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A Gardener’s Weather Diary - August week 2
Monday, 08 August 2011
Cultivating concrete
Monday had a few sunny spells but it was a blustery day not really that good for August.
I decided I could no longer delay attempting to dig over some of the beds on the plot due to be planted up with crops for harvesting early next spring. For weeks now I’ve kept my eye on the weather forecast which usually has one day of heavy rain forecast in the next few days but then it never falls here.
This is typical of the forecasts over the last several months. The forecast is always for rain in the next few days. Perhaps it will be correct this time and we will get some heavy rain on Wednesday.
The soil on the plot was extremely hard, and even with a cultivator, on ground that is regularly dug, it was slow going. Some clumps of soil were like small stones and just wouldn’t break up.
This newly dug ground is for our last crop of French Beans for the year and they’ll probably be some space left over for a few lettuce plants. Considering this soil has just been dug over it looks just the same colour as un dug soil with no sign of moisture at all. The new plantings will need to be well watered in.
Our squash plants (Crown Prince) now have some good sized fruits. We’re a little undecided whether or not to put some straw under each fruit to keep it off the soil. In the past we’ve just left them to do their own thing and they’ve not come to any harm. The outer skins are so tough I can’t imagine them suffering from a slug attack. Should we or shouldn’t we place straw under our squashes?
Sunday, 14 August 2011
Someone’s getting some rain
It wasn’t too bad a day again today. It didn’t feel too cold although we had very little sunshine and once again it was a dry day.
It looks like Scotland’s getting plenty of rain. I suppose someone must be getting our share. I’ll have to start watering the plot again soon to try to keep our crops for winter time watered and growing.
On the plot it was another good harvesting day. The wasps which seemed a bit slow finding our plums haven’t wasted any time in finding our greengages and apples.
We even managed a few late pea pods of Kelvedon Wonder a rare treat for us this year.
This is the bed dug over ready for planting up with crops for spring, which will be mostly brassicas. It too is in the same very dry condition. It was watered a couple of times last week but you wouldn't think so. I've noticed that the bed to its left looks as though it needs a little tidying up. I’m sure it doesn’t look so bad in real life.
Tuesday, 09 August 2011
Plot Planting
Tuesday had some long sunny periods but it was a blustery day and the temperature didn’t manage to reach 20°C.
It seems ages since anything was planted in the plot. Partly due to the long dry spell I haven’t wanted to sow seeds directly into the bone dry ground and a couple of crops at home were devastated by slugs and snails before they even reached the transplanting out stage.
Our late french beans eventually got transplanted along with some lettuce seedlings and calabrese. The planting holes were filled with water hopefully giving the plants enough moisture to settle into their new conditions. Along with some harvesting it was a productive afternoon on the plot.
For more details of all our sowing and planting records click here
For more details of all our harvesting records click here
Wednesday, 10 August 2011
Heavy rain day - but not here
If you check back to Monday’s blog Wednesday was forecast as heavy rain. Well I'm aware some places got some heavy rain but as usual it bypassed Ossett.
It was dull and windy all day. Strangely it seemed damp all day with squally, drizzly rain from early morning making everywhere look wet. It wasn’t until late afternoon that we got any measurable rainfall and then just 0.8mm fell. It certainly wont have watered the allotment.
Thursday, 11 August 2011
Wet stuff out of the sky
Wow it’s rained, not an awful lot but quite a downpour for us this year. To put it in perspective just 7.2mm (about 1/4 of an inch) of rain but that’s a mighty amount for us this summer. We’ve only had more rain on one day (12th June 8.0mm) since the 26th February when 11.4mm fell. Today it rained early morning, remaining dull and mild through the day before raining again in the evening.
I harvested a couple of Burpless Tasty Green cucumbers from our home grown plants today. After last weeks very curvy cucumber these two were remarkable straight. This one was the largest, to be honest it was hidden under some leaves or it would have been harvested sooner. It measured around 400mm or 16” whichever measurement means most to you. Not bad for an outdoor cucumber.
Friday, 12 August 2011
Is it autumn?
Friday was our dullest day of summer recording just 0.1 hour of sunshine. I’d suggest that was more a little bit of brightness rather than sunshine. It seemed damp all day but we only had 0.6mm of rain throughout the day.
In the garden our crab apples have a very appealing pick me now look to them. I’m sure they’ve turned early this year as I reckon they give the garden a very autumnal look. I wonder what we could make with some rather nice looking crab apples?
In the plot greenhouse our pepper, Jimmy Nardello’s, is just the opposite, as whilst it has loads of peppers it would be nice if there was some sign of them turning red.
Saturday, 13 August 2011
Good harvest day
Saturday was a big improvement over the last few days but nothing special for the middle of August.
It was a good harvesting day on the plot. Our greengages are ready for picking along with the first of our Victoria Plums.
It was unusual to see the ground looking damp after Thursday’s rain. That’s all it had done though was make the top look damp as it hadn’t penetrated to any depth at all and our International Kidney potatoes came out of the ground cleanly and didn’t need leaving on the top of the ground to dry off. Once again a surprising good crop considering the lack of rain.
