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Friday 19 October 2012

Wet in North Yorkshire

We spent a few days in Stokesley in North Yorkshire travelling back home yesterday morning. There was plenty of rain whilst we were there but fortunately for us most of it seemed to be overnight.

The talk there was that the farmers are unable to get their winter crops into the ground as it’s too wet. Having seen the state of some of the fields I can certainly understand where they’re coming from.

Mid morning heading back home through the Vale of York it was still misty in places but the mist cleared as we headed south.

We’ve had a decent drop of rain at home too but it’s also been windy with a gust of 28 mph recorded at 12:45 on Tuesday that’s the strongest gust recorded this year. Not really what we expect at this time of year, but there again who knows what to expect this year.

Saturday 20 October 2012

A Bit of a Nerve

Saturday was a decent day with some sunny periods. It was mild for a change too. After all last week’s rain we decided it would be too wet to do much on the plot.

It seems The Potato Council are blaming the poor potato harvest on gardeners and allotmenteers who grow their own. Nothing to do with the wet weather and cold conditions.

For the second year in a row our potatoes weren’t affected by blight. Our potatoes were lifted and put into winter storage by the end of August. A few stragglers were lifted early in September but there was virtually no difference in the final weights of this year’s and the previous year’s crops. I can understand the farmers problems where fields of late potatoes are under water and crops are reduced. I certainly wouldn’t want to leave my crop in the ground until October although I know this is the traditional time for lifting potatoes.

Our potatoes were lifted in August from this bed which is now planted up with a green manure crop to improve the soil condition for next year.