Sunday, 09 June 2019
Dry Spell Over?
It rained for most of the day on Friday and Saturday putting gardening activities on hold.
Temperature & Rainfall Data 07-09 June 2019
There's no doubting that we badly needed some decent rainfall for the garden and allotment so I can't complain about a couple of wet days. In all, over the two days, we managed 13.6mm (0.54in) of rainfall which makes the month's total a very healthy 28.0mm or 1.1in.
Of course this wet interlude could just be a bit of a blip in a longer spell of dry weather or a return to the more normal type of rainfall pattern we might expect. At the moment it seems like we are in for a cool and changeable June with more wet weather to come through the coming week.
With gardening on hold on Saturday we had a trip out to Colton Junction to photograph a steam locomotive, 45690 Leander on a charter train from Manchester to Scarborough.
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I found out that holding an umbrella in one hand to keep the rain off my camera whilst attempting to pan and zoom the camera with my other hand isn't as easy as I imagined. We were rather lucky though as although it was raining lightly as Leander steamed through the light rain turned into a downpour as we headed away from Colton for some lunch.
Tuesday, 11 June 2019
Adjusting For The Rain
We've had a decent amount of rain over the last week. So far we haven't had any of the torrential rainfall that has occurred in some places. Our rainfall amount so far in June amounts to 40.0mm (1.57in) but there's lots more to come if the forecast is correct.
Temperature & Rainfall Records 01-10 June 2019
Last year through the whole of June, July and August our rainfall only amounted to 60mm (2.36in) and we became accustomed to not having any rain during our visits to the allotment. Our visits through autumn and winter can be made on days when the weather is decent as there is no real urgency to sow, plant or harvest.
However, this year with the arrival of more changeable, if not downright wet weather, we've found our visits to the allotment cut short due to rain and we're getting used to arriving home soaked to the skin. Yesterday we managed to plant a few cabbages and Brussels sprouts but as the last plants were going into the ground it began to rain. The brassicas still needed to be covered with environmesh to protect against pigeon attack so there was nothing for it but to get wet. It also meant no photos of what we'd done. I like some photos as I find it the easiest way to keep a record of exactly what was sown, planted and harvested.
The recent rain has made it possible to start digging over the old strawberry bed.
Last summer the bed dried out completely with deep cracks forming in the soil. Until it got a decent amount of rainfall on it the bed was too hard to dig over but the current wet spell has at least made it possible to get a fork into the ground to allow the soil to be turned over.
It is hard going and it will need the weather to break down the soil before it's ready for sowing or planting crops in. It may well need leaving until next spring giving winter rains and frost a chance to break up the soil before its ready for planting but at least I've made a start at getting the bed back into production.