On Tuesday it back to sunny breezy weather. Yesterday's rain hadn't penetrated far into the soil and the surface was dry once again. With no more rain on the horizon we decide to start transplanting our brassicas and courgettes into their final positions on the plot from our packed cold frame and greenhouse.
The soil is extremely dry and each young brassica planting hole was filled with water before planting. These plants wouldn't have survived many more days in their restricted containers so we felt there best chance was to be planted out.
These 3 courgettes were also planted out using much the same technique as the brassicas. Besides water each planting hole was enriched with some home made compost.
Courgettes Jemmer, All Green Bush and Zucchin
Late summer and winter brassicas planted out
Thursday, 2 June 2011
Here comes summer
Wednesday saw the start of June and the first day of summer meteorologically speaking. It turned out to be a good start with plenty of sunshine, mild but a bit breezy at times.
On the plot our Crimson Flowered broad beans are just starting to flower. The flowers are appearing on rather dwarf plants which I assume is due to lack of rainfall. Perhaps a good watering will help them along.
We also have some interesting flowers (weeds) in our grass paths around our beds down on the plot.
It's flowering along with some buttercups on a very short stem just like the buttercups. It will be interesting to see if can cope with the close cropping it's going to get in the next few days when the path is mowed.
Crimson Flowered broad beans
Pretty grass path flower
Friday, 3 June 2011
It certainly was a scorcher!
Thursday was the warmest day of the year so far although I also recorded 24.7°C on the 23rd April this year. Thursday qualifies for the warmest day of the year as the average temperature over the whole day was 18.9°C compared with 15.8°C in April.
At least with the weather in this mood it was obvious that plants needed watering. I moved our early potatoes growing in bags out of the plot greenhouse to make way for our final tomato plants.
A scorcher on the plot
Maris Bard and Winston Potatoes
Saturday, 4 June 2011
Highest temperature of the year
Friday saw the highest temperature of the year just topping yesterday's figure to reach 25.1°C. I deliberately haven't termed it warmest day as Thursday's average temperature was slightly higher.
As it was such a pleasant day we did some gardening at home. During one of our many breaks for drinks we spotted a bullfinch visiting our bird table. This is the first bullfinch we've seen in our garden but it was only a fleeting visit and neither of us had a camera at the ready. It was a male and a very striking visitor. This is one photographed at RSPB Low Moor earlier in the year.
I also potted up some tomatoes and peppers in our "air pot" experiment. I saw these pots on BBC's Beechgrove Garden the other week and decided to give them a try following there successful trial in the programme last year.
Click here for the link to the programme fact sheet describing how these air pots work to produce healthier and stronger plants.
Cloudless sky
Male bullfinch
10 litre air pot
Sunday, 5 June 2011
Short lived scorcher
Saturday morning started off as though we were in for another scorcher but it didn't materialise as by lunch time the wind picked up moving into a cold north easterly direction bringing cloudy conditions.
Planting continued on the plot. All our plants are planted into holes that have been filled with water as the ground is very dry.
These potatoes are starting to flower and I reckon the plants are struggling to find water and this may be resulting in them flowering prematurely as I expect the plants to be much more developed before they flower.
Our bullfinch made a return to the bird table today to pick over the remains of sunflower seed left by the goldfinches. The light was fading a little, well that's my excuse this time for not getting a better picture.
Runner beans - Painted Lady
Potatoes - Maris Bard
Bullfinch on our bird table
Monday, 6 June 2011
Not so scorching
A disappointing Sunday. It was dull and grey all day with very little sunshine. A
little bit of sunshine in the afternoon managed to improved things for a while but
it was short lived.
I decided to clear out the nest box used by our blue tits as they only have one brood
each year so will not be using the nest box again. I was amazed at the depth of the
material in the nest box. I did have the unpleasant task of removing the one dead
chick that was left in the nest box from fledging time.
Nest material surprisingly deep
Winston Potatoes
Tomatoes planted out June 2011
Tomatoes planted out June 2010
Tuesday, 7 June 2011
When will it next rain?
Monday was yet another dry day. The weather improved as the day went along with a
dull and cloudy morning giving way to a very pleasant sunny afternoon. The forecasts
for the next week seem to offer no hope of any proper rain just some showers if we
are lucky. I think I even heard a mention of frost in rural areas.
Our early container grown potatoes having been moved out of the plot greenhouse are
taking up lots of space outside the greenhouse and getting comments about how well
the tops have grown. I thought it was about time to see if the roots lived up to
the tops so one container was tipped into the wheel barrow and I sorted through the
compost to collect the harvest. It was a pretty good harvest weighing in at 1.45kg.
Amongst the watering and weeding I finished planting our tomato varieties into the
plot greenhouse in the space left by the potatoes.
The tomato plants are the best of my remaining plants and not necessarily the varieties
I had planned. These are a mixture of Marizol Gold, Gardeners Delight, Moneymaker,
German Red Strawberry and Blondkopfchen.
The challenge this year is to actually produce some tomatoes as last years’ plot
crop was a complete failure which I think was due to the quality of the compost used.
At planting out stage there is little to choose between this year’s and last year’s
plants.
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