Jul wk 1

Friday, 01 July 2016

No Change For July

No prizes for guessing that the weather hasn't changed just because it's a new month. Last year 01 July 2015 was a record breaker.

Well our only concern about the heat on the first of July this year was the lack of it as the high temperature only managed 18.6°C (65.5°F) rather poor for July.

Friday was another day of sunshine and showers. One particularly heavy shower in the afternoon set the record for the heaviest rainfall this year at 79.0mm/hr or 3.11"/hr. Fortunately it only lasted for a few minutes.

I haven't seen any forecasts that suggest the current weather pattern is going to change much over the next two weeks. I'm hoping they're wrong.

Saturday, 02 July 2016

Windiest July Day?

Hot on the heels of Friday producing the highest rainfall intensity of this year Saturday decided to be the windiest July day I've recorded. The average wind speed for the day was 3.7mph and whilst this doesn't sound very high there has only been four other occasions in July with daily average wind speeds in excess of 3.0mph. They are listed in the table below.

Maximum Average Wind Speeds July 2010 - July 2016

Summer 2012 wasn't very good and this summer is having a good attempt to be worse but at the moment isn't quite managing it.

Hopefully the wind won't have done too much damage on the plot.

Sunday, 03 July 2016

Clean Potatoes - Will It Last

Sunday was a better day as the wind abated. It was our second day in a row without any rain. Things are starting to look up.

Our early potatoes, Casablanca are growing in a bed adjacent to our early brassicas as the photo below taken in early June shows.

Our brassica patch has been overrun with slugs and snails, so far this year, so much so that we bought some extra cauliflower plants to replace plants devastated by the pests. The onslaught has continued as the plants have matured. On the cabbages the damage has been confined to the outer leaves leaving us plenty of good quality inner leaves. They've ground a path over cauliflower and calabrese heads reducing the quantity of good quality florets considerably. Separated by a narrow grass path are our early potatoes.

I've lifted about one third of a row over the last week or so and, so far, I haven't seen one potato with any signs of slug damage. All the potatoes have been free of any type of pest damage. I'm hoping that this will continue. I don't know if the slugs don't like the variety Casablanca, which taste excellent by the way, or they are are so busy enjoying our brassicas they can't be bothered with the potatoes. Gardening's not an exact science is it!

Monday, 04 July 2016

Will They Be Okay?

Normal service was resumed on Monday and after a lovely sunny morning and early afternoon, the clouds rolled in. By late afternoon they looked a bit menacing.

We decided to make a hasty retreat from the allotments rather than get wet yet again. We didn't manage three days in a row without any rain as we had a prolonged heavy shower as we arrived home.

Earlier in spring I decided to put some of our old recycling boxes to good use. They were filled with compost and then a few smaller growing tomato plants and a cucumber were used to fill three of the boxes. There was plenty of room in the plot greenhouse for the boxes to be left on the central path as I thought it would be a good idea to give the plants a bit of protection from the weather. The problem is they had completely outgrown this spot and the only option was to move them outside.

So for better or worse they have been moved outside for summer if it ever arrives. I've erected a bit of a makeshift wind break to protect them from the worst of any westerly winds. We'll see how they perform.

Our plum trees, greenhouse and shed should help with protection too so I'm hoping they'll survive and produce some tasty tomatoes and cucumbers. They've had a cosseted life in the greenhouse but now they're outside in the rough and tumble of the plot they may not be quite so happy.

Tuesday, 05 July 2016 & Wednesday, 06 July 2016

Ants On The Run

Tuesday wasn't too bad, at least we didn't have any more rain, we had some decent sunny spells but it was a bit on the breezy side. Wednesday on the other hand was a bit of a strange day. It was mostly cloudy but we did have a few sunny spells and even in the sunny spells it gave the impression it was going to pour down. The rain however stayed away for once.

In our home greenhouse we have some alpine strawberries, Regina, patiently waiting for their turn to be planted out in the allotment. The plants are getting rather large and aren't going to wait much longer to be planted out.

The plan is to plant them out in two rows either side of a couple of apple trees. This involves lifting the weed control fabric so that the ground where the strawberries are to be planted can be dug before some compost and fertilizer is added before the fabric is replaced and the new strawberry plants planted.

Ground dug over ready to incorporate compost and fertilser

As I lifted up the fabric I wasn't quite ready for the army of ants that greeted me. They were certainly pretty annoyed at being disturbed. They frantically began moving their offspring underground to somewhere they thought was safer. The video below shows some of the action that took place.

It was a good job I got my camera quickly as the ants had all the larvae underground within a couple of minutes. I've got no idea what happened to them when the ground was dug over.

Thursday, 07 July 2016 & Friday, 08 July 2016

Mediterranean Fruit Update

Our poor July weather continued on Thursday and Friday. On Thursday we had a trip to RHS Harlow Carr and as we arrived it began to drizzle and then turn into heavier rain. We contemplated looking for an indoor attraction but decided to have some lunch and reassess the situation. Fortunately for us the we had a dry afternoon to look around the gardens. Friday was mostly dull and very breezy with a gust of 23mph the equal highest I've recorded in July in seven years.

This week saw us pick our first Mediterranean (greenhouse) fruit crop of the year which was our apricot called Flavourcot.

Harvested on 05 July2016

In all they weighed in at just over 1kg or 2.2lbs and tasted delicious so we were quite pleased with our little crop. That leaves us with one peach, Avalon Pride and two nectarines (Fantasia) left to grow on through summer in the greenhouse.

Peach - Avalon Pride

Nectarine - Fantazia

Our grapevine Himrod usually provides us with an excellent harvest towards the end of summer and early autumn. A few weeks ago Monty Don on Gardener's World was beginning the task of thinning tiny individual immature grapes from each bunch to allow the grapes room to grow. Our Himrod kindly does the thinning for us and we can allow the grapes to grow without any thinning at all.

Grape - Himrod

Our challenge now is to ensure that our peach and nectarines go on to ripen.

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.