Oh june.

Oh June ,like the mountains I’m blue .
Like the pines , I’m lonesome for you .

Who’d have thought it , June is almost here and Northern USA , Canada and Europe are still needing to wear winter woollies ,waterproof's , hats & wellies .

Gardens are almost a full month behind schedule. Those of us who have been hanging on by the finger nails hoping for some seed sowing /germinating weather are having to throw all caution to the winds and start sowing come what may.
There’s not much that you cannot sow at present or should that be “ normally cannot sow “ save for late crop carrots , spring cabbages & early caulies and a few very fine seeded tender flowers.
For some of the longer standing crops like Brussels Sprouts that would be in harvest later in the year it might be a bit too late to sow them and expect a return from them this year .
Buying some plants from a garden centre or nursery this end of May holiday time might be a rescue plan. Just don’t expect a fair range of decent plants as they will usually be selling popular run of the mill stuff that have been force grown /restrained in readiness for the holiday . You might also have to be there at the start of the stores opening time , lest they are all gone by lunch time .
It seems that most plants from such sources will be as stressed & dry as you are at trying to find them .

If you do get plants from these places give them a couple of darn good drinks over a period of around six hours with a few drops of liquid plant feed added to two pints of room temp water ( ..rain water if possible ) and keep them in the pots , still watering them at least once a day for a couple of days to let them acclimatise to being out the rearing poly tunnels & being able to rehydrate effectively then plant them out.
If you are direct into the bed seed sowing and your using Mel’s system , there should not be many problems as the drainage and warmth of the MM should see that the seeds get the best conditions for germination . Saying that there still might be benefit from making mini cloches out of cut down plastic drink bottles etc. and protecting each seed sown or using full square protection just in case we get a crazy June snow around the eight of June like happened in 1963 after the horrendous winter of 1962 to 1963 that only broke in late March .

29 May 2013 Just adding a bit more :-
We’ve just had two glorious days of warmth and sunshine , I’ve got sunburn and now it’s back to normal.
At least I’ve managed to get all the plants in the beds save for 49 geraniums which are waiting another few days for things to warm up a bit more.