Season's Greetings!

[Tucson Grower]

Welcome. and Season's Greetings to you, as well.

[macmex]

Triffid, great to have you on board. I have hung out some on Homegrown Goodness. It's a great group. Glad to have you here too!
I would think that Barksdale would love the climate of Great Britain!

[hmoosek]

Yes, I recognize your handle. Welcome to the group.

[heavyhitterokra]

Yet another facet added to our multi-faceted group.

Welcome, triffid. Nice to have you onboard.

[triffid]

Thanks, everyone!

macmex yes, I believe Barksdale should do well here, based on your growth reports.

[chrysanthemum]

Welcome, Triffid. You are so right about the wealth of information here. I feel blessed to have found it in the past year, and I still haven’t been able to go through all the hidden gems.

Would you tell us more about your climate? England is so very different from where I grew up (central Virginia in the USA) and where I live now (very south central Texas, USA). My current growing zone is 8b, and raising crops here is very different from the 6b/7a I had been used to. When I saw 9a in your signature, it conjured up thoughts of heat-loving plants until my brain clicked in that England won’t have anything like the heat that I associate with zone 9 in the southern US.

Just to see a visual weather comparison I chose Hastings as a south east England city and compared it to Pleasanton, Texas, which is a city south of me solidly in the USDA 9a zone but not so urban as San Antonio which is close by. The comparison was a bit shocking to me in that the high temperatures in Hastings for the vast majority of the year are lower than the nighttime low temperatures for that part of Texas. Here’s a link if you’re interested.

weatherspark.com/compare/y/44793~7098/Comparison-of-the-Average-Weather-in-Hastings-and-Pleasanton

What do you consider your growing season in England? How much rain do you get? Do you grow outdoors, or do you have a greenhouse or tunnels? What types of plants do you typically grow?

[triffid]

Hi, chrysanthemum!

Weather in the British Isles is hard to describe. It does what it wants, when it wants, wherever it pleases. In recent years it's become more Mercurial; it rains more for longer, the heatwaves are more dangerous, and here on the south coast violent storms throughout the year are increasingly frequent.

This year the weather in the South East (it was different in the rest of the country) was opposite to the conditions experienced in 2020. It was wet, dull, and miserable for most of the season; slugs and snails were thick on the ground. We experienced a very late spring www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weather-and-climate/2021/lowest-average-minimum-temperatures-since-1922-as-part-of-dry-april and a monsoon in May. Rain continued in June, was followed by a cold August and then a dry sunny warm autumn. But that was just down here: it was a decent year in other parts of England and hot in Scotland and NI www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weather-and-climate/2021/one-of-the-hottest-summers-on-record-for-scotland-and-northern-ireland

A lot of rainfall records were broken this spring www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weather-and-climate/2021/cool-wet-may-concludes-spring-of-marked-contrasts

In contrast, last year we had an extremely warm, dry spring. www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weather-and-climate/2020/2020-round-up
It didn't rain for months and farmers and gardeners suffered alike. Our apples set no fruit. Then we had a monstrous heat wave in August, over 35c at times www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weather-and-climate/2020/heatwave-continues-august - followed by two named storms and record-breaking rainfall in the autumn. I remember the beans giving up on life, only to be revived and start blooming again after the late August storms.

The season, between frosts, is from mid-May at the latest to late-Oct. That said, in this past mild autumn I was picking uncovered dwarf beans in November. It's very interesting to see the comparison to Pleasanton. You'd think crops that grow there wouldn't stand a chance here. But many 'heat-loving' vegetables are quite happy.

I garden organically on a 250sqm plot. Strategic planting is a must. Relay/intercropping and year-round cultivation and covered cropping is needed to make the most out of the limited space, so I'm working on managing most of the plot intensively with the 'French method' of market gardening. Then there are the breeding and seed saving projects which do not fit into this intensive cultivation plan easily, or not at all, but must be allocated with a good few beds each season.

I grow garlic, leeks, lettuce, peas, beets, brassicas, broad beans, radicchio, yacon, carrots, parsnips, celeriac, many sorts of potatoes, herbs, flowers, soft fruit and top fruit.

Sweetcorn, field corn, beans, squash and maincrop courgettes all do well outside. Early courgettes, tomatoes, peppers, long cucumbers and melons will be kept under cover, in a frame or polytunnel. Tomatoes can grow without the protection but it keeps the rain off which slows the spread of late blight somewhat.

For hardy crops - mainly salads, carrots, herbs, and flower transplants - cold frames or polytunnel keep them going throughout the cold months. I'd like to utilise hotbeds this spring for the melons and forcing carrots. They're definitely 'forgotten' tech which should be utilised more in this country. Much potential heat is wasted in these slow compost and manure piles. Here's an expert, located much further north, to give you some idea of what's possible with hotbeds and frames in worse conditions than ours!

If only I had a source of free manure...

Am I correct in assuming that a flourishing garden in easier to attain in your climate?

[chrysanthemum]

Thank you, triffid, for such a thoughtful and detailed reply. It has taken me a bit of study to process and understand it. I read your linked articles but also had to look up some terms to try to “translate” them to American English.

Here’s what I want to see if I’ve interpreted correctly:

Soft fruit - berries that grow on bushes, canes, or runners like strawberries, raspberries or blueberries?
Top fruit - tree fruit such as apples, peaches, or pears?

Early courgettes and main crop courgettes- I understand courgettes to be what we call zucchini, and we eat those immature. Would that be an early courgette? Do you let zucchini mature and call that a main crop courgette? The only time I use the word maincrop is in reference to what we call Irish potatoes, and we sometimes distinguish between “new” and “maincrop” potatoes.

When I was reading the articles about the UK’s weather that you linked, I shared some of the information with my nine-year-old daughter. I thought you might find her reaction amusing. It was basically along the lines of “How could it possibly have been so much sunnier than usual and colder at the same time?” I explained to her the difference between 29 degrees N where we live and 50 degrees N where you live. It is unusual for us to have a cool day with sunshine. We do have cool/cold days in winter, but they tend to be cloudy. The sun here is quite intense and warms things quickly when it’s out.

Our average frost-free season in this part of Texas (Texas is very large so has many different growing zones) is mid March to mid November, but it is actually a more difficult place to grow than I am used to. Because of the extreme heat and sunshine in the mid summer, it’s more like two short growing seasons in the spring and fall, but I’m learning how to handle it. I have some pictures and descriptions of my garden in an Introductory thread called “Greeting from the edge of Texas Hill Country” if you’d like to see it. My biggest challenge is probably watering enough. This year we had more rain in the summer than usual, and I think that helped me to have a more successful garden. We also haven’t had our first frost yet, which is unusual, so I still have peppers growing in the garden in the same bed where I planted Napa cabbage and kale expecting that the pepper plants would have been cleared out by now.

[triffid]

Yes, that's exactly right regarding the fruit. Apologies for the lack of clarity. I get carried away when discussing fruit & veg!

Courgettes are identical to zucchini and are eaten at the same immature stage. An early courgette is just any variety that is precocious and sown earlier than the summer maincrop. They may yield less comparatively but are exceedingly valuable to fill the early-season gap when courgettes are scarce i.e. May - June. I believe it's not quite the same as forcing (?) They require some kind of protection from the elements and warmth, but the plants do not spend their whole lives under cover.
A mature courgette/zucchini is what we call a marrow. They're no longer popular except for giant vegetable exhibitions.

I shall indeed give your introductory thread a good read over the holidays. Your daughter has every right to be confused our coldest winter days come with the most beautifully blue skies and sparkling sunshine.
(Except for that period in February a year or two ago, when it was sunny and 21c. That was weird.)

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!