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A Gardener’s Weather Diary - May week 3
Sunday, 15 May 2011
Dahlia dilemma
Saturday wasn't a very pleasant day. We had a strong north westerly wind all day making it feel pretty cold. Whilst we haven't actually had gale force winds it's been consistently windy for the last few days and I can't help but feel that April's brilliant growing weather is now been undone.
It would have been easy to give the plot a miss but I wanted to get some more tomato plants into the greenhouse so we did spend a rather windswept afternoon planting, weeding and transplanting cardoons and young raspberry plants .
I'd never thought about not having more than one variety in a grow bag before as discussed on Mrs GL's blog. I've never noticed any problems from mixing varieties. Moneymaker and Amish Gold are our banker tried and tested varieties.
Having now decided to start again with new dahlias this year we're not sure how much space we should give to our dahlias raised from seed this year. The packet indicates heights of 1.0m for the plants.
We managed to raise 30 seedlings so our dilemma is how much room to give them. Spacing them 1.0m apart seems a bit rash looking at the size of the plants at the moment. However our squash plants are even smaller at the moment and they take up as much space as I'm prepared to give them so perhaps current size is nothing to go by. Maybe a 1.0m spacing and if they don't perform the gaps will have to be inter planted with other crops.
Plot greenhouse tomatoes
Dahlias - Giant Hybrids Mixed - from seed
Monday, 16 May 2011
An inside sort of day
Apart from a brief glimpse of some early morning sunshine Sunday was a dull cloudy day. Although the wind had abated a little it still felt cool coming from a north westerly direction.
It was more a day for working inside rather than outside. We're still growing seedlings under our indoor grow light with some success. These outdoor cucumber seedlings are ready for transplanting and have produced good strong healthy plants under the grow light.
Outdoor cucumber - Burpless Tasty Green
We've plenty of young birds about at the moment and I thought it might be fun trying to get some photographs of them. The're very shy and don't like their pictures taking but I did manage to get a picture of a baby blackbird and robin.
This youngster was getting a drink as well as getting its feathers ruffled in the breeze.
Much more tricky to photograph as it kept darting about and just didn't want its picture taking.
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Young blackbird
Young robin
Tuesday, 17 May 2011
Miserable Monday
What a miserable day Monday turned out to be. There was a very stiff blustery wind that didn't let up all day and a complete lack of sunshine made it another inside day. I spotted a forecast in the papers suggesting May will be the warmest May since records began 350 years ago! All I can say is that we will have to have a pretty dramatic change in the next couple of weeks.
It did give us a chance to process the video of our young blackbird and robin taken on Sunday.
With luck though this shower was just a taster of what's to come with rain forecast for the early hours of Sunday morning and Monday afternoon. It is true though that forecasts can change and they have been known to be just plain wrong but I'm hoping that the rain arrives and gives the plot and garden a good watering for the first time since the end of February. May's rainfall has so far has fallen in dribs and drabs drying up immediately in the wind and sunshine rather than penetrate any depth into the soil and of course there wasn't any rainfall in March or April so it's fingers crossed for the forecast being correct.
Wednesday, 18 May 2011
This is rain!
Tuesday was once again cloudy after some early morning sunshine. It was pleasantly mild and for once the wind had abated. The cloud gave some extremely light drizzle at times but not enough to measure on my rain gauge.
I took this pansy in the light drizzle which was just enough to leave droplets of water on the petals. This is what we call rain around here at the moment.
The drizzle was short lived and it was a pleasant day to spend some time watering on the plot. Since we started planting up the plot in the middle of March it hasn't had a good rainfall - just a few showers which have quickly dried up in the sun and wind.
We've been putting off planting out some of our brassicas in the hope that we'd have some rain. It's so much easier to keep the plants watered at home. These cabbages and cauliflowers wont wait much longer and will spoil in the modules if not transplanted into the plot soon. I feel more watering on the plot will be the order of the day.
Thursday, 19 May 2011
Medlar jelly perhaps
Wednesday turned out to be not too bad after a dull start. The afternoon had some sunny spells but it was once again quite breezy. If there were any showers about we missed them again.
In the garden our medlar is on flower and as all the flowers usually set fruit we might have to think about making some medlar jelly this year.
On the plot our roses have taken a battering from a week of rather windy weather. There is not much shelter for them with the wind coming from a westerly direction but they are still managing to put on a display.
Medlar
Rose - Elmshorn
Friday, 20 May 2011
Worth the Effort
Thursday was mild with some decent sunny periods and only a light breeze for a change.
Cauliflower - Mayfair
Cabbage - Spring Hero
Saturday, 21 May 2011
Just a taster
We had a fairly heavy shower on Friday afternoon - enough to make us take cover in the shed as we're not used to rain any more.
Our over wintering brassicas were devastated by the severe winter weather. By early spring there were only a few survivors and I did consider pulling up the few remaining rather pathetic looking specimens that had made it through winter.
My initial thoughts were to sow seeds early to replace the spring cabbage and Mayfair cauliflowers but then I had second thoughts as I could make no use of the ground until spring. In the end I decided to leave them and see what would happen.
I'm now really glad I left them on the off chance that I'd get some early cauliflowers and cabbage. This is our second cauliflowers and we have a few cabbages hearting up. So I reckon its definitely worth trying to overwinter brassicas for an spring crop and despite the winter losses fresh vegetables from the plot at this time of year are certainly worth the effort.
Our first fresh cabbage of the year from the plot.
Brassicas on 17th January 2011
