Wednesday, 02 May 2018
How did that happen?
Amazingly April’s average temperature has finished up as average or slightly above average. Average isn't the first word that springs to mind to describe this April. It seems rather amazing that the temperature finished up "average for the month" as most days seemed pretty cold apart from our ridiculously hot spell of a few days around the middle of the month. However, a combination of those few hot days and the fact that night time temperature held up quite well resulted in April’s temperature finishing up around average.
Temperature Records for April 2018
It does go to show that for gardener’s monthly average temperatures aren’t that much use as they don't give enough detail of how that average value was made up. Looking in detail at April’s weather, the chart above shows that the first half of the month was pretty cool by day with hardly any day time temperatures reaching the red line which indicates the average from the last eight years. The end of April also turned out on the cool side with daytime temperatures below average. However, those unusually high temperatures around the middle of the month offset three weeks of below average ones but five good days didn't exactly make our gardening problems disappear.
Temperature & Rainfall Comparisons for April 2010 - 2018
We also had one very wet day early in April when we had about a month’s rainfall. With a number of wet days since then, producing another month's worth of rainfall, it’s been a struggle to get the plot to dry out enough to dig over the ground which has remained wet and soggy. To make matters worse this followed on from a colder and wetter than average March. Even BBC Radio Leeds paid us a visit when they did an item covering how the poor weather was delaying sowing and planting for gardeners and farmers in Yorkshire.
At the end of April we’re two or three weeks behind schedule at the allotment. We’re now waiting for beds to dry out so that they can be dug over. To say that April’s temperature was average doesn’t give any clues as to the problems gardeners have had during the month.
Cherry - Stella
Currently the forecast for the first few weeks of May looks pretty promising, so once we get a wet Wednesday morning out of the way, some of the sowing, planting and digging delayed in March and April might get underway over the next few weeks.
Friday, 04 May 2018
It's Not All Down to the Weather
We're now starting what promises to be a spell of warmer and drier weather. We've started playing catch-up at the allotment getting beds dug over. However, not all this year's seed sowing has gone to plan. On the 22 April I sowed a batch of seeds which went into the indoor growlight to germinate.
List of Sowings on 22 April 2018
Notice the one I've circled in red. Courgettes are the first ones on that list that I would have expected to germinate. Looking back at past years, 4 days inside and maybe 7 days in the greenhouse is their normal germination time. This year's seeds placed under our growlight and 12 days after sowing look like this.
There's nothing to be seen as all the other seeds sown that day have now germinated and some have moved on into the greenhouse. I'm not holding out much hope of those courgette seeds germinating now. I've sown the "Defender" courgette seeds I had left along with a yellow variety "Atena Polka" yesterday (Thursday) and left them in the greenhouse to germinate as the temperatures forecast for over the next week are pretty reasonable.
I don't know why that first sowing of three seeds didn't or haven't germinated. I can't remember having any problems getting courgettes to germinate in the past. I'm now hoping that at least some of the remaining batch of 15 seeds germinate or I might be having to purchase some more. I can't really blame the weather can I?
Saturday, 05 May 2018
A Sense Of Normality Is Returning
After a much delayed start to the gardening year a sense of normality is beginning to return. After a dull morning and early afternoon Friday eventually turned into a very pleasant day.
On the plot our first potatoes are through. Our Casablanca potatoes and trial potatoes were all planted on the 08 April and all are now sending up their first shoots.
Potato - Elfie
I did consider covering the shoots of our trial potatoes which are growing through weed control fabric with some soil or well rotted wood chippings but there's no indication of any very cold nights over the coming week so I think I'll risk leaving them uncovered. Our Casablanca potatoes aren't planted through weed control fabric and will be "earthed up" as the haulms grow.
The early fruit tree blossom on our plum, greengage and pear trees is now fading and our apple trees are taking over.
Apple Tree - Egremont Russet
Our Egremont Russet apple tree is full of blossom. It's only a small tree and last year the weight of fruit it carried caused it to break away from its support. We didn't get round to fixing a new support over winter but it doesn’t seem to have done any harm to the tree. If all the blossom turns into fruit it's going to have a heavy crop again this year.
Apple Tree - Tickled Pink
Our apple tree Tickled Pink is also coming into flower and certainly has more blossom than last year when we only managed about four apples. Last year was the first time this tree had fruit and the apples were tinged pink all the way through which is unusual. As you can see the flowers are dark pink too. Maybe we'll be lucky enough to have a few more Tickled Pink apples to pick this year