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Thursday 01 March 2012
Basking in Sunshine
Thursday was a superb day. Surprising it didn’t produce our highest temperature of the year but it certainly felt like it should have done. It was very pleasant on the plot, warm enough to enjoy a cup of coffee sitting outside in the sunshine without a coat. A first this year.
Other creatures down on the plot were also making the most of the sunshine. Underneath the loganberry ia a discarded piece of old timber and it had turned into a little haven for ladybirds and spiders to sit in the sunshine and soak up the warmth. It was only when I replayed the video at home that I noticed just how many spiders were on the piece of wood. I only really noticed one when shooting the video.
Friday 02 March 2012
Sorting Out Our Exotic Fruits
Friday wasn’t a patch on yesterday’s weather as we had a mostly cloudy day although it did brighten up a little in the afternoon. It was another reasonably mild day to be out and about in the garden.
Our Apricot “Flavourcot” arrived yesterday and had temporarily been placed in a large pot with some wet compost just like our newly arrived Nectarine “Fantasia”. I thought the sooner these were potted up into some larger containers the better. Both trees appeared to be still in their dormancy stage so even though they had both dried up in transit I’m hoping they’ll both be forming some nice green buds in a few weeks time. The more we look at the nectarine tree the more we think that the brown buds are starting to green up and that the tree is starting into growth.
Nectarine - Fantazia
Apricot - Flavourcot
Our kiwi can be seen in the picture with its pot wrapped in bubble film for extra protection over winter. This seems to have worked as its already got some lovely green shoots appearing. This was potted up into a larger container as it seemed to struggle a little last summer.
If you look closely its just possible to make out the new green shoots on our Kiwi. Our expectations aren’t high. We’re not really expecting a bumper crop of peaches, nectarines, apricots and kiwis but who knows we might just manage a couple of fruits from each tree.
Kiwi
Saturday 03 March 2012
Rainfall - Do You Get Too Much or Too Little?
Saturday was dull all morning but cleared up in the afternoon finishing off mild and sunny.
Rainfall or lack of it has been making the weather headlines over the last week or so. It seems you either get too much or virtually none at all with parts of the east and southern England already having drought conditions after a dry winter following on from last year’s dry spring and summer.
I noticed that “The View From Bag End” up in West Cumbria is recording the rainfall month by month this year. I suspect that Cumbria is probably one of the wettest areas of the country to garden in. Always up for a comparison I’ve copied the idea and added a table to my blog. Last year we were certainly well short of our expected rainfall but not as dry as the worst affected areas.
With just February’s figures to compare “The View From Bag End” take a comfortable lead in the rainfall table. It might be a little unfair as January was a wet month for us.
Have you any figures to help compare your rainfall figures wherever you do your gardening?
Sunday 04 March 2012
I Might Have Known
Sunday was dull, wet and cold. I should have known that writing a blog post about the lack of rain could only result in one outcome. A wet day. The temperature was a bit of a shock too, as after a mild spell of late, a return to more normal temperatures wasn’t a welcome change.
It rained steadily all morning and into the afternoon. It was never very heavy and had produced 6.4mm by the time the rain moved away.
Late in the afternoon we had a little weak sunshine but it didn’t stop Sunday from been our wettest day since 24th January when we managed 6.6mm of rain.
Monday 05 March 2012
What a Change
Monday was superb with sunshine almost all day long. The temperature was only around average for the time of year and the wind was on the chilly side but it felt pleasant out of the breeze and in the sunshine.
The two web cam pictures grabbed in the middle of the afternoon highlight the difference between the two days.
The downside is that clear skies overnight resulted in a frost with temperatures early Tuesday morning down to -1°C.
Tuesday 06 March 2012
More of the Same
Tuesday was another gorgeous day with sunshine all day long. High cloud developed late in the afternoon resulting in some showers late in the evening.
After a winter break from preparing the base for our new summerhouse I thought it was about time I made a little more progress. I’d really like to have most of the work completed this month before the allotment season gets into full swing in April. I’ve had to bring forward my plans for replacing the pond filter though. The winter seems to have taken its toll on my old filter and it has started to leak. Rather strangely water just appears to be seeping through the plastic.
So I’ll bring forward my plan to replace my old filter system with a new fangled modern design. This will take up far less space which was the aim all along. I did manage to get some paving slabs laid so at least I feel like I’m starting to make progress on the summerhouse base. Up to now its all been demolition but now at last new construction is beginning.
Not a lot of progress but it going to be slow going. Due to lack of space I have to mix the concrete by hand and in relatively small batches. So it will just have to be a steady plod.
In the morning I’d been in the greenhouse sowing a few seeds when I spotted a tiny snail making its way around an upturned plant pot. I decided to try a bit of close up photography to see if I could get a decent picture.
Besides photographing the snail I did eventually manage to make a start sowing a few seeds which are detailed on each of our March 2012 sowing pages for vegetables and flowers.
Wednesday 07 March 2012
Mixed Bag
Wednesday’s weather was pretty mixed. At times we had some nice sunny spells but these quickly gave way to some very unpleasant windy, squally showers. Not that we’ve had a great deal of rain in the first week of March but our 9.2mm is already more than we had in the whole of March last year which was a miserly 7.2mm.
You may remember that I wasn’t the most popular gardener in town when I pruned back our overgrown camellia. Well I’m pleased to say I haven’t actually killed the shrub completely but it’s in a sulky mode and has produced all its flowers looking at the fence and garage rather than giving us a show.
I’m hoping it will eventually re-grow and produce a more shoots on the side where it was severely pruned. Pruning it back also made space for more perennials in the back border so it’s not all bad news.
My replacement pond filter arrived. I’m surprised by how small it is compared with the filter system I have at present.
As the filter can be buried almost up to the inlet and outlet pipes it should be possible to make the filter part of the garden landscape as opposed to my old system which was so large that the garden had to be constructed around the pond filter.