Weather Watching

A part of my daily life is checking the local weather forecast. Growing your own produce is very much reliant on the weather being favourable but in reality sometimes it's not! We've had some lovely days here and a rise in temperatures which means the seeds are starting to sprout which is great - the downside is that we've had more rain than usual for this time of the year and most of my garden is waterlogged.

Even with careful planning sometimes there are setbacks and delays. You have to learn to get over them and get on with the jobs you can do. Every square metre dug over or batch of seeds planted is a step forward, but rushing to get the job done then finding you're in for bad weather rarely pays off so is a step backwards.

If you're hoping to breed livestock then plan carefully when the offspring will be born. We had our first litter of piglets born when it was exceptionally cold, -23 degrees C, and it caused extra stress all round as we struggled to keep the babies warm. Not something we'd do again or advise. The next litter are due in August and we count ourselves lucky to have 6 healthy, happy and well grown piglets from the first litter.