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A Gardener’s Weather Diary - August week 4
Monday, 22 August 2011
Another summer’s day sees our onions harvested
We made the most of another fine summer’s day to get our onion crop lifted.
In our sheltered garden anything gusting above 10.0 mph is windy giving our trees a bit of a bashing. Compared with Irene, not even a breeze, but windy for us never the less. The wind was at it worst in the afternoon and calmed down late in the evening.
With one part of the crop drying off in our plot greenhouse we now have the happy problem of finding somewhere to store the remainder of our bumper onion harvest. I’ve now weighed all our onions, this time with my brain engaged, and our harvest comes in at 72.8kg or 162.2lbs. The first part of the crop was weighed with
a mixture of kg and lbs because I didn’t read the scales properly. Now I’ve sorted out that mix up I’m sure the new weight is the correct.
We had a sudden panic when we saw the weather forecast at the beginning of the week thinking that with rain forecast it would be good to get our onions somewhere dry rather than leave them to get wet in the rain. This was a bit of wishful thinking, as we wanted the rain to help moisten some of the beds on the plot so they could be dug ready for planting up with winter onions (yes even more onions), brassicas and some cut flowers for next spring.
From today’s forecast the rain looks to have disappeared. Hail showers for Friday is unlikely to produce any decent amount of rainfall required for the plot.
Tuesday, 23 August 2011
More cloud
There was much more cloud about today and it was a little bit cooler. A shower in the early hours of the morning had dried up overnight and the rest of the day was dry. No sign of the rain forecast at the beginning of the week and it was certainly warmer than expected. August is turning out to be another dry month.
I’m struggling to get winter lettuce to germinate. The last sowings I made were one tray of Little Gem for harvesting in autumn and one tray of Arctic King to see how this fared through winter.
My tray of Little Gem is doing well and it’s just about time to thin them out to leave one seedling per cell. On the other hand my tray of Arctic King couldn’t be more different. Sown at the same time and in the same compost not one single seed has germinated.
I think I'll try sowing another tray of seeds and see if they do any better. If not, perhaps it just a duff packet of seeds.
Wednesday, 24 August 2011
Warm afternoon
It was cool overnight with the temperature dropping into single figures, not for the first time this month, but it warmed up through the day with the temperature into the low 20’s by mid afternoon. We had some light rate which started late in the evening.
Thursday, 25 August 2011
Peach of a day
Incredibly it was a fairly wet day for us with 7.2mm of rain falling overnight. Even with the cloudy conditions the temperature fell back into single figures. It brightened up in the morning to leave us with a warm and sunny afternoon.
We could resist the temptation no longer. One of our prize nectarines looked to be getting some mouldy spots so we decided it was time to test out the crop. The nectarines still look more like peaches having a slightly furry skin rather than the smooth skin I associate with a nectarine. The fruits had a lovely sweet smell but
were still firm. Their taste was delicious better than anything bought from the supermarket. So I'm not sure whether our tree is a peach or a nectarine. I’m not bothered with fruit of this quality. I never really expected to be able to produce any worthwhile fruits so these delicious peaches/nectarines were a real bonus.
Friday, 26 August 2011
Two wet days in a row
Even more incredibly it was another wet day by our standards. Only fractionally more rain fell today (8.4mm) than yesterday but that makes it our wettest day since 26th February 2011. It was the first time since May 16th that we had zero hours of sunshine and just for good measure it was our coldest day of the month with a high of just 14.5°C and daily average of 11.9°C.
Our brassica collection of plug plants arrived from Dobies today. They were in a sorry state with some of the plants broken just above soil level and in one case an empty cell altogether. I’ve contacted Dobies to get their comments. It looks like I might have to start growing my own winter brassica plants if this is the best the seed companies can offer.
I did manage to get some half reasonable plants potted on but that’s not what I expect when I buy one of these collections. Web sites boast about how the plants will be dispatched when they are in their optimum condition. That’s clearly not the case. In previous years the plants have been fine but this year my two purchases of vegetable plug plants have been extremely disappointing.
These are the best of the plug plants in the collection. I’m sure that with some careful nurturing I'll be able to produce some plants suitable for transplanting into the plot.
Saturday, 27 August 2011
I think it’s autumn
No rain to speak of today. Autumn seems to have arrived though. It was a little chilly in the morning after the overnight temperature once again fell into single figures. It was pleasant enough harvesting on the plot in the afternoon but even the plot has an autumnal look as beds are cleared of their summer crops.
The bed at the top of the picture to the left has been cleared of peas, french beans and lettuce, the centre bed of potatoes and the bed to the right garlic, shallots and onions. The beds to the bottom of the picture are our old strawberry beds which we are in the process of clearing.
Sunday, 28 August 2011
Just plain miserable
There was a strong cold wind blowing today. It dried up in the morning from a couple of very early morning showers which gave us another 0.4mm of rain. It all helps especially as I expect the wind will be having a drying effect.
