Wednesday, 15 March 2017
Sowing Early Lettuce
We're having a very mild March so far. Tuesday raised the yearly high temperature a little higher reaching 15.6°C or 60.1°F.
Temperature & Solar Radiation Records for 14 March 2017
It's very tempting to start sowing seeds in earnest but there's still a chance of some cold weather arriving so I'm waiting to see what happens. Wednesday may well be to be another mild day but it looks like it will turn cooler towards the weekend.
I did decide to sow a few lettuce seeds which I'm leaving in the greenhouse to germinate.
There's hundreds of seeds in a packet so it won't be a great loss if this early sowing succumbs to some bad weather. If they grow okay then I'll pot them on and they will eventually be planted out in our raised bed at home.
Thursday, 16 March 2017
Getting Stuck In
We've had some lovely spring days over the last week with the temperature on a sort of steady increase as the week has progressed. Wednesday turned out to be the best of the days with almost unbroken sunshine, just a light breeze, and the temperature reaching 16.2°C or 61.2°F. The highest March temperature I've recorded was set on 28 March 2012 at 21.9°C or 71.4°F.
Temperature, Rainfall and Solar Radiation Records 10-16 March 2017
I decided the soil in some of our beds on the plot would have dried out enough to turn over with the cultivator.
Our mini cultivator came out of winter storage in the garage, was fuelled up, and taken down to the plot to see if I was correct in thinking that the soil was dry enough to be cultivated. As you can see the ground turned over a real treat. After a first pass with the cultivator I added some fish, blood and bone fertiliser and then incorporated that using the cultivator.
I managed to get four beds dug over and ready for planting. We've got beds prepared for our early potatoes, first sowings of peas, planting early brassicas and onion sets and shallots.
I've added a short video of the grass paths on the plot getting their first cut of the year.
Friday, 17 March 2017
They're Up
Well the weather has certainly changed, as forecast the mild and sunny conditions have been replaced with cooler cloudier ones. Friday, 17 March 2017 is the spring Equilux when the hours of daylight and darkness are equal. I always thought that occurred at the equinox but that's not exactly the case. I think that the equinox is the theoretical time of equal day and night but in practice the atmosphere around the earth, amongst other things, mean that what we see on earth doesn't exactly fit with the theoretical time. The result is that we see equal night and day four days before the spring equinox.
Our first seeds of the season have pushed their heads through the compost over the last couple of days.
Leeks - Blue Solaise
These leeks Blue Solaise are pushing through the compost. It's always a bit of a relief when the first sowings of the year start to appear. We are still harvesting last year's leeks so some of these seedlings could be on the dinner plate this time next year. Not long to wait then!
Our broad beans have germinated too.
Broad Bean - Witkiem Manita
It's a bit early to be sure but it looks like the germination of our broad beans has been good and both seeds planted in a cell have germinated. We shouldn’t have to wait as long, as we do for the leeks, before we start harvesting some beans. Hopefully we'll be picking our first pods by early July.
Sunday, 19 March 2017
A Highlight On The River Esk
The weather certainly has taken a turn for the worse. It hasn't turned cold but it's dull, breezy and continually trying to rain in the wind. Saturday night into Sunday morning produced the highest overnight temperature I've recorded in March and by a considerable margin. The temperature didn't fall below 11.2°C (52.2°F) breaking the previous record of 9.2°C (48.6°F) which occurred on 29 March 2012.
Temperature, Rainfall & Solar Radiation Records 17-19 March 2017
Despite the not too promising weather forecast for Saturday we headed for the North Yorkshire Moors to do a bit of steam train photography.
The train was "The Whitby Flyer" starting from York and heading to Whitby for a short stop over before returning to York. Some of the train's journey took it along the East Coast Main Line but I opted for some photography on the rather more scenic part of the route through the picturesque Esk Valley of the North Yorkshire Moors.
LNER B1 Class 5MT no 61264 Heads The Whitby Flyer Through Lealholm
After lunch we spent some time looking for new photographic location along the railway line which follows the river through the Esk valley. We stopped off at North York Moors National Park Centre near Danby and had a walk to the railway line. Before reaching the railway the path crosses over the river Esk where we spotted of couple of dippers.
They were quite a long way off and doing everything they could to make capturing a decent shot difficult. They did what dippers do and kept disappearing under the water and emerging in a different location hidden by tree branches. It's the first time I've ever seen a dipper and it was the highlight of the day.
Monday, 20 March 2017
Odd Weather Day
Sunday was another mild day. Once again it was a rather strange sort of a day. There was plenty of sunshine but it was accompanied by a strong to gale force wind for most of the day taking the edge of the temperature. It was the sunniest day of the year and the windiest day of the month a rather odd combination.
Temperature & High Wind Speed Records for 19 March 2017
Just like Saturday, all day it tried to rain in the wind. The actual rainfall didn't amount to anything but added to the day's unpleasantness.
For the last week the weather forecast has suggested rain for the following day which hasn't, for us at least, ever arrived. The soil on the allotment has dried out well over the last couple of weeks and was in excellent condition for cultivating. As it's been continually forecast to rain I've tried to get as much digging done on the plot as possible whilst the soil is in good condition and before we get any heavy rain.
Sunday saw some more beds dug over and prepared for planting. The top left hand corner bed is for our new black raspberry called Jewel. The bed on the bottom left will be planted up with our trial potatoes Cara, Innovator, Isle of Jura, Osprey, Rooster and Saxon. We have four tubers of each variety to plant. I've still to decide on the crops to be planted in the beds on the right hand side of the image. The bed in the centre will be planted up with broad beans Witkeim Manita, which were sown in pots in the greenhouse at the beginning of the month, and Robin Hood which will be sown in a few weeks time to provide a successional crop.
Broad Beans Witkeim Manita Sown On 02 March 2017
These will soon be moved out of the greenhouse and into the cold frame so that they can become acclimatised to outdoor conditions before they are planted out in the allotment.
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