Monday, 23 January 2017
New For Old
Apart from last Friday which was a nice sunny day we've had a full week of dull and gloomy weather. Before Friday it was dull and mild for late January but since Friday's sunshine it's been gloomy and cold with a touch of overnight frost and daytime temperatures not much above freezing.
Temperatures & Solar Radiation Records 16-22 January 2017
I had a quick look in the summerhouse to check on our remaining overwintering onions, shallots and Crown Prince squashes. They all look to be keeping okay and the onions and shallots are much drier now they have been moved from the allotment shed into the summerhouse.
To complete the cycle our onions and shallot sets for the new season arrived last week and are being stored in the summerhouse until planting time comes around.
I'll probably take the sets out of their bags and spread them out once I can find some suitable cardboard boxes for the job. I'll need to take care that the different onion varieties don't get mixed up.
Tuesday, 24 January 2017
Coldest Day of the Year
The last few days have been a bit mixed although it's certainly remained on the cool side even for January. After a cold dull weekend we were greeted with a foggy start to Monday but the fog lifted and the sun came out for a couple of hours before it clouded over again by lunchtime.
Temperature & Solar Radiation Records 22-24 January 2017
Tuesday morning has seen our coldest temperature of 2017 with the thermometer falling to -2.8°C (27.0°F).
Outdoors some of our daisies don't look too happy but a least the pot has survived the cold temperatures intact. That's not the case with our terracotta pots.
As you can see this terracotta pot by the pond and home to a hosta has decided to part company with its rim. Now we will have to decided if we like the look of a well weathered pot or do we repot our hosta into a new terracotta pot. I'm sure all the terracotta pots we buy reckon to be frost resistant but I've never really found they are.
Thursday, 26 January 2017
Potato Hunting
Tuesday and Wednesday turned out to be lovely sunny January days. It meant a couple of frost nights and misty mornings but the mist lifted quickly leaving us with almost dawn to dust sunshine.
Thursday morning has brought a change and the sunny weather has disappeared leaving us with a cold and cloudy morning.
Temperature & Wind Chill Records for 26 January 2017
It's not very windy but the little bit that there is makes it feel bitterly cold outside. Yesterday it was possible to feel a little bit of warmth in the sunshine.
We've got our list of seed potatoes ready for the coming season.
As you can see it's not a very high tech list but we've given careful consideration of last year's crops yields and tastes. We plan Armour as one of our main crop varieties rather than Vivaldi which suffered from slug damage but we are considering giving Vivaldi a second chance as it cropped well and tasted fine. We'd also like to find some different varieties to try if we can purchase them in small enough quantities.
Saturday, 28 January 2017
A Cold Week But We've Some Seed Potatoes
It's certainly been a cold week even allowing for the fact it's late January.
Temperature Records 22-28 January 2017
Although Thursday didn't have the keenest frost of the week, it did have the lowest average daily temperature of the month just managing to creep up into positive territory at 0.2°C or 32.4°F. Friday didn't do much better averaging 0.3°C which is 32.5°F. Friday night into Saturday morning brought to an end a run of six consecutive nights of sub zero temperatures. That last happened in January 2012.
The first part of our potato buying plan came to fruition on Thursday with a visit to our local (Horticentre) garden centre where we found our seven planned carefully chosen main varieties.
There's a little bit of space left at the bottom of the table as we plan a return visit at the weekend when the garden centre has its annual potato day event. We plan to purchase enough tubers of six different varieties to fill one of our smaller beds.
This is how our small bed of testers looked last year at the end of June. We are hoping to do something similar this year to see if we can fine some different varieties to grow. Last year Armour was one of our testers and it did well enough for it to be added to this year's main crop. I've just emptied the sack of last year's Armour crop which was stored in the garage since being lifted in the middle of August last year.
From the look of these there doesn't seem to be a problem with the keeping qualities of this variety. Our seed potatoes for this season have joined last year's crop of potatoes stored in the garage. They've gone into a potato sack and they will be stored in the dark and hopefully frost free garage until the end of February when they will be set out to chit in the greenhouse.
Monday, 30 January 2017
Potato Chitting
It wasn't too bad a weekend for the end of January. We had some sunny spells mixed in with a little bit of light rain but the rain didn't amount to much. It was still a little bit on the cold side as we wait for the warmer Atlantic weather systems to arrive through the week ahead.
We headed for the garden centre on Sunday to select our trial seed potatoes for the coming season. They've been placed in the summerhouse to chit before they are planted out in late March or early April.
Tuesday, 31 January 2017
"Great Garden Birdwatch"
Well I'm not sure I'd want to count ours as the "Great Garden Birdwatch". We've done this bird count for the last few years and we are always amazed by the lack of birds in the garden when the count is due. Do they know that it's better for them if numbers are low and they get some widespread publicity about helping them out.
The menu on offer for the count was no different to any other day some standard bird seed, peanuts, niger seed, black sunflowers, sunflower hearts, suet pellets, fat balls, Golden Chorus and some dried meal worms.
This sparrow felt rather ashamed and didn't want to be identified lest he should be singled out for special attention having eaten in our garden on birdwatch day.
Thankfully though it was the sparrows who turned up in numbers. I think we do our best to keep a little flock of house sparrows fed through the year. They are happy to sit in the crab apple tree and wait their turn on the feeder which only has perching room for a couple of birds.
We managed six blackbirds. They're a little bit like the sparrows in their habits except they prefer to eat from the bird table taking it in turns to fly from tree to table for a feast of buggy nibbles.
Some of our other regular visitors decided to stay away. Normally we hear the starlings squabbling on the bird table as they try to find a space to land. Some take refuge on the window sill until they can push their way onto the bird table. How many did we have for the big count a grand total of five.
Even more amazingly we had one long tailed tit and one goldfinch. Since when do either of these birds go around in ones. The answer is only when it's garden birdwatch day.
Anyway it's over for another year now so the birds will be able to return to their normal routines. In our garden we have to be very glad of the little brown birds.
Disclaimer
This weather site is operated as an amateur weather station site and should not be used as official data. I make every effort to ensure my data is as accurate as possible but I cannot guarantee that the data meets the requirements of the Meteorological Office or other professional weather monitoring organisations.
©M Garrett 2016