Sep wk 4

Friday, 23 September 2016

Last Word on Blight - Promise and Trench Composting

Friday was yet another lovely September day although we had a chilly start to the day as the overnight temperature fell to 6.5°C (43.7°F) a reminder that autumn has arrived.

Temperature & Sunshine Records for 23 September 2016

It's notice that I'll now be posting about coldest nights rather than hottest days.

I visited a friend in Leeds this weeks who's also growing some Crimson Crush tomatoes. Like me all his other tomato plants have been struck down with blight along with some of his potato crop. Crimson Crush however is standing up to the blight pretty well.

I don't think I need to point out which is Crimson Crush.

You may remember I blogged about trying out hot composting which I'd seen on the Grow Veg website. Well I've seen another method on their web site called trench composting. It's similar to how runner bean trenches can be prepared with lots of compostable material been dug into trenches on top of which runner beans are planted. This is essentially the same method except that it is not necessarily for the sole benefit of runner beans.

At this time of year I've mountains of material that either goes on the compost heap or gets put on a bonfire a little later into autumn. Well this year's runner beans have been buried in a trench as I redug this year's main crop potato bed.

I incorporated a couple of trenches in this half of the bed and I've probable enough green material to repeat the process on the other half. Once the bed had been dug over the weed control fabric was replaced.

Will the material form compost by late next spring? I do hope so!

Saturday & Sunday, 24-25 September 2016

Large Scale Tidying Up

It wasn't a bad weekend weatherwise. Sunday was easily the sunniest of the two days and despite a lack of sunshine Saturday was slightly the warmer of the two days. We had some heavy rain in the early hours of Sunday morning amounting to 8.6mm or 0.34in.

Temperature, Rainfall & Sunshine Records for 24 & 25 September 2016

We spent a couple of afternoons at the allotment. It's amazing how quickly that season of harvesting changes to one of tidying up the plot as much as possible before any bad weather sets in. I left Sue to do some harvesting and pruning back gooseberry and jostaberry bushes as I'd decided it was time to sort out the area around our greengage trees. It's an area that has suffered from neglect for a good few years now.

It had become a bit of a dumping ground for all those things that might come in useful on the plot one day. As a consequence weeds had taken over much of the space and it was difficult to venture into the area without getting stung by overgrown nettles and thistles.

To add to the confusion there's a large elder bush and a large laurel bush growing in amongst the weeds. They were once planted, or allowed to grow, to give part of the plot some protection from prevailing westerly winds but now cause more of a problem from the amount of shade they cast.

There's all sorts of other debris too that will have to be disposed of, like a couple of old plastic chairs we once used on the plot. I'd already cut down a large conifer tree growing in this area and yesterday's debris was added to this pile of rubbish. It's all compostable or burnable but it's going to take me some time to deal with it all.

I think I might have a winter project.

Monday, 26 September 2016

Preserving

Monday was our worst day of the month so far. It was cloudy and cool all day with the temperature only managing 13.9°C (57.0°F) a little below average for the time of year.

Temperature & Rainfall Records

I haven't included the sunshine records on the graph as the sun didn't bother to put in an appearance. With light rain on and off all day it was a day for staying inside and converting tomatoes into tomato sauce -

and apples into apple puree.

It's now just a case of finding a little bit of freezer space.

Tuesday & Wednesday, 27/28 September 2016

Mild and Windy

Tuesday wasn't too bad a day and although Wednesday was exceptionally mild for the end of September (23.6°C or 74.5°F) it was very windy.

Temperature and Wind Speed Records for 28 September 2016

On Tuesday afternoon we had a visit to RSPB Dearne Valley - Old Moor. At one stage we thought that all we were going to photograph was the flora as although there were plenty of birds on the reserve they were all too far 4q way away to photograph.

Then we were lucky enough to see this Little Egret fishing.

Thursday, 29 September 2016

Another Windy Day

Thursday was another windy day although on the positive side it was sunny for most of the day. The wind did abate a bit into the early evening.

Temperature & Wind Speed Records for 29 September 2016

Unusually the highest temperature for the day occurred at midnight as the temperature fell from the warmth of Wednesday. Thursday never managed to recapture that warmth.

It didn't stop us venturing down to the plot to get on with a bit more tidying up and a little bit of harvesting.

Beneath the alpine strawberries and grapes are yellow raspberries. The alpine strawberries came as a bit of a surprise but together they made a tasty bowl of fruit to finish off our evening meal.

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.