Tuesday 23 May 2017
It's Warming Up!
The forecast is for the rest of the week to becoming increasingly warmer with some suggestions we could reach 30°C (86.0°F) on Saturday. However, back with the here and now Monday saw the highest temperature of the year with 23.9°C or 75.0°F. At times it was fairly cloudy but when the sun broke through it felt hot and muggy.
Temperature & Solar Radiation Records for 22 May 2017
If the forecast turns out to be correct I might be updating the highest yearly temperature each day this week.
We managed a trip to the plot to finish planting out our sweet peas. I only hope that my hazel sweet pea trellis will be up to the job of supporting them. Our edible peas Onward have also had their pea sticks added for support. Their supports are a mixture of all sorts of prunings including hazel, elder and a few assorted fruit bush twigs.
Peas - "Onward"
Our first home grown brassica plants have also been planted. Both varieties are club root resistant ones so we're not expecting them to succumb to this particular problem.
Cabbages - "Kalibro" (Foreground) & "Lodero" (Background)
Once they'd had a good watering in they were covered with environmesh to protect against damage from the ever vigilant wood pigeons who sit on the overhead power lines watching and waiting for us to leave crops unprotected.
Thursday 25 May 2017
Slugs or What?
The weather's been very kind over the last few days with some fine warm weather. Monday is still our warmest day of the year although it's possible the weekend may be even warmer. Whilst Wednesday didn't produce our highest temperature it was our warmest day of the year based on average daily temperature which was 18.4°C (65.1°F) helped by an overnight low temperature of 14.9°C or 58.8°F.
On the allotment, all is not well.
Sowing & Germination Dates for Allotment Sown Vegetables
Above is a variation on the tables I use to keep track of sowing and planting dates for our flower and vegetable seeds. The problem is there are no germination dates. I expect carrot seeds to germinate in a couple of weeks and they were sown almost a month ago now. I know that parsnips are slow to germinate but they were sown a couple of days before the carrots. Each time we've visited the plot we've looked eagerly for any signs of germination but seen nothing.
We're now about to cut our losses and resow both carrots and parsnips. In the case of carrots we'll have to buy some more seed first. However, I'm not sure if the problem has been with the germination of the seeds or whether slugs have just eaten the germinating seedlings.
Our first sowing of broad beans and peas took about 2 weeks to germinate so may be there's still hope of them germinating.
In the garden at home and in the cold frames we've tried out "Slug Gone" wool pellets. So far I'd say they've been pretty successful at deterring slugs. Whilst they haven't completely removed the slug problem they have reduced it to more manageable proportions.
They are however rather expensive and so I decided to try to protect specimen plants and young plants growing in the cold frames.
You probably won't have seen a picture of this garden hosta before, partly because by this time in the year it has been devastated by slugs leaving nothing more than a skeleton of stems. I thought it would be a fairly good test of the wool pellets and they seem to have done a good job.
In the cold frame I've discovered the occasional slug or snail and they've been disposed of. Very often in the cold frame we've lost an entire tray of seedlings overnight but so far this year that hasn't happened.
Friday 26 May 2017
Blimey - What a Scorcher!
From the early part of the morning it gave every indication that it was going to be hot. By lunchtime we were around the 25°C (77°F) mark and through the afternoon the temperature continued to increase reaching a high of 28.6°C (83.5°F) by late afternoon.
Temperature & Solar radiation Records for 25 May 2017
Not only is that the hottest day of the year but also the highest May temperature I've recorded since I began recording in 2010. The previous record was 28.0°C (82.4°F) reached on 28 May 2012.
It was certainly too hot to consider doing anything strenuous on the plot.
Bank Holiday Monday 29 May 2017
Great While It Lasted
The hot weather of late last week has now disappeared and we are left with something more typical of a Bank Holiday.
Temperature and Rainfall Records 23-29 May 2017
As recorded in my blog last week, Thursday turned out to be our warmest day of the year and the hottest May day since I began recording in 2010.
We had a couple of days away at the end of the week. Friday was photographing birds at WWT Slimbridge and on Saturday the subject was steam trains at the Cotswold Festival of steam at the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway. As it turned out the weather over the two days couldn't have been much different.
At Slimbridge, on Friday, the weather was glorious with clear blue skies all day long. We made our way around the reserve stopping where we could in the shade to photograph and feed the birds.
Saturday's weather changed completely. The temperature had cooled off and the blue cloudless skies had disappeared to be replaced with more menacing dark grey ones which threatened rain. To make matters even worse a strong to gale force wind developed through the day making the conditions far from ideal for trying to take video of the trains. Fortunately though the rain held off.
Bulleid Merchant Navy class 4-6-2 no. 35006 Peninsular & Oriental SN Co, built 1941
It's now back to getting some jobs done in the garden and at the allotment. The small amount of rain over the weekend isn't going to have done much in the way of relieving the dry conditions in either the garden or plot. I think more watering is going to be required.
Tuesday 30 May 2017
Hosta Slug Defences Breached!
Well, Bank Holiday Monday turned out to be a bit of a damp squib. It was yet another one of those days, we’ve had lots this year, when it seemed to be wet all day and yet the rainfall total hasn’t added up to much. We’ve had 2.8mm (0.11in)by 20:00 although it still looks like it could pour down at any minute.
I noticed this morning that our Slug Gone defence system had been breached around one of our hostas by the pond edge.
On Monday evening I inspected around the plant leaves, and even had a look underneath the pot that the hosta is growing in, to see if I could locate the culprit but it was to no avail. There was no slug or snail to be seen.
I decided that the best option was to renew the wool pellets around the base of the plant. There may have been some gaps in the pellets leaving the possibility of a direct path from soil to hosta.
If you haven't used Slug Gone pellets then you won't be aware of how sheepy they smell. The smell doesn't last all that long.
It will be interesting to see if the additional layer of pellets prevents any further slug or snail attacks. I might still venture outside a little later one night as it's getting dark to see if I can find and destroy the offending creature.
Follow Up:
We ventured out at around midnight to see if we could spot any slugs or snails on our hosta.
Everywhere was wet from the drizzle that seemed to have been falling all day but there wasn't a sign of a slug or snail on our hosta. The battle goes on.
Wednesday, 31 May 2017
Almost Ready
Tuesday wasn't exactly a brilliant day for late May with some morning drizzle and cloudy skies. It seemed the rain would hold off in the afternoon and so we made a trip down to the plot.
We're having problems this year getting seeds sown directly on the plot to germinate. After three weeks our "Robin Hood" broad beans have germinated.
Broad bean - "Robin Hood"
However, there weren't any signs of parsnip or carrot seedlings and as these were sown a month ago I think it's unlikely that they are going to germinate now. Fortunately we did have some seeds of each variety left and Sue sowed our carrots and parsnips again and we're hoping for more success second time around.
On the fruit front things were looking far more positive.
Strawberry - "Cupid"
Redcurrants - "Unknown Variety"
Our first strawberry of the season is almost ready to pick and our redcurrants are starting to ripen. It's time to get the netting out to stop the blackbirds having first pick of our fruit.
I did a little video tour of our plots yesterday which is included below if you fancy a watch.
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