Saturday, 23 June 2018
The Drought Goes On!
It looks like June is going to finish up as the driest June I've recorded following on from the second driest May. The last few days have been sunny and breezy not at all what we want when the ground is already rock hard through lack of rain.
10 Forecast for Ossett from http://www.wetterzentrale.de
Next week is forecast to be very hot and sunny as we move towards the beginning of July and there's no rain in the forecast at all. That's not strictly true as 0.1mm is indicated for 29 June but I think that's only there to show where rainfall would appear if there was any. It looks like watering on the plot will be the main job of the week; with temperatures next week forecast to nudge 30°C (86°F) it's going to be hot work.
Watering the plot has become a major undertaking and is slowing progress down at getting other jobs done. We needed to get some more beds ready for planting up but the best looking of the ones remaining to be dug over looked like this.
There was no way my little tiller was going to turn over this baked hard ground so we decided to give the bed a good soaking, leave it overnight, and then see if it could be dug over. The ground is so dry that not even weeds have attempted to germinate. There were a few roots of wick grass but there was no way of digging them out so they got watered too. As if we hadn't enough watering to do we were actually watering weeds.
After a good watering the bed was covered with weed control fabric in the hope of keeping some of the moisture in overnight. The bed was uncovered the following afternoon and I set about digging over the bed.
It was hard going, but I could now get my spade into the ground, and once dug over it didn't look much use for sowing or planting crops in. It certainly wasn't going to be broken down into a decent tilth without putting up a bit of a fight. I reckoned I hadn't got much to lose by trying my tiller on it.
The tiller found it hard going too but this time it was doing the hard work instead of me and after a good number of passes up and down the bed the lumps were broken down into something resembling soil . At least we should be able to sow or plant into this bed now.
It looks like we'll have a least a couple of weeks to wait before we get any rainfall. If next week turns out to be as hot as forecast I think some parts of the plot will really start to suffer.
Tuesday, 26 June 2018
Hottest Day of the Year
Monday was the hottest day of the year as we enter what is forecast to be a hot week. The temperature reached 31.4°C making it the fourth hottest day I've recorded.
Temperature Record for Monday, 25 June 2018
Below is my list of the top twenty hottest days since 2010.
Already three entries for this year but those high temperatures in April and May are now looking as though they might drop out of the table if this current hot spell of weather does indeed continue for a few days.
The allotment has gone into full summer mode as our old gazebo was erected to provide some welcome shade.
Wednesday, 27 June 2018
Hottest June Ever?
It's certainly been a hot few days.
Temperature Records 25-27 June 2018
On both Monday and Tuesday the temperature managed to exceed 30°C (86°F) but on Wednesday it only managed 27.4°C which maintains a record for my weather station in that I've never recorded three consecutive days above 30°C. It means I've had to amend my top twenty hottest days table to take Tuesday into account.
As we approach the end of the month it is obvious that we've had a very warm June and I'm sure we'll soon be told that it's the "hottest ever June" or the "hottest June since records began". So in anticipation I've looked up what I think are the hottest Junes using the Central England Temperature Record.
Data from Hadley Centre Central England Temperature Record
The current value of this year's June average is 16.0°C provisional to the 26th of the month. That puts it into 7th place tying with 1775. With hot weather forecast to the end of the month it is probably going to head up this table but will it finish up hotter than 1846. For comparison my weather stations average for this June is 16.3°C up to the 26th of June.
The hot and sunny weather means there's lots of watering to do at home and at the allotment. It's important to make sure all the plants in the greenhouse and summerhouse get watered or this happens.
Begonia Sutherlandii
This poor plant growing, or was growing, in the summerhouse until my watering regime missed it out. I'm not sure that it will recover but I'll move it to a shaded spot in the greenhouse and see if it sends up some new shoots. Fortunately it's not the only pot of begonia sutherlandii we have. It should look like this-
Begonia Sutherlandii
I'm now being much more careful to make sure all our plants get watered especially our other begonias.