It’s the first time in 10 years that the average temperature for the first 5 days of June has been colour-coded blue on my monthly chart. However, it’s not the coldest start to the month as that record is still held by 2012. The average temperature after 5 days of June in 2012 was a very chilly 10.8°C (51.4°F) compared with 12.4°C (54.3°F) this year.
Not only is it a cold start to the month but our dry spell continues. It’s not that we don’t get any rain. What we do get are light showers that don’t deposit enough rain for the moisture to penetrate very far into the soil. I think it has resulted in a couple of problems.
The first is that our parsnips have failed to germinate. I think it’s down to the cold and dry weather. It’s been a problem trying to keep the ground moist enough to get the seeds to germinate. At the end of May we had a windy spell of weather that made the situation worse.
The second problem is our early calabrese Aquilies have formed small premature heads which I’m putting down to the dry conditions. I’d normally expect heads at least double the size they are.
The allotment is beginning to fill up nicely now but it does mean more watering until we break the spell of showery weather and get some proper rain.
Somehow it doesn’t seem right watering when the weather is cold. Hopefully, the weather forecasts for warmer temperatures as the week progresses will turn out to be correct. At the moment we are due to get some rain on Wednesday. We shall see.
It is a reassurance to me that parsnip germination has been a problem for others too. I have sown them twice resulting in 2 seedlings to date. Even though it is June I am resowing!
p.s. Some steady rain overnight and today. Such a relief.