Friday, 15 June 2018
A Brush With Storm Hector
After weeks of lots of calm sunny weather the spell was broken with storm Hector. He brought us some unusually strong westerly winds for June in off the Atlantic. However, the one thing Hector didn't bring was any much needed rain.
Temperature & Wind Speed Records for 16-May to 15-June-2018
It was our third windiest June day over the last eight years but probably seemed worst after a long spell of excellent weather. There was plenty of sunshine with the gale force winds, probably the worst combination for our garden and allotment in its already very dry state.
In the garden Hector managed to blow over our pot grown cherry tree.
Cherry - "Stella"
It's the first time it's ever been blown over. The fleece around the ripening cherries probably acted a bit like a sail helping to topple the tree but I expect the tree to be safe from gale force winds through the summer months at least. The fleece isn't there for decorative purposes as the woodpigeons start devastating the young leaves as soon as they start to emerge and any ripening cherries are picked off by our resident blackbirds. It's very simple really "no fleece - no cherries" so the fleece will stay around the tree whatever the weather.
I’m guessing that our cardoons at the allotment will be looking a bit battered. We'll have a trip down to the plot to inspect for any damage today. The wait for some rain goes on!
Saturday, 16 June 2018
A Last Word On Storm Hector
Overnight Friday into Saturday morning we had what counts as rainfall these days here as 0.2mm (0.01in) fell at sometime in the night. I couldn't tell there'd even been a shower at breakfast time and I did think it was a bit odd that my rain gauge was showing some rainfall, even if it was the smallest amount it measures. A closer inspection of our hostas confirmed that we had indeed had a light shower.
We paid a visit to the allotment on Friday to do some watering and check for storm damage. I was surprised where the worst damage had occurred. I expected our cardoons to be the worst hit but they escaped relatively unscathed. The worst damage was to our newly planted out leeks as the wind had blown the weed control fabric onto the seedlings. The wood chip holding down the fabric had been blown off leaving the fabric at the mercy of the gale force wind.
The video below shows the extent of the damage to our allotments and cherry tree in the garden.
Sunday, 17 June 2018
Wow! Rained Off!!
Something unusual happened on our visit to the plot yesterday. It rained! After all the hot weather and the forecast of thunderstorms, which never happened here, it took one of the coolest days of the month for a thunderstorm to occur. A few spots of rain as a warning to take cover and then it tipped it down for a few minutes. We took shelter in the shed and watched the rain do some watering for us.
Mixed in with the rain were a couple of rumbles of thunder but the storm only lasted for a few minutes.
Temperature & Rain Rate Records for 16 June 2018
I don't know how the rain at home compared with that on the plot but at home it amounted to 4.2mm (0.17in) with the fastest rain falling at 45.4mm/hr (1.79in/hr) the highest rainfall rate this year. At that rate it's probably as well it didn't last too long. The months total rainfall is now 5.6mm which is still the driest June I've recorded at this stage of the month.
It was just as well that I didn't leave picking our strawberries until the last job of the day. I finished picking these as the first few drops of rain began to fall.
Strawberries - "Cupid" & "Cambridge Favourite"
Any rain is better than no rain at all for the garden and plot but yesterday's downpour won't have been enough to convert our hard compacted ground into more workable soil.
Monday, 18 June 2018
First Veggie Harvest
Sunday saw us harvest our first vegetable crop of the new season. We decided it was time to cut the largest head of our calabrese Aquiles.
Aquiles was part of our early brassica collection from DT Brown which arrived as plug plants at the end of March.
Early Brassica Collection 29 March 2018
The plug plants were potted on and spent the next month in the greenhouse growing on before, they were transplanted into their final positions in the allotment.
They were planted out on 29 April 2018 and were covered with environmesh to prevent damage from wood pigeons. Since then they've needed plenty of watering. It's almost two months since they were planted out and under average conditions I'd have expected around 100mm or 4in of rainfall. However, this year it's been very dry and since they were planted we've had 23.8mm (0.94in) or around a quarter of what we might expect. At one stage in the middle of May I wasn't at all convinced we were going to get much of a crop off them but over the last few weeks they've definitely put on a bit of a spurt.
Cabbage - Regency
Cauliflower - Helsinki
Our cabbages are almost ready for cutting but the cauliflowers look like they will be a week or so before they are ready. Hopefully, they'll be ready as the calabrese is finishing.