It does not matter which month the calendar displays, or what the weather forecast predicts, nature alone decodes when winter has ended and summer has begun.
I have noticed that the weather in the spring is much more extreme: it is a time when the weather can be wintry for three days, summery for two, then return to colder, windier, weather then we had during the winter itself.
It has certainly been like that this year; however summer has made itself know now and is ready to start.
As growers such unpredictability means that it is crucial that we have a measured approach to the changing seasons. We must notice details and not wait for the papers to proclaim ‘Phew what a scorcher’ or to experience motorway traffic queues to know that it is summer.
When you have picked the last purple sprouting broccoli and next years seedlings are eager to be planted out, when the radishes and rocket are abundant and when the flowers appear on the strawberries, it is safe to say that summer is,at the very least, imminent.
The sun shines and it will not be long before we have a hosepipe ban, which will mean that real summer, in all it’s precipitous glory, arrives.
At the moment we are having a few balmy nights.Wrestle out the chair from the back of the shed and enjoy the evening.
It is 33 degrees here in Oxford and has been for the last three days
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