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A Gardener’s Weather Diary - August week 5
Monday, 29 August 2011
A dull and cool day for August
Just a few bits of sunshine today. The temperature didn’t quite make 17°C and the wind was still blustery but not as strong as yesterday.
After the rain of the last few days I thought it was time I turned my attention to cultivating one or two beds on the plot, some to prepare for autumn planting and others to be tidied up ready to be left over winter. The rain hadn’t made much difference to the condition of the soil which surprising dug pretty well but was bone dry underneath the surface.
Progress is now underway at clearing our old strawberry beds. Two beds have been cleared and dug and a start made on clearing the third. At least the cooler August weather is good for undertaking rather more energetic jobs on the plot than just harvesting.
Just a note on my harvesting page(s) as I’ve now improved the pictures as clicking on the picture now opens a full size image allowing our harvests to be seen with all their blemishes. This only works from August page 2 and onwards.
Tuesday, 30 August 2011
In a rut
The dull and cool weather continued today. Some light rain in the afternoon didn’t amount to much so it looks like this will be the 6th month in a row where our rainfall has been substantially below expected.
On the plot our carrots in potato sacks are growing well but the ones with a scarf around them due to the top of the potato bag not been turned down look to be growing a little bit better.
The carrots below sown at the same time are growing but not as well. The only obvious difference in their growing conditions is that the potato sack top is turned down leaving them more exposed to the cold winds of late.
I’ve now unfolded the top of the sack to give the seedlings a little more protection.
We’ve had a swift reply from Dobies regarding our poor quality plants. They’re contacting their supplier to send out another batch and if that’s not possible they will refund our costs. A far cry from the response from Marshalls which was basically the plants were fine and we didn’t know what we were talking about. After a rather long telephone call they too offered us our money back - but at the moment they haven’t put their money where their mouth is. After more than two weeks they still haven’t returned our payment.
Wednesday, 31 August 2011
End of summer
The dull and cool weather continued yet again today. Meteorologically speaking it’s the end of summer although there’s a good argument for suggesting it never really arrived. Unlike most of the country our extremely dry spring was followed by a dry summer. In the last 6 months we’ve received just 46% of our normal rainfall. But that doesn't mean we’ve had a glorious summer. August has been cool and cloudy after a promising start. That sums up our summer, one good day here and there or perhaps a nice morning or afternoon but no spell of prolonged summer weather.
Our pergola is in need of a major overall just another one of those projects on the go. It’s completely overgrown so I’ve started hacking back the vegetation. The aim is to save the wisteria, clematis and honeysuckles growing on the pergola. It’s going to be quite a task!
