ossettweather.com
Friday 15 June 2012
Let Loose with the Secateurs - Again!
Friday wasn’t too bad after some heavy overnight rain. A few glimpses of the sun and the temperature, all be it briefly, up to 18°C, it felt a little more like June.
It was one of those days when I was let loose with the secateurs again, this time to tackle one of our bamboo’s.
This is how it looked before pruning although I only remembered to take a picture once I’d started a little pruning so at this stage some canes had already received the chop.
These canes were by the green waste bin ready for recycling when I remembered to take a picture.
The aim of the pruning was to allow some light through the bamboo and instead of having a mass of impenetrable canes to reduce them down to five or six canes which will thicken up and look more like conventional bamboo canes. Most of the canes were around the same thickness similar in diameter to a pencil. I just left around six canes equally spaced amongst the root of the bamboo.
Much secateuring later our bamboo looked like this. We can now see through the canes and view other plants growing in the border behind. It just needs the stems to thicken up a bit now.
Saturday 16 June 2012
Weather Station Wood Pigeon
Saturday was disappointingly cool and dull with outbreaks of light drizzle on and off all day and some heavier rain early in the evening. This is what we’ve come to expect this June.
Sunday morning has started off dull and windy but it has given me a chance of getting a short video clip of our wood pigeon perched on the vane of my weather station. A favoured vantage point.
Watching this video closely I’ve noticed that woody actually gets turned on the wind vane as the wind direction changes and he certainly doesn’t seem to have any effect on the anemometer as that whizzed around in today's strong breeze. Just as well, as I’m not sure how to keep him off this perch short of covering the whole weather station in anti bird netting!
Sunday 17 June 2012
Thinking of Winter
Well Sunday was a better day, although it got off to a cloudy start, there were some pleasant sunny intervals in the afternoon and it was dry all day.
I made a start on sowing a variety of brassica plants for cropping through winter and into next spring. I wasn’t very happy with the plug plants I bought last autumn so I’ve decided to make the effort and try growing my own plants this year. The first sowing consisted of broccoli “Red Arrow” and “White Sprouting Early”. I’ve also sown cauliflower “Aalsmeer” which will be ready for harvesting next April and May. I’ve sown some more cauliflower “Clapton” a club root resistance variety which will hopefully be ready for harvesting in October this year.
The seeds have gone under the grow light where I can keep a close eye on them. They will also be protected from any extremes of temperature which can happen in the greenhouse during spells of sunshine. That’s if we do eventually see the sun.
Next on the list for sowing will be some winter and spring cabbages.
Monday 18 June 2012
No Vacancies
We made the most of Monday, a lovely mild day with plenty of sunny spells. It was a mad day of sowing and planting which Sue has covered in a blog post here.
I was in need of some space in our home greenhouse for tubs of sweet peppers and aubergines that I’ve recently planted up. The only way I could find some room was by emptying the two potato bags taking space in one corner of the greenhouse. They’d grown plenty of tops which were flopping over the top of the bags in a most untidy fashion. So they were tipped out and harvested, one bag of Winston produced 0.766kg (1.7lbs) and a bag of Swift 0.283kg (0.6 lbs). Probably not enough to keep us going until our outdoor crops are ready but a reminder of how new potatoes should taste.
Winston to the left and Swift on the right
Not only is our home greenhouse full, the plot is now almost fully planted up too. I’ve to clear our over wintering brassica bed of the remnants of last year’s harvest and weeds which have now infested the brassicas. We’ve now harvested the last of the spring cabbage. This bed will be used later for planting autumn onions and perhaps sweet Williams.
From the plot looking a bit on the empty side a few weeks back, it’s a good feeling to have it full of seeds and plants although of course there’s still plenty of pitfalls before these turn into edible harvests.
Tuesday 19 June 2012
Getting There!
Tuesday was another very pleasant day although it took a while in the morning for the sun to break through the cloud cover.
At last after a very slow start the plot is taking on that verdant look even though there are still some beds showing nothing but bare earth as we await recently sown crops to emerge.
The cardoon on the left of the picture has put on an enormous amount of growth probably due to the wet weather. It’s now got some flower buds which once opened are adored by the bees.
The three small strawberry beds which were cleared last autumn have been planted up with potatoes this year. The ground was more like concrete than soil when it was first dug last autumn but the winter rains and frost broke it down well.
The potatoes growing in these three beds are looking good and I’m hoping that the crop underneath the foliage will be as good as the tops appear.
Our roses are now in full bloom and mingling in amongst the Sambucus Nigra “Black Lace” are putting on a stunning display.
Finally thanks to Mark at “Mark’s Veg Plot” for spotting our comfrey bed and posting a reminder about making a “tea”. This was the day’s final job. An old bucket was filled with comfrey leaves, then filled with water. It now needs leaving for 2 to 3 weeks to produce its evil smelling brew which is an excellent plant food.
I’m on the lookout for a much bigger bucket!
Wednesday 20 June 2012
Best of June 2012
Wednesday continued the few days of warm drier weather. Although nothing special Wednesday produced our warmest June day of the month with the thermometer nudging 21.6°C. The sunny spells of the last few days have given a little boost to the sunshine hours for the month, but unless the remainder of the month defies the forecasts for a return to dull and sometimes wet weather, June will turn out to be a very dull month.
Up to and including Wednesday we’ve had just 39.8 hours of recorded sunshine. In the dull and wet of April this year we managed 90.4 hours so June certainly has some catching up to do.
Our strawberries have started to turn and are providing us with some tasty fruits but we don’t think that they’re as sweet as usual and we’re wondering if this is due to the lack of sunshine during the ripening process. The good news is they still put the supermarket strawberries to shame.
Thursday 21 June 2012
Brassicas Away
After a few pleasant days things came to an end on Thursday which was a thoroughly wet day.
Last Sunday I sowed lots of brassica seeds and these were placed under the indoor grow light to germinate. Most of the seeds have already germinated and are growing very quickly.
Having such a poor season germination wise I may have been a bit heavy handed with the number of seeds sown. Providing the seedlings are transplanted soon they should be fine. These seeds were all sown in New Horizon peat free compost and have germinated within a few days. I’ll pot them up into the same compost and see how they perform but so far I’ve not any problems. The seedlings at this early stage look very healthy.