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It is foolish to set target dates for achieving particular tasks in the garden. We must be guided by weather conditions - soil temperatures, the incidence of ground frosts, the possibility of drought conditions and the unusual occurrences. In this part of the world, whilst our prevailing wind is from the South West, in early May it will swing round to the East, just as seedlings are coming through the ground or new plants, like brassicas, are beginning to grow away. First problem - it sucks moisture out of newly cultivated ground and plant foliage and secondly it is cold and physically damaging as it buffets young plants putting them under significant stress. This wind is referred to by older generations as the ‘Teuchit storm’, Teuchit being the Scots word for the Lapwing . They are said to arrive at the same time as this east wind. Times have changed however, I have already seen a few Teuchits flying about over the last week or two.

A close up through the cover, of some well established plants

Now maybe I should get to the point. At we use fleece and enviromesh coverings for many of our vegetable crops. Not only do we see benefits in the rate of establishment of the plants sheltered from damaging winds but the rate of maturity is speeded up as well. The huge bonus however is in pest control. Root flies affecting carrots, brassicas and onions can be completely frustrated simply by covering the susceptible crops with fleece from sowing and planting. The flies are unable to lay their eggs in close proximity to the crop plants and must take their destructive powers elsewhere. In relation to the brassica crops, if you are able to keep the plants protected as they gain in stature, the cabbage white butterflies will be excluded and that means no caterpillar damage either. One more plus – we hardly ever see the grey cabbage aphid in the North of Scotland but I know from experience what a nasty mess they can make to crops further south but not with fleece or enviromesh in place.

One more point – we expect to see first generation carrot fly grubs in April and they can devastate emerging crops, hence the need to cover from the start. You may not realise that these little blighters can produce another generation before the summer is out. In my garden they would be laying eggs at the end of July/early August and these are the grubs that make a real mess of the maturing roots, causing injuries that allow the ingress of fungal pathogens that cause rotting in store. Our crops are covered over again for about a month, at that time.