LAST week’s cold snap was not all bad news.

Although visits to the allotment were just to keep feathered friends fed, the cold, wintry weather was good news for rhubarb growth.

Rhubarb leaf stalks are eaten as a fruit, but it is actually an ornamental perennial vegetable.

Winter hardy, rhubarb is a cool season crop and in order for it to grow properly, it needs a spell of cold weather. During the winter months, the rhubarb crown becomes dormant after frenetic growth during spring and summer months, and temperatures below 45 degrees Fahrenheit (five degrees centigrade) are needed in order to stimulate bud break.

Thankfully, the weather obliged and the sub-zero temperatures were perfect for this easy to grow plant.

Rhubarb can be planted now and you can buy sections of crown (a crown consists of a fleshy rhizome and buds) at garden centres or get a fellow allotment holder to slice a piece of rhizome (make sure there is at least one dormant bud attached) and transplant. Mother plants can remain productive for more than ten years.

You will soon know when it has reached the end of its natural life as yields will decline and sometimes the leaves turn yellow or are badly mottled. Then it is time to start again.

Now that temperatures have risen, another job I shall be doing this weekend is laying some black plastic membrane over my seed bed to help warm up the soil ready for sowing and planting in March. The manure I put on top earlier in the winter has now rotted down nicely and the black membrane will absorb the sun’s rays and warm up the cold soil.