Sunday, 01 April 2018
The Unwanted Ton!
Spring continues to be elusive. After a few dry days when I managed to dig over a some beds at the allotment the weather has returned to being cloudy, cold and wet.
Temperature & Rainfall Records March 2018
The overnight rain into Saturday morning saw the rainfall total for the month exceed the 100mm mark. It's only the fifth time we've had over 100mm of rainfall in a month since 2010 and moving this March into fifth place in my wettest months' table.
Rainfall Data from 2010 -2018
We did manage to plant our onion sets on Thursday although it was touch and go as the weather did its best to rain all afternoon.
Onion sets - Stutgarter, Sturon, Red Karmen and Rumba
It’s now too wet to dig over anymore beds until we get some drier weather. We’ve got a couple of beds ready to plant both our early potatoes and trial potatoes but I think that the soil is far too wet and cold to plant them. I wouldn't think of planting potatoes in the allotment in January but January was not only drier than March, it was also milder. So far this year January is our warmest month! I’ll give it a couple of weeks and see if we get some drier weather and hopefully it will have warmed up a bit by then. At the moment we are stuck in winter waiting for spring to arrive.
However, there are just a few signs that spring is slowly arriving. I caught these two frogs doing what they usually do at this time of year.
I nearly stood on them as I headed up the steps to feed the birds. Sue eventually moved them nearer the pond where they were much safer as we did some gardening on Friday afternoon. In the greenhouse our nectarine tree is in full flower.
Nectarine - Fantasia
Perhaps April will see an improvement in the weather although with the possibility of more snow on Easter Monday it might not get off to the most promising start.
Easter Monday, 02 April 2018
More Snow - Winter Continues
Winter doesn't seem to want to go away this year. Easter Sunday was the second coldest April day I've recorded with the temperature only managing to creep up to 5.8°C or 42.4°F. Unsurprising, the only colder April day I've recorded was the first day of April in 2013 which was a notoriously cold spring.
Easter Monday has got off to a snowy start. Traditionally it's the day to plant early potatoes. Had it not snowed, our potatoes weren't going to be moved out of the greenhouse due to the very wet ground conditions at the allotment which resulted from a March with double its average rainfall.
Our potatoes will remain in the greenhouse until we get an improvement in the weather and the ground dries out and warms up.
Wednesday, 04 April 2018
Wettest April Day & A Look Back In The Archives
Easter Monday turned out to be a "real treat". It snowed all morning before turning into rain in the afternoon. It then continued to rain all afternoon and evening. By the end of the day we’d had 32mm (1.26in) of precipitation in the day.
Temperature & Rainfall Records Easter Monday, 02 April 2018 to 04 April 2018
Tuesday was our warmest day of the year as the temperature reached 15.2°C or 59.4°F. It wasn't as dry as the above rainfall chart shows as we had very light showers at regular intervals which were just enough to stop anything from drying out a bit. Wednesday morning has started off with more showers which are forecast to continue for most of the day.
All that rain on Easter Monday puts it into sixth place in my league table of wettest days since 2010. I’ve included the table below.
Not only did we have all the snow and rain but it was also one of the coldest April days since 2010 too with the average temperature for the day coming in at only 3.3°C (37.9°F) rather than 9.2°C (48.6°F) the average daily temperature for April.
I’m hoping things can only improve through the rest of the month.
I noticed as I checked back through my rainfall records that April 2012 was an extremely wet month with 120mm (4.72in) of rainfall. We normally expect an average of about 35mm (1.38in) based on the last eight years. We're a little concerned that our planting and sowing this year will be delayed due to the very wet weather. All that rain on Easter Monday fell on already soggy ground. I decided to have a look back at my archive blog posts to see how we faired planting potatoes, carrots and parsnips in 2012.
Potato Planting 20 April 2012
As it turns out we didn't plant any potatoes until the 20 April in 2012 with parsnips sown on the 30 April. Our carrots weren't sown until 12 May. Judging from my harvesting records we still managed decent returns from all three crops. So perhaps all isn't lost yet and I think we might be best waiting until the ground dries out a little bit.
Who knows it might warm up a bit and dry out so we can get on with some gardening by the middle of the month.
Incidentally, if you want to look back at my archive record for planting potatoes back in April 2012 click here. (You will need to scroll down the page that opens).
Archive for 20 April 2012