{"id":37315,"date":"2025-08-09T11:27:30","date_gmt":"2025-08-09T10:27:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ossettweather.com\/gardening2022\/?p=37315"},"modified":"2025-08-11T19:22:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T18:22:06","slug":"now-a-battering-from-floris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ossettweather.com\/gardening2022\/susan\/now-a-battering-from-floris\/","title":{"rendered":"Now a battering from Floris (and a milestone)"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

What a year!<\/p>

It started off with beds too wet to dig. There was a very short window when the soil was workable. Then the window slammed shut, and it became too dry to dig or even do any planting.<\/p>

We had not one but two late frosts that killed off the newly emerging potato growth.<\/p>

The dry spell morphed into a full-blown drought, which meant much of our time was spent lugging a watering can around the plot rather than doing more interesting things. The task was made harder by the fact that our water supply was at times a mere trickle.<\/p>

A few hot days and windy weather did a good job of thwarting our efforts to keep plants well watered.<\/p>

Then last week, storm Floris gave everything a battering,<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Once the storm had passed, we headed to the allotment to find this.<\/p>

\"\"A huge branch of one of our fully laden plum trees had broken. The storm couldn’t have hit at a worse time; the trees were in full leaf and had a bumper crop of plums.\u00a0<\/p>

Our allotment site is something of a wind tunnel. The wind invariably comes from the west, as was the case with storm Floris; however, the tree that was damaged is on the easterly side of a group of trees that, other than losing fruit, were undamaged. In many ways, it was lucky that nothing fell on the nearby greenhouse or shed.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t
<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t
<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

As the fallen bough is loaded with almost ripe plums, we are leaving it in situ so that we can pick the fruit<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Another casualty of the storm is a bed of sweetcorn, which was flattened.<\/p>

\"\"We contemplated trying to prop it up, but on our next visit, we noticed that the plants were making an effort to straighten themselves, so we are going to see what happens.<\/p>

\"\"A stand of baby corn in another part of the plot is still upright but shows evidence that the wind tried to flatten it, too.<\/p>

\"\"<\/p>

To add insult to injury, sweetcorn on all the other plots looks undamaged. The storm appears to have singled us out!<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

\"\" \u00a0The climbing beans were also subjected to a battering. Some of the climbing frames have developed a distinct lean.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

\"\"<\/p>

The leaves on the windward side of the frames have been subjected to a battering.<\/p>

Some squash leaves also look worse for wear.<\/p>


A video of the storm damage is posted here<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

One bed of onions was obviously not going to do any more growing, so I decided to lift them.<\/p>

They have been laid out to dry on a repurposed garden bench, in theory, to dry. I say in theory as they had really dried off whilst still planted in the ground, but nonetheless I am going through the motions.<\/p>

\"\"The bulbs, like lots of other crops, although usable, are much smaller than usual.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

As well as some weeding and general tidying, we managed to fit in some harvesting.<\/p>

\"\"
5 August – Climbing French beans, greengages, plums, courgettes and cherry tomatoes<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Apples were gathered from a tree in the garden.<\/p>

\"\"<\/p>

\"\"
9 August – Potatoes, greengages, courgettes, cucumbers, apples, plums, purple sprouting broccoli and carrots.<\/figcaption><\/figure>

We pulled the first of our carrots. You can never be sure of what has happened underground until the first roots are lifted. It seems, in the case of carrots, all the watering has paid off.<\/p>

The brassicas have also responded well to our efforts with the watering can.<\/p>

Details of this weeks harvests are posted here.<\/a><\/p>

It seems that some work has been done to try and improve our water supply. The pressure has increased, which is fine when only one person is using a tap, but the pressure still drops when more taps are being used, especially if someone decides to use a hosepipe.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

\"\"Finally, what was the milestone mentioned in the title?<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

Martyn and I celebrated our golden – 50th wedding anniversary on Saturday. It even fell on the correct day!<\/p>

That leaves me with just one question: how did this come round so quickly?<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

That’s all for now, as always, until next time, stay safe and stay well.<\/p>

Again, I am linking to Harvest Monday<\/a> at Dave’s Our Happy Acres blog<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What a year! It started off with beds too wet to dig. There was a very short window when the soil was workable. Then the window slammed shut, and it became too dry to dig or even do any planting. We had not one but two late frosts that killed off the newly emerging potato […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37341,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_eb_attr":"","ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"ocs-susans-post-sidebar","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-susan","entry","has-media"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ossettweather.com\/gardening2022\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG_6020.jpg?fit=1000%2C563&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ossettweather.com\/gardening2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ossettweather.com\/gardening2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ossettweather.com\/gardening2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ossettweather.com\/gardening2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ossettweather.com\/gardening2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37315"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/ossettweather.com\/gardening2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37452,"href":"https:\/\/ossettweather.com\/gardening2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37315\/revisions\/37452"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ossettweather.com\/gardening2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ossettweather.com\/gardening2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ossettweather.com\/gardening2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ossettweather.com\/gardening2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}