ossettweather.com
A Gardener’s Weather Diary - October week 1
Saturday, 01 October 2011
A temperature record breaker
Saturday was a day for breaking the highest October temperature records all around the country. From Paul Hudson’s blog details for Yorkshire are given as follows;
In Yorkshire, the highest October temperature on record was set in Whitby on the 2nd October, 1908, with 28.3C (82F).
We just managed to break that yesterday recording a high of 28.5°C at 13:45. I’m sure the official records will be slightly different but I suspect the record will be broken officially.
Whilst some parts of the county have no doubt had a wet September we had another dry month with just 50% of our anticipated rainfall.
We’ve now reached a low spot for the year as we’ve had just 64% of the annual rainfall for 2011. I’m tempted to say that the only way is up now but I've thought that for the past few months. Now that this super spell of weather is coming to an end for us some rain would be most welcome to allow some break from watering on the plot.
Our second batch of autumn planting onions Electric and Shakespeare have arrived from Thompson and Morgan. I’m sharing our four onion varieties with a gardening friend so once the sets are divided up they will be planted in the plot as soon as possible. Our new super garlic collection has arrived from the same supplier too, so we will have to decide on our planting method for these, to hopefully produce better results than this year when we had a complete crop failure.
Monday, 03 October 2011
On a go slow
There was no blog posted yesterday (for Sunday’s weather) as my computer had decided to have a long weekend and was operating on a very go slow. Each click of the mouse demanded a patient wait while the little blue circle whirled and nothing at all happened. After a few re-boots something sorted itself out and normal service was restored.
Sunday’s weather was a little bit disappointing following several days of absolutely glorious conditions it turned out to be an overcast day with the clouds just thick enough to give a little drizzle at times.
Our winter onions for storing have all been tidied up and placed in the greenhouse. They may need some extra protection when the colder weather arrive but for the moment they should be fine.
Monday was a much better day although it was windy in the afternoon. It was still very mild for October with a high temperature of 25.3°C. The night time low fell to only 13.4°C giving us an average temperature of 18.7°C, ridiculously high for October.
We decided to make the most of the weather and visited the RSPB Reserve at Blacktoft Sands.
This reserve is situated almost at the confluence of the Rivers Humber and Trent. The land is very flat and the wind was even stronger here.
Tuesday, 04 October 2011
It might be October
After the last week Tuesday was a shock to the system and a reminder it’s October. The wind was still strong but its mild Monday feel had disappeared and it took on a cold edge. The temperature managed the mid teens rather than the mid twenties. October had definitely arrived.
After our day out on Monday we thought a visit to the plot to plant our winter onions would be a good idea. The ground is very dry, the hot weather and winds of the last week have totally dried out any moisture remaining in the soil. The four different varieties have each been given a row of their own and sufficient space left between each bulb to allow for weeding. This seemed to work well for our summer onions so we’re hoping it will work just as well for our winter ones. Rain is forecast for Thursday but I somehow have the feeling I'll be watering these onions by the weekend.
Wednesday, 05 October 2011
Mild and Windy
After yesterdays plunge into October it was mild again today but it was still blowing a gale. The strength of the wind was stronger today than either Monday or Tuesday. A few showers gave us just under one millimetre of rain, an amount which is no good at all for the garden with the gale force wind drying up the ground even more.
I know it’s very early in the month but as this amazingly mild start to October continues I wonder if we might just make a monthly high average temperature for October having already set the highest daily temperature.
I reckon at this stage of the month we are well above the highest monthly average for the warmest October on record set in 2001. In that year the average monthly temperature by the 5th of the month was 14.68°C and this year it’s 16.90°C well above 2001 but of course there’s still a long time to go.
Thursday, 06 October 2011
Surprisingly tasty quinces
I must have upset someone yesterday suggesting that October might set record high temperatures. Tuesday’s minimum temperature 13.4°C turned out to be Thursday’s maximum.
It was even windier than the last few days especially when the squally showers arrived at various times throughout the day. The showers gave us 5.8mm of rainfall which I think will be enough to water in our newly planted autumn onions.
Earlier in the week we had picked our first two quinces, Meeches Prolific, and these were made into a quince and apple crumble today.
I didn’t hold out much hope when I peeled the skin of the hard pear shaped fruit. The centre of the fruit was hard and nutty making it difficult to cut out. Cooked with a little sugar and a drop of water they soon softened giving off a wonderful sweet smell and what’s more they tasted really good too. You can read more about our quince tree on Susan’s blog soon.
Friday, 07 October 2011
Major clearing starts
Some decent sunny spells today tempted us down to the plot. The gales of yesterday had abated and in the sunshine it was pleasant with temperatures around average for early October.
On the plot it was time to start major tiding up before the onset of any prolonged bad weather. Our greenhouse was cleared of its tomato crop and the haulms consigned to the ever mounting compost heap. The runner bean wigwams were taken down and the canes stored in the greenhouse to keep the worst of the winter weather off them and prolong their useful life.
And finally the most important task of the day was to harvest out remaining quinces before they were either blown off the tree and bruised as they hit the ground or frosted.
