Wednesday, 22 June 2016
Early Potato Test
The last few days have seen a bit of an improvement in the weather. We've had less rain and the temperature has lifted too giving the days a bit of a muggy feel at times.
Temperature, Rainfall & Sunshine Records 17 - 23 June 2016
You'll notice that none of the sunshine traces have that lovely curve to them which indicates sunshine all day long. It has been a lot more hit and miss than that with short sunny spells rather than any prolonged sunshine.
On the plot we decided to harvest a few of our first early potatoes Casablanca.
As we've lots of potatoes growing I like to start harvesting our first crop as early as possible because I think these early potatoes are the ones that have the finest new potato flavour. As you can see from the photo above the plants are only just coming into flower and I thought it might be a little bit early to see if there were any potatoes underneath the foliage.
There were enough potatoes on the first root I lifted for one meal for two so I'm reasonable happy with that. I'll continue to lift a few roots from now on to keep our potato supplies stocked up. Surprising none of the potatoes had any slug damage. Our slugs and snails have been on the rampage this year thanks to all the damp weather so to have all undamaged potatoes was a surprise.
The potatoes tasted great too after all that's one of the reasons for growing your own.
Thursday, 23 June 2016 to Sunday, 26 June 2016
Away Days
We had a couple of days away heading to Norfolk to visit Blickling Estate and a gala at the Mid Norfolk Railway. We were rather lucky with the weather as Friday was lovely sunny day to visit Blickling Estate although it did rain from mid afternoon on Saturday spoiling our visit to the Heritage Railway.
Temperature, Rainfall & Sunshine Records 24 June - 26 June 2016
In general the weather remains very consistent at being changeable. As you can see from the above chart the temperature hasn't been too bad with sunny spells and spells of rain or showers.
Blickling Estate - Aylsham - Norfolk
Mid Norfolk Railway - 46100 Royal Scot at Thuxton Station
We visited the plot on Sunday afternoon and managed to pick this a nice selection of strawberries.
The weather obviously hadn't been too bad at home as only the odd strawberry had turned mouldy although quite a few berries had been eaten by slugs. Still there were plenty left for us.
Monday, 27 June 2016
Rubbish Cabbage Plants
Monday was a reasonably sunny day but it was also the first windy day this month.
Temperature, Sunshine & Wind Speed Records from 21 June to 27 June 2016
The wind was at its worst late in the afternoon with a gust speed of 20mph.
I've complained, in the past, about poor quality brassica plants I've received from seed companies. Well now I've produce some rather pathetic red cabbage plants myself. This year we decided to try some red cabbages called Lodero supposedly a club root resistant variety. I sowed the seeds on 29 May and within a couple of days the seeds germinated. These were pricked out into modules and moved into the cold frame.
A month on this is how they look now. They've grown long and lanky and I'm in two minds whether or not to plant them out in the plot. I suppose I've nothing much to lose if half a dozen of the best looking specimens are given a chance. I'm not really all that sure why they've grown this way as they've been treated in the same way as all our other brassica seedlings which normally produce decent plants for the plot.
Tuesday, 28 June 2016
Rain Stops Play - Again!
It seems to be a regular occurrence on the plot that at some point in the afternoon we get rain off. Tuesday wasn't any different as a heavy shower arrived not long after we arrived.
My plan was to prepare some ground for sowing sweet Williams, rocket and wallflowers as well as somewhere for our lavender cuttings to be planted to grow on. I decided to get this done before picking strawberries. To be honest although it was cloudy it didn't look that much like it was going to rain even though the forecast said it would. One bed was dug and covered with weed control fabric but as I was finishing digging the second bed it started to rain heavily and I made a hasty retreat to the shed for shelter. The forecast was right after all!
We had a cuppa while sheltering from the rain in the shed and then decided to do a little bit of harvesting despite the rain. It seemed a shame to leave any ripe strawberries for the slugs to devour. That’s also our first Mayflower cauliflower in the photo grown on from small plants from Marshalls early brassica collection. It's alongside a cabbage Duncan from the same collection.
Some decent weather would be much appreciate but it doesn't look like we're going to get any just yet. Perhaps July will be better.
Wednesday, 29 June 2016
Another Wet Day But No Records Broken
Wednesday was another poor day for the end of June with more rain through the morning and into the early afternoon. I've had a look through my records as it seems to me June's been a very wet month and I was thinking about it breaking a few records for the amount of rainfall. It seems a long time ago now but the first 9 days of the month were dry but since then we've had only three dry days or maybe four if the last day of June is rain free.
Temperature & Rainfall 01-29 June 2016
However, our total rainfall for the month stands at 71.6mm (2.82") well short of the 131.5mm (5.18") that fell in June 2012 although that particular month is the wettest we've had in the last six years. This month doesn't at the moment get into my list of 10 wettest Ossett months in the last six years unless the last day of the month is extremely wet.
Still some plants are doing pretty well despite all the rain. Our roses are looking good although it is a bit wet to get onto the garden to do some dead heading. That's my excuse anyway.
It would be nice if the rest of the summer turned out a little bit drier and sunnier.
Thursday, 30 June 2016
What A Surprise - A Drop More Rain
Once again Thursday turned out disappointing for the last day of June. A few short sunny spells, lots of cloud and a little bit of rain in the evening to finish of a very disappointing June weather wise. If you live in the UK you probably don't need me to tell you it's been a wet month but even so as I blogged yesterday over the last few years we've had even wetter Junes. Plenty of rain and not enough sunshine means more tender plants are struggling to put on growth on the allotment.
As you can see from the above chart we've been well down on sunshine with only June 2012 having even less hours of sunshine than this year. June 2012 was also very wet so that easily takes bottom place in the overall June rankings with this year filling the next to bottom spot.
We did manage to do some sowing on the plot on Thursday getting some cut flower seeds sown for next year.
The seeds were sown in drills filled with compost. The soil was certainly too wet and claggy to sow seed directly into it but hopefully they'll be okay in these compost filled trenches. We hope that the twigs will keep any cats, dogs or foxes from trampling over the seed bed. They'll be removed once the seeds start to germinate. We didn't water the seeds in as the surrounding soil was very wet.
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