May wk 2

Sunday 08 May 2016

Blimey One Day Heatwave

The weather forecasters were spot on as they predicted Sunday would be the hottest day of the year so far. They were proved to be right as the temperature reached 24.7°C or 76.5F.

Sunshine & Temperature Records for 08 May 2016

We'd planned a day at home to tidy up the garden and replenish our seed trays with sowings of runner beans, French climbing beans, sweetcorn, sunflowers and some beetroot. It was far too hot to work in the greenhouse and it was a case of finding some shade on the lawn to sow the seeds.

I couldn't make my mind up at lunchtime whether to water our tomato seedlings in the greenhouse or not. They looked very dry as the sunny morning had taken its toll. Would watering them in the heat of the midday sun scorch the tender young leaves? I decided that if the seedlings flagged I'd give them some water assuming at that stage I'd have nothing to loose. In fact they hung on until the greenhouse fell into partial shade and it was safe to water all the greenhouse plants.

We moved all our sweet peas out of the greenhouse and into one of our coldframes. The sweet peas all had the snip too as their growing tips were pinched out to help make them into busy plants when they're ready for planting out.

We now need to get some more beds dug over on the plot to accommodate all our newly sown plants in a few weeks time.

Monday & Tuesday 09/10 May 2016

Holy Water

Monday was another lovely warm sunny day and we made the most of it planting carrots and peas on the plot. Our apple hedge is coming into flower and like the pears the trees are covered in blossom.

Our early potatoes Casablanca are just pushing their first shoots through the soil. The forecast for the weekend is for temperatures down to near freezing so I'll have to make sure these tender new shoots are covered over by then to protect them from the cold.

The forecast for Tuesday was for rain spreading up from the south by mid afternoon. To make the most of the fine weather we planned a trip up to North Yorkshire to visit the National Trust's Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal a World Heritage Site.

Monks came to the valley in 1132 to build the abbey which survived until the dissolution of the monasteries by King Henry VIII in 1538. It must have been an even more impressive building in its heyday and is one of the largest ruins of a Cistercian abbey that remain.

Studley Royal is a spectacular Georgian water garden built around 1718 by John Aislabie who had been Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1718 and when he was disqualified from public office he returned to Yorkshire and set about creating the water gardens.

Unfortunately the weather forecast turned out a little inaccurate and despite our best attempts to miss any rainfall until late afternoon it started to rain just after lunchtime. We will have to visit again soon.

Wednesday & Thursday 11/12 May 2016

Mollusc Heaven

Another couple of decent spring days with Thursday the sunnier of the two days and slightly milder as the temperature reached 20.3°C or 68.5°F.

Our grass is growing at an alarming rate both on the plot and in the garden at home. Thursday was strimming day on the plot. Once the grass was cut and the edges trimmed things looked pretty good. Of course I knew better as the first thing we always do on arriving at the plot is have a look around to see how are crops are doing.

Underneath the veggie mesh protecting our brassicas from the ever marauding woodpigeons the slugs and snails had been munching through our cauliflowers, calabrese and cabbages.

This wasn't the only plant they'd semi destroyed but hopefully if we can prevent any more damage the plants will recover. I don't like using slug pellets but as these plants are under mesh and the birds can't get to any slug pellets we have tried to protect our plants with a sprinkling of pellets.

When we got back home from the allotment I thought I'd better check to see if any watering was needed in the greenhouse as it had been a sunny afternoon. Before I did any watering I noticed this.

Some of Sue's yellow comos eaten by slugs or snails. I decided to have a look underneath the trays of plants on this bench to see if I could spot the culprit.

It didn't take much finding lurking under a tray of tomato seedlings waiting for dusk to fall before deciding which of our seedlings it would eat. It didn't get chance as it was left on the path as a freshly shelled snail ideal for a blackbird to finish off.

Friday 13 May 2016

Colder Weather Turns Up

Well I suppose we knew that the warmer than average start to May couldn't continue and the weather in Ossett changed around lunchtime on Friday. In the morning the sun was shining and the temperature rising. Then it went downhill.

Outdoor Temperature, Rainfall and Sunshine Records for Friday 13 May 2016

We only had a light shower of rain in the early evening but the temperature continued to fall. It did cross my mind to put some fleece over our young tomato plants in the greenhouse just in case temperature got really low but I didn't bother.

As you can see from the read out from my greenhouse thermometer I only just got away with "not bothering" as the temperature fell to 4.3°C or 39.7°F. It's not an ideal temperature for growing tomatoes though.

Yesterday we visited a garden centre (Totties Garden Centre) near Holmfirth in "Last of the Summer Wine" country. We don't believe in visiting garden centres and coming away plantless. Friday was no exception.

Sue bought a Tulbaghia "Purple Eye" to add to our collection of alpines and I bought half a dozen cauliflower plants "Navona" a Romanesco variety with a fresh nutty taste. We haven't grown this variety before. These will replace the slug ravaged plants on the allotment. In a bid to outdo the slugs I'm intending to try to grow these cauliflowers on in larger pots to produce bigger, stronger plants for transplanting into their final positions in the plot.

Of course I realise that I might finish up producing even more food for the slugs and finish up with bigger, stronger slugs and still no cauliflowers. There's only one way to find out.

Saturday & Sunday 14/15 May 2016

Lovely Weekend

The weather forecast for the weekend was poor. At best it was to be cloudy and cool for mid May and the possibility of a few isolated showers wasn't ruled out. As it turned out the forecast was fairly rubbishy itself and we had a very pleasant weekend with some decent sunny spells although a little on the cool side out of the sun and in a coolish breeze.

Saturday afternoon was spent tidying up on the plot and on Sunday we had a trip into the North Yorkshire Moors to visit the North Yorkshire Moors Railway which was holding the last day of its Scottish Branch Line Gala.

On our way we got some stunning views.

We had intended to head to Grosmont but for one reason or another we never made it there.

We visiting Goathland and Levisham stations instead.

Goathland Station on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway

Near Levisham Station

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.