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Friday 01 June 2012
Live Weather Cock
Friday was a disappointing start to June producing a cool dull day.
I bet the Meteorological Office don’t have this sort of a problem measuring wind speeds. It’s bad enough that down on the plot the resident wood pigeons are happy to feast on our crops once our backs are turned. Now our wood pigeons at home have taken a liking to roosting on the wind vane of my weather station.
At least only the wind direction will be affected and not the speed. To be honest it didn’t perch there for too long. It was just queuing up waiting for more seed to be put out on the bird table.
Saturday 02 June 2012
Ready for the Chop
Saturday continued the poor start to June with another dull day and cool temperatures.
On the plot we managed to erect some wigwams and plant out our runner beans. The recent rain had softened up the ground and some of our potatoes were weeded and earthed up.
There are now a couple of dull but important tasks to be accomplished. The Phacelia sown back in March as green manure is in bud and is ready for chopping down and digging in. Our Comfrey is also ready for its first cut of the year. This might be added to the compost heap or used to make a liquid fertiliser to use throughout the summer. The latter being the smelliest option.
Top row and bottom left Phacelia. Bottom right Comfrey.
Sunday 03 June 2012
A Washout!
It didn’t stop raining on Sunday. The BBC forecast was that the rain wouldn’t reach this far north. They were wrong although they had admitted some uncertainty about that prediction. The Met Office forecast rain and they were right.
Not only was it very wet it was cold too with the temperature steadily falling all day. The daily average was only 7.8°C hard to believe it’s the beginning of June.
By the time it stopped raining we had managed a total of 22.8mm of rain making it the 3rd wettest day since I started keeping records in October 2009.
|
|
Date |
Rainfall (mm) |
|
1 |
14- |
33.4 |
|
2 |
20- |
26.2 |
|
3 |
03- |
22.8 |
|
4 |
26- |
22.7 |
|
5 |
26- |
21.6 |
|
6 |
01- |
19.9 |
|
7 |
08- |
19.1 |
|
8 |
06- |
18.8 |
|
9 |
29- |
17.9 |
|
10 |
03- |
17.4 |
At least the plot shouldn’t need watering for a few days!
Monday 04 June 2012
Catching Up
Monday was much better, it could hardly have been much worse than Sunday. It wasn't particularly warm but at least it was dry all day.
Gardening this year seems to be a matter of continually trying to catch up after some poor weather of one kind or another. Today was no exception. Our brassica plants needed planting out and some French beans “Tendergreen” were just a little beyond the stage of ready for planting but I’m hopeful, given some good weather, they’ll make some decent plants.
These are our autumn cabbage and Brussels sprouts plants. The actual planting didn’t take long it’s the protection measures to prevent pigeon attack that takes up most of the time. We’ve found out the hard way that no protection results in devastated plants and no worthwhile crop.
The french beans didn’t look too bad once they were planted out .
Our carrot experiment using a weed suppressant membrane seems to be working. Our young carrot seedlings are progressing well and are not being crowded out by weeds, which with the recent wet weather are certainly the fastest growing plants on the plot.
Of course there’s still a long way to go before they provide us with some tasty roots but so far so good.
Tuesday 05 June 2012
Two birds with One Stone
Tuesday was another overcast and cool day with just a little light rain in the evening.
My plan was to combine a little steam train spotting with a trip to the garden centre for some new fruit cage netting to protect our red currants which are just starting to turn. The Yorkshireman was to be steam hauled by 70013 Oliver Cromwell from London Victoria to York but unfortunately the engine failed and as you can see below the train was in fact diesel hauled. Part one of my plan a total failure.
At the garden centre the fruit cage netting was much easier to find. All we need now is a little fine weather to get the redcurrants covered before the blackbirds help themselves to the ripening berries.
Wednesday 06 June 2012
Chelsea Chop
Wednesday was warmer than the last few days but then it spoilt itself with some light rain starting late afternoon.
Last August I gave our large camellia the Chelsea chop. It was a little late for the so called chop but it was pretty severe as the shrub had been allowed to grow out of control for a number of years. It was cut back to bare wood and I wasn’t sure that it would re-grow from such a severe pruning.
There are now new shoots forming on the old branches so it’s now going to be interesting to see just how these shoots grow and how long it takes them to produce flowers.
13th April 2012
6th June 2012
I thought that are our new rhubarb crown “Stockbridge Arrow” had rotted away over winter but before I tipped out the pot it surprised me by produced a tiny shoot and so it lived to fight another day. It’s now produced a strong enough plant to be added to our collection on the allotment.
Thursday 07 June 2012
And Another Washout!
Thursday was another wet day with rain on and off from mid morning morning into the evening with the hint of a drier spell around lunchtime .
In contrast to plenty of rain in the first week of flaming June we’ve managed a total of just 8.6 hours of sunshine that’s less than a day’s worth. Last year we had 155 hours of sunshine in June so the remaining three weeks will have to be good if we are to get anywhere near that