Saturday, 14 July 2018
Dry Spell Broken - Just!
It didn't really live up to the Met Office severe weather warning of thunderstorms and heavy rain for Friday afternoon and evening. All we managed was 1.6mm (0.06in) of drizzly rain late on Friday evening but it was enough to bring to an end a rain free 24 day period.
Temperature & Rainfall Records 14 June - 14 July 2018
That's the longest spell without any rain in the last eight years. It's not the easiest of records to spot but I reckon the next longest spell of dry weather was 14 days in May 2010.
The forecast of thunderstorms beginning on Friday lunchtime didn't stop us having the day out at RSPB Bempton Cliffs on the Yorkshire coast. It's a great place for spotting the nesting sea birds at this time of the year.
RSPB Bempton Cliffs
We've now got lots of photos and video of the gannets, guillemots, razorbills and puffins to sort out and edit.
Monday, 16 July 2018
Hottest Day of the Month
July has been a hot month but until Sunday none of the days had been hot enough to make it into my table of top twenty hottest days. Sunday changed that as the temperature reached 29.7°C (85.5°F) moving it into 12th place in the table but at the expense of loosing another of this year's entries which was set on 28 June at 29.0°C or 84.2°F.
Top Twenty Hottest Days (2010 - Date)
Our early crop of calabrese was over very quickly which I put down to the hot, dry weather. I thought the same might happen to the cabbages and cauliflowers. I couldn't decide whether the best option was to continue watering them or leave them on the dry side to see if they would last longer. In the end I decided to keep watering them. They've lasted much better than I expected but the crop is now coming to an end.
Cauliflower - Helsinki
Cabbage - Regency
Calabrese - Aquiles
Although the main calabrese heads were soon over we're managing to harvest a few side shoots on most visits to the plot.
It won't be long now before the bed needs clearing. My plan was to clear away the brassica plants, dig over the bed and then sow it with a crop of green manure using Buckwheat and Grazing Rye. However, that was assuming the very dry spell of weather had come to an end and the bed would be in a suitable state to dig over. As the dry weather and almost total lack of rainfall continues I'm not sure what state the bed will be in once the weed control fabric is removed. At the moment there's not much rain forecast in the next 7 days so I'm not hopeful of the weather being any help in preparing this bed for sowing green manure.
Tuesday, 17 July 2018
Drought Hit Casablanca Potatoes
On Monday afternoon I decided to lift a few of our Casablanca early potatoes. The photos tell the story better than any words.
Last year two rows of Casablanca potatoes produced 30kg. I lifted one quarter of this year's crop which produced 1.5kg. If anyone had asked me which beds had the best soil for cultivation at the beginning of the season I'd have said the four beds on plot 42 which is where these potatoes were planted. I've no idea how to get this soil back into a workable condition. I had planned to sow a green manure crop once the bed was cleared of its potato crop but that's not possible with the ground in its current state. Some rain might improve things but there's none of that in the forecast for the next seven days.
We did have some rain late on Monday night which amounted to 0.8mm (0.03in) but that won't have any effect at all and the sunshine early on Tuesday morning will have dried up any moisture left on the top of the ground.