Friday 15 August 2014
Rained Off -
We set off just after lunch to visit RHS Harlow Carr. The weather wasn’t anything too special for August but not too bad a day. It’s a 45 minute trip to Harlow Carr but by the time we arrived the signs were there as dark storm clouds were gathering around and it was beginning to rain a little. We sat in the car for a few minutes until it stopped raining and decided to head from the car park and into the gardens.
As we started to walk around the gardens the sun made an effort to break through the clouds and it felt lovely and warm. We thought our luck might be in and the storm clouds might miss us.
It didn’t look quite so promising looking in another direction. It seemed like a good idea to keep one eye on the developing storm and not venture too far away from any cover just incase the rain arrived. We’ve visited the gardens several times since early in the year and this was our first visit where the displays didn’t perhaps live up to our expectations compared to other visits.
As we got to the main herbaceous borders -
The sky didn’t look too promising and we just found shelter in time as the rain poured down. It tipped for about half an hour before it eased enough for us to head for the car park.
So we didn’t manage a look around the kitchen garden. I’d like to know how those tomatoes planted in little pots on the top of straw bales have progressed. Another visit soon might be required.
Saturday 16 August 2014
Giving Up
It was on the fourth of August that we set our onions onto wire frames to dry off on the plot. It seemed like a good idea at the time as the weather was still excellent, dry and plenty of sunshine. Since then things have gone somewhat downhill as we’ve had some rain in each of the last seven days and only 3 completely dry days for our onions to dry off outside.
In the plot greenhouse our Sioux tomato plants never recovered from their early July problems. They neither produced any new leaves or flowers and hence they were on Saturday consigned to the compost heap to make some space in the greenhouse for the onions.
Rightly or wrongly I’ve decided the problem was a result of conditions in the greenhouse exacerbated by the compost in the grow bags they were planted in. The plants have been chopped up and added to the compost heap.
The rest of the tomato plants in the plot greenhouse are all looking very sorry for themselves and have very few tomatoes on. The exception has been Sungold which has grown and cropped well but the crop is now coming to an end. I’m not intended to water the plants any more and so with the extra ventilation provided at ground level I’m hoping our onions will dry out satisfactorily in the plot greenhouse.
As more tomato plants are cleared the onions will be spread out a little bit more.
The wind has continued to blow most days this week and the cardoon that was badly blown about in the wind last weekend has now given up the battle to stay upright altogether and has decided the best option is to use the ground as support.
This is more material for the compost heap. Interestingly the flowers last in good condition for ages on the compost heap where the bees still love them.
Despite the wet damp conditions our ever bearing strawberry Flamenco gave us a treat of fresh strawberries for Saturday tea time.
Some strawberries had been nibbled by slugs and a couple had gone mouldy due to the damp conditions but the rest were delicious. A little reminder that summer isn’t over yet.
Sunday 17 August 2014
In the Middle of a Gale -
I thought one bout of gale force winds was unusual enough for August but this year it’s excelling itself. It’s the middle of Sunday afternoon and a gale continues to blow as it’s done since the middle of the morning.
The first casualty was our Issai Kiwi blown over by a strong gust before lunchtime. In full leaf the supporting canes couldn’t withstand the gale force winds and the three bamboo canes have all snapped. Fortunately I don’t think there’s any damage to the kiwi itself. After a few temporary repairs it was positioned behind the summer house to shelter it from the worst of the winds.
Then after lunch, next in the firing line came our potted black elder and bird feeding station both blown over in the gale force winds.
I may as well leave them where they are until the wind dies down a bit.
On Monday 11 August I posted the table below to show how windy this August has been in comparison to recent Augusts.
Updated for this weekend’s windy weather the values now look like this.
It doesn’t seem to be abating much yet. I wonder what’s happened to our runner beans and sweet corn on the plot?
Whatever Happened to August?
Well by Monday morning the wind had died down. Sunday had been quite sunny but with a gale force wind for most of the day it was very unpleasant not at all like August.
The strongest gusts were from mid morning to late afternoon when it overturned our Kiwi, Black Elder and bird feeding station. For the record the updated table of wind speeds to Monday morning now looks like this.
The forecasters are now turning their attention to a cold blast of air coming from the north with overnight temperatures down into single figures with the possibility of a frost in some unlucky spots. With daytime temperatures predicted to be in the low to mid teens it’s not going to be a mild week by any means.
As I said whatever happened to August?
Amazingly our first flower on our Bishop of Llandaff dahlia survived the gales intact. This afternoon we’re hoping to make a trip down to the plot to inspect the aftermath there.
Monday 18 August 2014
Early Cardoon Refurbishment
Monday brought about a big improvement in the weather, well at least the gale force winds had abated, other than that it wasn’t what’s expected in August. We set off to the plot to inspect for any damage from Sunday’s gale. The clouds suggested it might only be a short visit.
The plot seemed to have survived pretty well intact. Our runner beans are still more or less unscathed but with a bit of a lean towards the east. Some of the leaves look a bit battered now after what seems like days of very windy weather.
The biggest casualty of the winds is one of our once statuesque cardoon plants which has been battered into submission.
There was no point in pretending that was possible to rescue this plant by supporting the flowering spikes with stakes they’re far too heavy. The only thing for it was to bring forward its winter pruning. If you look carefully you can see that all the leaves produced by the cardoon are attached to the flowering stems. This means that once the flowering spikes are cut down to ground level nothing of the plant is visible above ground. It’s a bit drastic but I don’t think there was an alternative.
What a difference a few cuts with the loppers makes. The next job is to dig over the ground around the plant to remove as much grass and other weeds as possible. Most years that’s all I do and leave the plant to shoot again from the base. Doing this it will go on to produce another enormous plant again next year.
This year though I’m going to clear out some of the old wood around the base of the plant which will reduce the size of the cardoon for a couple of years before the process needs to be repeated to keep the plant under some sort of control. I’m planning to use weed control fabric around the base to cut down on the weeds but apart from clearing the weeds I’m going to wait until some new shoots are produced before moving on to the next stage of its restoration.
The flower spikes have all been transferred to the compost heap but left so the bees have access to the flowers which they love so much.
Once dried the stems of the cardoons are very sturdy and aren’t that easy to compost so I’m going to keep them in one piece rather than chopping them into bits for composting and test them out as sturdy replacements for bamboo canes next year. If it doesn’t work I haven’t lost anything.
Tuesday 19 August 2014
Cool Spell
Tuesday was easily the coldest day of the month. It had the lowest high temperature of 17.2°C combined with the lowest nighttime temperature of 8.2°C and an average of 12.8°C. The rainfall total is up to 70.2mm around double our long term average.
August 2014 Temperature and Rainfall to 20th August
If we don’t have a decent spell of warmer weather towards the end of the month this could end up the coldest August over the five years I have records for.
For the record the coldest August night I’ve recorded is 4.6°C on 31 August 2010.
Wednesday 20 August 2014
Couldn’t Help Myself
I’d decided on a plot visit in the afternoon. It promised to be another coolish August day and provided it stayed dry my plan was to get all our grass paths cut. As I was moving the mower from the garage to the car the heavens opened and it poured down for a few minutes. That put grass cutting on hold.
After a while the sun came back out and it looked quite promising so I decided to pop down to the plot after all but just to pick some runner beans. All three varieties are now producing masses of beans and our plan is make some runner bean chutney as we’ve already got lots in the freezer.
By the time I’d got to the plot the weather had taken a turn for the worse again it looked ready to pour down again. Undeterred I started picking and after a couple of minutes the sun broke through and it felt hot. There’s still plenty of warmth left in the sun. The runner beans almost started cooking on the vine as the hot sun got to work on the wet beans.
It didn’t take long before I’d picked 5kg of beans equally shared between Desiree to the left and Lady Di. Plenty for some chutney so as it still hadn’t started raining I decided to pick a few alpine strawberries, then a quick look over the raspberries, perhaps a punnet of greengages, some plums and a few apples for good measure.
In the end it wasn’t too bad a harvest considering I nearly didn’t bother visiting when it pored down with rain just after lunchtime. Time to get the runner bean chutney recipe out.
Note:
As of Wednesday evening our web sites are having serious issues with our Host server. I’m not sure what the problem is but if you try to view some of our web pages you will get a message reporting the web page is not available.
Thursday 21 August 2014
August Records May Tumble
Thursday was another poor day for August. The sun never managed to break through the heavy cloud cover and that also kept the temperature down to a disappointing 16.6°C. Some rainfall late evening and overnight into Friday morning brought our total for the month up to 81.2mm.
As we move into, more or less, the final week of August I updated the charts on my weather web pages. This month could set a few unwanted August records based on my records for the last five years. It could turn out to be:
- The coldest
- The wettest
- The windiest
- And finally least sunny
It’s certainly been the windiest August of the last four years for which I have records. If the average temperature drops another 0.2°C by the end of the month it will become the coldest whilst another 3.4mm of rainfall will make it the wettest too. As for sunshine we need to manage another 23.3 hours by the month’s end to prevent it taking the least sunny record too.
Updated records for August 2014 can be found on my web site here.