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A Gardener’s Weather Diary - July week 4
Friday, 22 July 2011
Aptly named
A disappointingly cool day for the middle of July with a high of 17.7°C and producing the lowest mean daily temperature of the month of 13.4°C. The overnight low was a chilly 8.0°C. Unless the temperatures improve the month will turn out to be cooler than average.
The current average for the month is about 1°C below expected at 16.0°C.
We picked our first tomato today which was German Red Strawberry from the plot greenhouse. It’s probably fair to call it a dead heat between that and Gardeners Delight growing in our home greenhouse.
I must say it’s very apt for it to have strawberry in its name as it certainly does take on a strawberry shape. It’s pictured alongside one of our Marshmellow strawberries which are rather unexpectedly producing a crop of very tasty berries on the plot.
Saturday, 23 July 2011
Stepping up the protection
It was a pleasant sunny day with a decent amount of sunshine but somehow didn’t feel like the middle of summer. It was cold overnight once again for the time of year.
We’ve still got plenty of seedlings in our cold frame growing on waiting to be transplanted in the plot. It’s all too easy to lose these precious seedlings to our ravenous snail population. The copper tape has done its job for a couple of weeks so I’ve splashed out and purchased some copper treated fabric for hopefully the ultimate in slug and snail protection.
Our latest batch of lettuce seedlings have survived attack from the slugs and snails so far and are growing well in the cold frame. I’ve some calabrese plants growing well along with some Sweet Williams seedlings which will soon be ready for transplanting. We’ve also a late crop of French Beans just germinating as our early sowings are very disappointing probably due to the dry weather. It’s just about time to be sowing some spring cabbages too which will be germinated in the cold frame where they can receive a bit of extra attention over sowings in the plot.
My seedlings are now in trays supported by plastic buckets which are placed on the protective matting so any prospective slugs or snails have a tricky journey to make over the matting to get their night time meal.
I’ll keep an update of how this trial is progressing.
Sunday, 24 July 2011
Best for a while
It was our sunniest day since the beginning of the month and a touch milder than the last few days. As the over night temperature fell into single figures again the day as a whole didn't improve the month's cool average figure of 16°C.
On the plot it was broad beans harvesting time. After a germination failure with our first Crimson Flowered broad beans our second attempt has been very successful. The key to succulent broad beans is picking them young before the beans mature in the pod. This is especially important with the Crimson Flowered variety. It saves all that effort of shelling broad beans as seen on fine dining programmes where a helping of broad beans consists of just a couple of beans but of course they are beautifully placed on the plate.
Monday, 25 July 2011
Rather dull
After yesterdays sunshine it was dull and cloudy for most of today. The sun did manage to break through in the afternoon but it was rather hazy through the clouds rather than bright sunshine. There was certainly far less sunshine recorded than for the last few days. It did feel pleasantly warm in the sunshine.
It looks like we are heading towards another dryer than average month. We’ve had just over 50% of expected rainfall for the month so far and there doesn’t look to be any substantial rainfall forecast for Ossett before the end of the month. So far just 23mm in the month.
Tuesday, 26 July 2011
Tops aren’t everything
Today’s weather followed much the same pattern as yesterday with the sun not managing to break through until the early afternoon. We then had a very pleasant afternoon with plenty of sunshine and the temperature judge nudging 20°C.
The tops to most of our early potatoes have just about turned brown. In general our potatoes have produced little top growth this year compared to other years. The tops normally spread out onto our grass paths but not this year as they’ve remained small and within the bounds of their bed. I’ve assumed this is due to lack of water and that the crop underneath would be poor and consist of only small potatoes.
I decided to dig up our Winston crop. These are the tubers remaining after our sacks were planted up and they were planted outside in a short row to follow on from our indoor crop.
In sacks Winston had produced extensive haulms with good thick stems giving a good crop of potatoes.
I was amazed by the size of individual potatoes and the weight of the crop. Indeed most of the potatoes were a large size with very few small potatoes. The feeble haulms on top gave no indication of the size of the crop beneath. Our outdoor plants produced a 20.2kg crop along with 9.7kg from our sacks from 1 kg of seed potatoes purchased for £1.68.
Wednesday, 27 July 2011
Almost but not quite a repeat
Wednesday was almost an exact repeat of the last few days except that the sun didn’t manage to break through in the afternoon. It was cloudy all day but still feeling mild, a bit muggy and dry.
With the weather indifferent this week lots of bird pictures have been snapped. Our feathered friends have been making lots of use of our bird bath. Our flock of sparrows have taken a liking to our feeder containing sunflower hearts and seeds. Its all action on the feeders for most of the day.
Thursday, 28 July 2011
Saving the warmest to last
The hottest day of July with the temperature reaching 27.3°C. The temperature at 05:30 in the morning was just 9.8°C rising to 27.3°C by early afternoon. In the afternoon it was a lot more cloudy but remained very warm. It was another day without any rain.
