Frosty nights and dry days

Blimey we have had a couple of cold nights this week, down to minus 6 at Shap, which is our nearest weather monitoring station Thankfully it's not got quite that cold in my garden but it's been pretty nippy with a frost and it has meant that the potatoes have needed protection along with some bedding plants that Judy put out last weekend into three really big old metal pots that were once used for boiling swill for feeding pigs in the dim and distance past, another thing that has long since been banned, though it would probably be thought of as pretty trendy recycling now. I brought them from the farm when we moved home. Fortunately a builder's bulk sand bag just fitted over each of them and gave them just enough protection, the potatoes are still small enough to be OK with an upturned bucket over them but it's just as well that I don't grow too many as I had a bit of a job finding enough old buckets. Mind you, even though it's been cold it's been so dry here with almost a month without rain that I have had to do a fair bit of watering just to help things along especially my carrot drums so as they don't get dried out and start wilting.

Its a bit ironic just as it turns cold my 3 pumpkin seeds have germinated though I hasten to add they are well tucked up in the greenhouse and in my propagator at a nice 60+ degrees.They only got planted at the end of last week and they are up and away already, I think Heidi would be proud of them, now I just have to see if we can keep them going without a check till planting

out in June. If they keep growing at this rate, the centre one was the same size as the two on the outside yesterday, they will be big plants by then.

My dahlias are starting to put on some good growth these last 10 days since I divided them. For some reason I don't seem to have a lot of luck at taking cuttings, probably because I start a bit too early in the year when they are not growing as vigorously, so this year I thought I would divide them first and maybe try some cuttings at the same time or later. The cuttings that I took are under the milk carton that I popped over them so as they had a bit of protection from the bright sunshine. If you look carefully at the second picture three plants have quite a distinct yellowing on the young leaves compared to all the rest, they are the variety Marys Jomanda so I am hoping it is just a quirk of that variety and not something more sinister.