Gardening Blog
Allotment Diary
January 6, 2009: fearsome creatures
Terry Walton considers the effect of frost on the vegetable patch - and wonders what manner of 'super pest' we will all be fearing this year
The end of 2008 finished on a cold note with severe night-time temperatures and the day time doing little to raise the mercury on the thermometer. Enter 2009 and the temperatures fell even further. The sight from the warmth of my bedroom window was spectacular with the frozen fog carpeting everything with an eerie white glaze.
At last a winter to be proud of! It has been many a winter since we have experienced so many days of cold weather in succession freezing deep into the soil.
It must have penetrated at least three inches and I bet it has brought a bit of a shock to those soil borne pests that usually lurk there in relative comfort. Maybe, just maybe, it will help cut back on their numbers and next spring give the plants a chance to grow a decent size before being attacked in large numbers by these pests.
The slugs must also be travelling much further into the soil to keep their ‘toes’ from freezing off. I only hope their ‘sat nav’ systems fail them and many fail to find their way back to the surface. We can hope, can’t we?
The downside of this deep, penetrating frost is that winter vegetables which are housed below the surface are frozen in situ. No parsnips or leeks at present as these are proving impossible to remove from their icy tombs. Still, this won’t matter they will last that much longer and we have to make do with swede and ample supplies of brussel sprouts.
The winter green manure is suffering in these low temperatures and has ceased to grow anymore. Still, on the bright side, it has done its job and will be easy to turn in when temperatures rise. This prolonged cold spell has given the plants a chance to slumber as they are forced into dormancy which will rest their roots and bring forth a flurry of new, fresh growth in the spring sunshine. Whoa, I am getting too excited and ahead of myself now, there are a few difficult months ahead before those better times.
On a slightly more sinister note, I wonder what the climate experts will predict as the ‘scary’ creature for 2009?
In recent years there has been widespread concern among gardeners caused by predictions that troublesome pests from warmer climes would impact on our gardens.
In 2006 we were going to be attacked by 'killer' bees that were going to fly across the Atlantic and decimate our bee populations and make our daily visit to our gardens a nightmare. Fortunately this has not happened. There have been other factors that have affected our beloved bees but not the alien menace of American proportions.
Then what hit the gardening press? Yes - all the way from the other side of the globe - the invasion of the Australian flatworm. This grotesque monster of a worm was going to decimate our earthworm population. Yes, they did arrive on these shores but have failed to establish themselves. The lager was probably not strong enough for them and the summers too cold.
What of 2008, yes last year's monster pest was the super ant! These impressive armies were marching across Europe and were sitting the other side of the channel just waiting to cross. Thank heavens for that stretch of water and their ability not to be able to do the ‘crawl’ for many miles.
I only hope that 2009 does not see the rise of the ‘super slug’ or I will hang up my gardening boots forever.
But whatever pests nature decides to throw our way I am sure the resilience of the gardening fraternity will be able to take it all in our stride.
We shall overcome!
My Life On A Hillside Allotment
Terry Walton is a regular contributor to The Jeremy Vine Show on BBC Radio 2 and has written a book called, My Life on a Hillside Allotment, published by Bantam Press. The book is available from Amazon
