Wednesday was a nice sunny day, although it was a bit breezy but the weather deteriorated on Thursday with a mostly cloudy day. It was only the second day of the month when the temperature didn’t manage to reach 20°C.
On the plot we harvested some of our carrots Early Nantes which have been grown under enviromesh as protection against carrot fly and planted in slots cut in weed suppressant membrane to cut down on weeding. The carrots have grown well with no tell tale signs of reddening foliage which is often a sign of attack by carrot root fly.
Of course the only true test is what’s underneath all those lovely lush green leaves. This week I decided to find out and then I realised the first real problem of using weed suppressant membrane. Exactly how do you lift carrots without damaging the membrane as I’d like to use it again for next years crop. As Early Nantes is growing along one edge of the membrane it wasn’t too much of a problem moving bricks and timber that were holding down both the enviromesh and weed suppressant. How to get to other varieties in the middle of the bed and membrane might be another matter.
The good news was that our carrots had some good roots. Not the perfect shape of those supermarket carrots but then I’m growing for taste and not perfectly formed roots. The first couple of roots were eaten raw grated to have with a salad and extremely tasty. I’ve just got to work out how to get to some of the other varieties now to test them out too.
Friday / Saturday 24 & 25 August 2012
Waiting for Tomatoes to Ripen
It’s sometimes difficult to remember that this is summer. In meteorological speak we’ve only 6 days of summer left as September marks the start of autumn. Summer doesn’t seem to have started yet let alone be coming to an end. It’s been a case all summer of expecting a good spell of weather to help the vegetables make up for the cold and wet start to the season but it just hasn’t happened.
We’re still waiting for tomatoes to ripen in any reasonable quantity. The plants look good and we’ve plenty of green tomatoes but we’d like red ones.
This is our tomato harvest to date just 5 ripe Gardener’s Delight weighing in at 0.114 kg. Last year by this time we’d picked 9.6 kg of several varieties.
Perhaps we’re in for a good September followed by an Indian Summer!
Sunday 26 August 2012
Typical Bank Holiday Weather
Sunday wasn’t the best of days. It was cool most of the day but a brief spell of sunshine warmed it up a little in the afternoon. No sooner had the sun come out than it stated to rain. As we were harvesting on the plot we were forced to take a rather extended coffee break in the shed. Despite the rain it was another good harvesting day - at least we’ve enough beans to freeze some for winter use.
This is Sunday’s harvest full details can be found here.
I did manage to take a little bit of video before the rain came. I haven’t added too many comments. We know the roses have black spot - they get this every year - and the grass paths need a mow but harvesting is far more important at the minute - after all that’s why we have an allotment. If it looks a little untidy but is producing the goods that’s fine by me. So here’s part 1 of our video with part 2 to follow soon.
Monday 27 August 2012
Cool and Wet
Bank Holiday Monday was a wash out. Not that we had bucketfuls of rain but it was enough to keep the paths wet all day amounting to a total of 4mm in total. It was a day for staying indoors as the temperature was pretty cool for late August reaching just 16.1°C producing the coolest day of the month.. Since those warm days in the middle of the month the temperature has gradually declined each day. Not much good for ripening tomatoes and bringing on any late vegetables.
The forecast for the week ahead doesn’t seem too promising for any warmer weather.
Tuesday 28 August 2012
Sunny and Warm
You could almost think it’s summer as Tuesday turned out to be warm, sunny and dry.
We decided to make the most of the weather and visited the RSPB reserve at Old Moor near Rotherham. It was very busy and the reserve had to open their over flow car park to accommodate all the visitors.
As is normally the case when we visit a reserve we found the flora much easier to photograph than the fauna.
Wednesday 29 August 2012
Cold and Wet
Tuesday’s warm and sunny weather didn’t last as Wednesday was cold and miserable. It rained most of the morning stopping at lunchtime and brightening up just enough to make me think of doing a little afternoon gardening before some more rain arrived. After another short dry interlude it tipped again in the late afternoon. As you can see from the chart below we’ve had a pretty wet start to Thursday too. It was cool for August with the temperature just managing to remain around the 12°C mark for much of the day.
Thursday 30 August 2012
Even Colder and Wetter
Thursday was another cold wet day. The warmest it managed was just 13.6°C and by
midnight on Thursday it had fallen to just 5.9°C. That combination produced the coldest
average August temperature of the last 3 summers of 11.3°C. The temperature eventually
fell to 5.1°C early on Friday morning which surprisingly isn’t quite the coldest
August temperature I’ve recorded which is still held by 31 August 2010 when it got
down to 4.6°C giving one of the coldest August temperatures recorded.
The good news is that Friday is forecast to be a much better day with plenty of sunshine
but not particularly warm so a visit to the plot might be in order.
Our Michaelmas Daisies are putting on a really good show in the front garden and
so far are standing up to the weather very well.
Friday 31 August 2012
Testing Our Peaches
Despite some sunshine on Friday the temperatures never recovered from the overnight
low of 5.1°C producing the lowest average daily temperature for August that I’ve
recorded of only 11.0°C.
The afternoon was pleasant enough and on a visit to the plot I picked some raspberries
and found a couple of ripe Victoria Plums. To add to a fruit salad we decided to
test our homegrown peaches Avalon Pride.
Now looks can be deceiving as the peaches look ripe and ready to pick but like everything
else this year getting fruit to ripen is easier said than done. The peaches weren’t
ripe and need a few more days of warm and sunny weather to complete the process.
Still our bowl of raspberries, plums and a few greengages went down a treat. Home
grown fruit just cannot be beaten.
