Thursday, 09 January 2020
A Very Mild Start to the Year
It's been a mild first week and a half of January with temperatures above average both through the day and over night. We haven't, however managed to exceed that high January temperature of 14.7°C (58.5°F) recorded in 2016.
Temperature Records January 2020
Even though it's been on the mild side it hasn't been particularly pleasant with strong to gale force winds taking the edge off the temperature and making it feel distinctly chilly outside. It has been a reasonable dry start to the month with only a few showers until we had some more general rain Wednesday night into Thursday morning.
The break in the wet weather of the last few months allowed us to make a start on a few allotment jobs we had planned for autumn and winter. We at last made a start on burning prunings from our fruit trees and our cut back buddleia bushes. Most of the material had been waiting for a break in the wet weather since before bonfire night in November.
Much of the material was still on the damp side but after a couple of failed attempts I managed to get a decent bonfire going and all the material burnt away.
It felt like we were actually starting to make some progress at tidying up the plot from last year and beginning to get it prepared for the new growing season.
Monday, 13 January 2020
Back To Wet
After a couple of weeks of drier weather it’s now turned back to wet. From the end of September through to just after Christmas we had some rain most days. Then, after Christmas and up to the end of last week it turned drier and we managed to get some winter jobs started at the allotment.
Temperature & Rainfall Records 13 December 2019 - 12 January 2020
The dry spell of weather can be seen on the table above between the 26th of December and the 7th of January.
It’s also been very mild for the beginning of January with most days and nights well above average for the first few days of the year. So far we are away awaiting our first frost of the new year.
Temperature Records 01-12 January 2020
Besides harvesting a few vegetables, on our visits to the allotment during the few dry days, we also managed to get a few of our winter jobs started. One major job we would like to accomplish before spring is to dig over the bed where our honey berries had been growing for the last few years. We managed to clear away the remains of the honey berries and remove the weed control fabric and even began to dig over the bed. The ground is very wet but I don’t think it will do it too much harm to try and dig it over before it begins to dry out.
It will be interesting to see if we can rescue the lavender plants growing around the edge of this bed. The plants have been infested with the roots of wick grass. Maybe we will be able to dig up the lavender plants and remove all the wick grass roots and replant the lavender in a temporary bed until we decide on a new more permanent location for it. However, this might just be a bit of wishful thinking and until we get started we won't know exactly how difficult a task this will be.
However, the return to wetter weather has put a stop to any plans we had to get more of this bed cleared. It’s a bit of a blow as we felt we were beginning to get on top of, or at the very least, make a start on our winter jobs but the latest rainfall has put a stop once again to allotment and gardening activities.
The forecast for the next week is for more wet and windy weather. One again it looks like gardening activities might be on hold until some better weather arrives.