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Sunday 15 July 2012
Weeding and Harvesting
Sunday was a sunny breezy day and another rain free day. Despite the sunshine it never felt that warm in the strong breeze much more like a sunny spring day than a summer one.
On the plot it’s a case of chasing your tail with the weeds. They seem to miraculously appear as full grown weeds the minute you turn your back on them. Of course it’s also important to harvest anything that ready for picking as after all that’s the main reason for having the plot.
So with Sue spending most of the afternoon weeding I gathered in the harvest. These potatoes are looking good at the moment and once weeded the plot looked in good shape despite the awful weather this month.
The harvesting went well too. The broad beans Witkiem Manita are from plants I almost pulled up a few months ago because they didn’t look as though they would ever be strong enough to grow any beans. (Note from Sue - And who was it told you not to pull them up?). Just shows what I know, as they’re producing a tasty crop of beans at a time when the only other vegetables we have ready are peas Carouby De Maussane which have enjoyed the cool wet weather this year.
Just for good measure our French beans Tendergreen are starting to produce a few flowers so it looks like we might be lucky enough to get some beans in a few weeks time.
Monday 16 July 2012
A Lunchtime Shower
Monday was a dull cloudy day which we’ve become accustomed to this July. Some light rain at lunchtime put us off visiting the plot.
It’s an odd sort of summer weather and not only from the high amounts of rainfall. I’ve clipped some data from one of my charts for the last three days. On Saturday 14th we had just over 3 hours of sunshine and more than 8 hours of sunshine on Sunday and just 20 minutes on Monday.
At this time of year, at the height of summer, I’d expect a sunny day to produce a much higher temperature than a dull cloudy day but that’s not the case. Each day the maximum, minimum and average daily temperatures were almost the exactly the same.
Still the sunshine on Sunday was very welcome and plenty more would be appreciated although the forecast doesn’t seem that promising.
Tuesday & Wednesday 17-18 July 2012
A Day in the Dales National Park
Tuesday wasn’t too bad a day and we took the opportunity to do some more weeding and harvesting on the plot. Our harvesting details are recorded here.
We decided on a day out on Wednesday and made a trip into North Yorkshire and the Dales National Park. We headed up to the famous Ribblehead Viaduct on the Settle to Carlisle Railway line. It was breezy and cold up at the viaduct with the low cloud clipping the tops of the surrounding hillsides.
Up on the tops the streams were full to bursting with water and the effects of weeks of heavy rainfall were easy to see in rapidly flowing rivers and flooded pasture land and fields.
We had lunch in Hawes before going on to investigate some of the higher points on the Settle to Carlisle Railway including the highest main line railway station in England at Dent which is 1150 feet above sea level.
We did have some concerns when Sue spotted this young rabbit happily sitting in the middle of the tracks in line for a nasty confrontation with an oncoming train.
I’d visions of mangled rabbit and a very upset Sue. Fortunately the rabbit saw sense and hopped out of the way at the last minute much to the relief of all concerned. There aren’t any pictures of the train as Sue was far too concerned about what was going to happen to the rabbit.
Heading home and coming down out of the hills the weather started to improve with the clouds lifting and the sun coming out.
Thursday 19 July 2012
Sunshine Wanted
Thursday was yet another dull cool day. Following on from overnight rain it brightened up a little towards lunchtime giving us hope of a decent afternoon but in the end the clouds stubbornly remained all afternoon.
The last time I was down the plot I managed to cultivate the bed that had recently been cleared of last year’s over wintering brassicas. I figured the bed was just about dry enough and with more rain forecast I’d risk turning over the soil before it was too wet once again.
The ground was still a little on the wet side but it broke up reasonably well. I’m planning on using this bed for planting autumn onions and next year’s Sweet Williams. I’m still deciding whether or not to try a quick growing green manure crop to improve the soil fertility before the onions are planted in late September. At least a green manure crop will give any weeds a little bit of competition.
Friday 20 July 2012
Cold and Wet
Friday was a miserable day. It would have been miserable most times of the year but especially so in July the supposed height of summer. It rained most of the morning and into the afternoon depositing another 10.0mm of rain bringing July’s total up to 103.8mm or looking at it another way 2½ times our expected monthly amount.
To add insult to injury, by 05:30 Saturday morning, the over night temperature fell to a ridiculously cold value of 6.8°C. That’s our coldest July temperature in the 3 years I’ve been recording weather data.
Watching Gardener’s World last night Monty Don lifted some of the early potatoes that he had on trial. He had mixed results regarding yield and tasting quality. He did have one variety which broke up quite badly when cooked.
I’ve been lifting a selection of our early potato varieties that I am trying this year. The last one I lifted was Premiere.
The yield from just one root was pretty good I thought but on cooking these broke up badly and the flavour wasn’t anything special. I always thought that dry weather was to blame for potatoes breaking up on cooking but clearly that’s completely wrong as the plants have been continually wet since planting in April.
Monty thought that lack of flavour in his potatoes might be due to too much rain. The best flavour of the varieties from our plot was Vales Emerald. Other varieties lifted have been Marilyn and Casablanca. Neither of these 3 varieties broke down on cooking. Another point against Premiere in this wet summer was the amount of slug damage to the tubers which far exceeded that of the other varieties although until more roots are lifted the amount of slug damage for the different types cannot be accurately determined.
Saturday 21 July 2012
Harvesting Onions
After a cold start Saturday wasn’t too bad as far as this July is concerned with some long sunny periods and no rain.
We made the most of the weather weeding and harvesting on the plot. I also continued my green manure experiment finally deciding to try a green manure crop in the bed cleared of last winter’s brassicas. The last sowing of white clover failed to germinate completely which I can only put down to the dreadful weather so I’ve tried again in this bed by sowing a mixture of white and red clover.
I've also started to lifted last year’s autumn sown onions. These wont keep long but I think they’ve done all the growing they’re going to do so I think they’ll be better off stored somewhere dry rather than in wet soil. Our first variety Shakespeare has already been lifted and is stored in our home greenhouse and today I lifted these Dobies Autumn Champion which have made some good onions.
Our fruit harvest is continuing as our summer vegetables struggle in the wet weather. We managed a good harvest today full details of which can be found here.
