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Sunday 22 July 2012
Greenhouse Update and a Summer’s Afternoon
Sunday morning was cloudy and it looked like it would stay that way but early in the afternoon the clouds disappeared the sun came out and left us with a summer’s afternoon and the warmest day of the month with the temperature reaching 25.1°C.
It seems that, for the last few weeks now, blogs outside the UK have been posting pictures of their first ripe tomatoes. So here’s my UK update where things are much slower growing this year. In the greenhouse I had to search through the tomato plants to find a couple of tiny tomatoes which still have plenty of growing to do before turning red.
This one is Moneymaker and it’s not a lot bigger than a pea and below is San Marzano probably the bigger of the two tomatoes.
We’ve also got aubergines and peppers growing in the greenhouse. These plants have not only had the cool weather to contend with but were also attacked by snails but they just about managed to survived. Our aubergine Long Purple Podded will soon have its first flowers. I have my doubts as to whether the season will be long enough for it to mature into a ripe fruit.
The same is probably true of our pepper Palladio which is also just developing its first flower. It’s normally September time when the first fruits are ready but at least with peppers they can always be used whilst still green.
Monday 23 July 2012
Summer’s Best
Monday was a beautiful summer’s day with plenty of sunshine, July’s warmest day with 25.8°C, and remaining mild well into the evening.
In the afternoon on the plot, as I walked along the path to the raspberries, a male blackbird flew out of the middle of the canes. He was very disgruntled that someone had come along to disturb him. As I picked some raspberries he continued to chortle at me from the safety of the gooseberry bushes. He was very annoyed that someone else had the nerve to pick some of his berries.
There was plenty of evidence that he’d been having a real feast on the berries and he obviously wasn’t content to finish one berry before starting another. Our raspberries aren’t netted - we don’t mind loosing one or two to the birds so long as plenty are left for us. I don’t know why this male blackbird was so determined to chortle at me as there’s lots of evidence about that our alpine strawberries, tayberries, and gooseberries are providing plenty of alternative food for the birds. I bet they can’t wait for the net to come off the remaining redcurrants
Tuesday 24 July 2012
The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
Tuesday was warm and muggy and produced some long sunny spells. Not quite our hottest day of the year, that record still being held by 28 May at 28°C. It’s a case of splitting hairs where you have to as today’s high was 27.9°C.
We decided it was a little too hot for doing much on the plot and spent the afternoon doing a little gardening at home. Now to the good, the bad and the ugly. As all the good shows let’s go in reverse order/ The ugly award goes to:
The contents of the pond filter after a couple of weeks of operation. The sludge gets tipped on the garden. My theory is that it should be good for the garden. The bad award goes to:
Mildew on the back of this rose bud. Is mildew as a result of all the wet weather or the last four rain free days? So far it has only appeared on one bud but in any case we can do without it. Finally the good award is presented to:
This passion flower. I have to be honest I thought that I’d probably killed this whilst carry out preparation works for the base of the summerhouse. This is a true survivor and is flowering better than it has ever done!
Wednesday 25 July 2012
Onion Results Are In
Wednesday was dull and warm. Apparently it was the warmest day of the year according to the BBC weather forecaster but that certainly wasn’t true here as the highest we managed all day was 21.3°C.
On the plot I harvested the last of our autumn planted onions, Electric, which were planted as sets back on 04 October 2011. Other varieties already lifted are Dobies Autumn Champion, Shakespeare and Senshyu Yellow. These are all drying off in our home greenhouse.
This is how they looked when planted last October.
|
Date |
Harvested |
Variety |
Measure |
Value |
Comments |
|
July 2012 |
Onions |
Dobies Autumn Champion |
Kg |
4.2 |
|
|
July 2012 |
Onions |
Electric |
Kg |
5.9 |
|
|
July 2012 |
Onions |
Senshyu Yellow |
Kg |
9.3 |
|
|
July 2012 |
Onions |
Shakespeare |
Kg |
5.9 |
|
|
|
|
|
Total weight |
25.4 |
|
At the beginning of May this year the onions were starting to grow away well.
They’ve gone on to produce a good crop of onions which will certainly see us through until this year’s main crop of summer onions are ready. We harvested our first Shakespeare onions on the 26 June but it could have been any of the varieties as they were all ready to use at the same time.
Here are the weights for the individual varieties of onions harvested.
Obviously Senshyu Yellow performed the best. All the varieties produced onions of good quality and size. All the onions lifted have been disease free and just the odd bulb of each variety had seeded. The reason for the success of Senshyo Yellow I would suggest is that all the bulbs made it through winter so they’ve out produced the other varieties. I’ll now try to judge the storing qualities of each of the varieties.
Thursday 26 and Friday 27 July 2012
A Day Out with the Duchess
The weather was pretty good on Thursday and Friday. It was dull Thursday morning and the sun didn’t break through until early afternoon whereas Friday was mild with sunny spells all day.
On Friday we had a trip by train to the coast at Scarborough. We caught the train in Wakefield mid morning for the journey to the east coast. Our trip was on a special charter train and was hauled to Scarborough and back by “The Duchess of Sutherland” a restored steam locomotive.
Our train arrives in Wakefield
The station platforms were crowded with a mix of passengers catching the train for a day trip to Scarborough or York and hoards of photographers trying to find the best vantage point from which to capture photographs.
Our reserved table for 2 and coach for the trip
The train stopped in York, to drop off passengers who had decided to spend the afternoon looking around this historic city, before carrying on to the coast at Scarborough. We had the afternoon in the town firstly finding some lunch and then having a walk along the sea front. The resort was busy on this pleasant summer afternoon with plenty of holiday makers enjoying the spell of fine weather.
Scarborough
After a walk around the south bay it was time to find our way back to the railway station and board the train for the return trip to Wakefield.
As befits a duchess, our train had its own platform and we were able to board the train as soon as we arrived back at the station. We left on time and were served sandwiches, a scone with jam and clotted cream and coffee at our seats as we made our way home through the countryside of North Yorkshire. A very different and enjoyable day out.
Saturday 28 July 2012
Rotting Potatoes?
Saturday wasn’t too bad being sunny and windy for most of the day. It was cool in the early hours of the morning with the temperature falling to just 9.3°C. We had a few light showers from early evening onwards.
On the plot I thought it was about time I started lifting some of our early potatoes. The tops haven't died down completely but they are showing signs that they’re reaching this stage. As I’ve got lots of potatoes to lift I thought I’d make a start.
At first I was a little surprised because as I lifted some of the potatoes I initially thought some of the tubers were affected by blight. The tops however hadn’t sown any signs so I was a little puzzled.
This is a root of Winston showing the condition of some of the potatoes as lifted. The soil is not as wet as it looks from this photograph but there is little doubt that the soil has been waterlogged for considerable periods of time this summer and I think that this has caused some of the tubers to rot.
I would reckon that about 10% of the crop were like this with the rest in good condition.
Back in spring we bought three extra varieties of potatoes to trial. These were Vales Emerald, Casablanca and Marilyn. These have now all been lifted and the harvesting is summarised here.
Swift (left) - Winston (centre) and Premiere (right)
Sunday 29 July 2012
Almost Forgotten
Sunday wasn’t anything special for the end of July. Some sunny periods interspersed with dark clouds it was cool and blustery all day.
In a corner of the home greenhouse are the cyclamens grown from seed last year. They weren’t expected to do much this year after flowering in their first year.
They’re in a plant pot saucer by the greenhouse door and surrounded by onions recently lifted and drying off in the greenhouse. To be honest they haven’t been totally neglected and I have kept them watered by adding water to the saucer on a regular basis. But they are putting on a good show.
Last year the plants were in flower in December as the picture below taken on 02 December shows.
Monday 30 July 2012
Poor Veggies
Monday was another day of sunny spells and rather breezy. For all the sunny spells it wasn’t particularly warm with the maximum temperature just making 17°C.
There’s no wonder our more tender vegetables aren’t growing very well considering the overnight temperatures. The last few nights have been quite cold for July with the last night (ie early Tuesday morning) down to 7.3°C, then 8.7°C, 10.6°C and 9.3°C for the previous three nights. The average for this stage of July is 14°C, so with cool days and cold nights is there any wonder tender outdoor crops refuse to perform?
It has to be said though that some of the garden plants are loving these conditions. This clematis is now looking at its best. We can’t remember the variety - any ideas?
Tuesday 31 July 2012
A Poor Finish to the Month
Tuesday wasn’t very good for July. It was dull all day without any hint of sunshine with light rain at times throughout the day. It was cool with the thermometer just managing 15°C.
Quickly looking at the month’s weather statistics it’s been a wet month as I’m sure everybody is already aware. In the end we had 106.4mm (4.2”) which is 2½ times our normal amount for July.
Temperature wise it’s been a cold month with an average temperature of 15.5°C which is 1.8°C above and 4.2°C below the coldest and hottest July’s in the last 100 years.
It’s also been another poor month for sunshine as the chart below shows.
We’ve had a couple of very poor months in a row for sunshine with June only producing around half the amount we might expect and July maybe two thirds. Perhaps August will improve things.
Despite the poor weather we made an afternoon visit to the plot, mainly to water the greenhouse tomatoes. We managed to pick our first few French beans “Tendergreen” and our courgettes had plenty of small fruits to pick especially our free seeds of “Tondo di Piacenza”. Is this the start of our usual courgette glut? At one time I didn’t think we were going to have any courgettes at all let alone a glut.
Our full list of harvesting in July can be found here.