What should I be doing given the awful weather?

[Pancho]

I've got all my beds dug and ready. But they're empty apart from onions and garlic that went in last autumn and parsnips that I planted a couple of weeks back but have done nowt.

This weather is really peeing me off.

[Wobbly John]

If you have a greenhouse or windowsill you can use, you could start plants off in trays/pots - greens, tomatoes, peppers, leeks, lettuce, etc.

New potatoes should be 'chitting'  - the tragitional time for planting them is Good Friday, but after trying to do the first of mine in the snow this morning, I'm waiting a couple of weeks before I have another go. 

Carrots, beetroot and broad beans can go in as soon as the land starts to warm.

[Byronius Maximus]

Cycling, surely?

[Bledlow]

...
Carrots, beetroot and broad beans can go in as soon as the land starts to warm.

About July, at the current rate.

[longers]

I'm going to scrounge some clear plastic sheeting to cover the beds that need planting first as according to GQT, that's the stuff that'll warm the soil fastest. Other than that - we'll be doing our best to be patient.

[Pancho]

I've just asked my favourite weather forecast site for an opinion; for the first time I'm seeing the prospect of double figure temperatures! Admittedly, they're 15 days away which makes it, in weather forecasting accuracy terms, not much more reliable than tea leave reading. But, it gives me hope. And, just now, that's all I've got.

I've been on leave the past week. I'd planned to use the time to be planting. Instead, I've been doing my usual winter chores of wheelbarrowing muck around the place. And even that in short stints - it's been so bloody chilly. So I've also done a lot of looking out of the windows and complaining. And getting in the way of the girls in the kitchen and nicking food.

That said, I have got pots full of compost on the windowsills. I'll put in chilli and tom seeds today, maybe.