Sunday, 14 April 2019
Cold Spell Goes On!
We've decided not to visit the allotment over the weekend. We spent a few cold days there last week and we've decided to hold off doing any more planting until the cold spell of weather breaks. It's now becoming a rather prolonged cold spell although the early part of next week is forecast to see temperatures rising to more normal levels for the middle of April.
The average monthly temperatures for the year make interesting reading, although perhaps not if you are a gardener. April's average temperature is now lower than both March and February. We are still waiting for an April day to be warmer than the warmest days in February and March too. Spring temperatures are heading in the wrong direction at the moment and getting colder rather than warmer.
The cold frame was covered with some fleece to give some protection from the cold and to keep the blackbirds out as they enjoy digging around in the damp compost.
However, in the open garden there is not that much we can do to protect plants from the cold nights. We've a couple of pieris and the new leaves that should be a lovely bright red colour have been turned into frost burnt brown.
If we get some sunshine today to warm up the greenhouse a little bit, I'll start sowing some tomato seeds. They'll be grown on for a week or more in our indoor propagator and hopefully by the time they've germinated temperatures will have warmed up enough for them to be safely moved into the greenhouse to grow on.
Thursday, 18 April 2019
Plum Blossom - A Cold Case
I think, fingers crossed, that we've seen the back of the cold weather. A run of five consecutive nights of below freezing temperatures in April is the longest we've had in my ten years of weather records. It started me looking back at the previous spell of cold weather in April which occurred back in 2013.
April Minimum Temperature 2010 - 2019
The minimum April temperatures are shown in the table above and are colour coordinated from warmest in darkest red through to coldest in darker blue. The last spell of cold April weather was in 2013 only that came earlier in the month. I checked back through our harvesting records and found that 2013 wasn't a bad year for our plums. I'm concerned that this year's plum crop will be affected by the frosty nights whilst the trees have been in flower.
Details of Plum Harvest in 2013
A total of almost 41kg was a good crop so I initially thought that a cold start to April did little to reduce the plum crop. My hopes were raised a little bit that the cold nights wouldn't have damaged the plum blossom and we were still in with a chance of a good harvest. I wondered if I'd made any blog post comments at the time regarding the blossom and the effects of any frost. First of all I found this post from early April 2013.
Archive Blog Post Early April 2013
The difference in 2013 was that we hadn't had any mild weather through February and March. and everything was still in winter mode rather than being drawn into spring mode during winter only to be returned to winter once spring arrived which is what has happened this year. I carried on looking through a few more posts from April 2013. I found this post.
Archive Blog Post Late April 2013
In April 2013 when we had a cold and frosty start to April the plum and greengage blossom wasn’t damaged by the frost because it wasn't out and didn't come out for another couple of weeks after the frosts. I've decided we are just going to have to wait and see if the frost this year has caused any damage to the cherry, pear, greengage and plum blossom. Our apples are just coming into flower at the allotment so hopefully they won't have been damaged by the frosts.
Good Friday, 19 April 2019
Mid April Birds Eye View of the Plot
A look around the plot from above. At least now there is a little bit of green appearing on the plot as our fruit trees start to leaf up.
Saturday, 20 April 2019
Warmest Day of the Year
How unusual to have some decent weather over a holiday period when Good Friday turned out to be a lovely sunny day with the afternoon temperature reaching 22.2°C (72.0°F) making it the warmest day of the year. Coincidently, 19th April broke the same record last year with a temperature of 28.8°C (83.8°F) the hottest April day I've recorded.
Temperature Records 17-19 April 2019
The weather is forecast to remain sunny and warm over the Easter period so it's possible that warmest day of the year record won't last very long.
Our resident blackbirds often take a bath in our pond. They have a regular spot for this in one of the shallower areas of the pond.
They don't expect our summerhouse to be occupied but it was on Friday afternoon, as we enjoyed an afternoon cup of coffee this female blackbird arrived for her afternoon dip. She considered if it was safe enough for her to risk taking a dip for a short while as she eyed us suspiciously before deciding what the heck and went for it anyway.