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A Gardener’s Weather Diary - September week 2
Thursday, 08 September 2011
Cornless - well almost
It was a better day than the last few days but nothing special. The rain that we had, fell overnight and early morning. It brightened up as the day went along and felt mild but there was always the threat of more rain from some dark ominous clouds that were about all day.
We picked our first two sweet corn cobs this week and although the tassels were a golden brown the corn in one of the cobs wasn’t ripe and the other contained a rather disappointing amount of kernels.
We seem to have waited forever this summer for our sweet corn to produce any ripe cobs. I think we can blame the cool and very dry conditions again for a poor crop from what is normally one of our banker vegetables. I’ve had a look back at last year’s sweet corn crop and by this time last year the same varieties had yielded 66 cobs and as far as I can remember they were all well filled and ripe.
This is our sweet corn harvested on 5th September last year. It’s a far cry from the two cobs harvested so far this year. Certainly the seeds were sown at similar dates in both years. Unfortunately this year’s crop has suffered from both lack of rain and cool temperatures. At least our runner beans are now in full production giving us masses of beans which we are freezing to make up for our sweet corn failure.
Our runner beans had a rather drunken lean to them as well but at least they are still upright and hopefully will produce some more beans before the end of the season.
We also managed to do some planting and our winter brassica bed is now fully planted up with a mixture of bought in plants and home grown plants. Details of our planting today can be found here.
Wednesday, 14 September 2011
Pepper picking
After the last two very windy days it was nice to have a much calmer day. The temperatures were just about normal for the time of year but we had intermittent showers through the morning and early afternoon spoiling an otherwise pleasant day.
In our home greenhouse our Jimmy Nardello’s peppers had plenty of ripe fruits on them so these were harvested and frozen. There’s still plenty of fruit on them which hopefully will have time to turn but will be used green before the conditions in the greenhouse become too damp turning the fruits mouldy. Our cherry tomatoes Tumbling Tom Red have decided to ripen at last. Normally this variety has been one of our first tomatoes to turn but not this year. Perhaps the position in the greenhouse hasn’t been to their liking. The plants have grown really well but the tomatoes have remained stubbornly green until now.
Friday, 09 September 2011
Spring Onions - at last
A surprising mild day with some sunshine. Just a shower of rain early in the morning and then dry for the rest of the day.
We have developed a problem growing spring onions. The term successional sowing is irrelevant for us as we’re lucky to get our first crop to produce any decent onions by autumn. This year our plot sown spring onions were a disaster probably because they didn’t get watered often enough. To try to get round this we decided to sow some spring onions at home where they could get a little more attention.
Sown at the beginning of July these onions looked like they were ready for using especially these Crimson Forest ones. The bunching onions just visible behind are still much smaller.
Disappointingly small when they were pulled out of the tub. This may be due to my rather thick sowing of the seed. It will be interesting to see how the onions develop over the next few weeks.
Saturday, 10 September 2011
Lull before the storm
It turned out to be the warmest day of the month with the temperature managing 24°C. In fact it’s our warmest day since the 3rd August when we managed 26.8°C. It was a dull start to the day with a little light drizzle mid morning before brightening up. Despite the temperature it was a mostly overcast day with just a few sunny spells. We took advantage of the fine weather with a walk around Walton Nature Reserve.
The forecasts for early next week are that we will be having strong to gale force winds courtesy of hurricane Katia. By the time it has crossed the Atlantic Ocean it will be an ex-hurricane having lost some of its strength travelling across the cold Atlantic. Our forecast at the moment is for very windy weather on Monday and Tuesday with the worst of the winds expected on Tuesday afternoon.
Sunday, 11 September 2011
Mild and breezy
It was mild again, although not up to yesterday’s temperature, but managing a pleasant 18°C. Once again it was a mostly overcast day but it stayed dry all day.
As we’re still on chicken duty we visited the plot to do some harvesting as well as providing the chickens with some fresh water.
It was another bumper harvesting session. Almost all our apples are harvested, just a few remaining to be picked. We’re still trying to decide on the best way to store our apples in both the short and medium terms.
Monday, 12 September 2011
Remnants of Hurricane Katia arrive
What was left of Hurricane Katia arrived today. Our little bit of rain fell in the early hours of the morning before the gale arrived. The early part of the morning wasn’t too bad but the wind soon picked up to gale force and remained strong throughout the day. It was mild despite the gale force winds. It was our windiest day since the 22nd May.
From inside the house it had the appearance of a nice day as there was plenty of sunshine. The noise from the wind gave the game away and looking more carefully outside bamboo canes took on an almost horizontal position as their tops were blown about in the stronger gusts of wind. The birds too had problems hanging onto the feeders as they blew wildly about. It will be interesting to see if our runner bean wigwams have stood up to the gales.
Tuesday, 13 September 2011
Gales and drought not preferred
It was another windy day today, with the highest gust speed of the last couple of days reserved for the early hours of this morning. Like yesterday it was pretty mild once again with plenty of sunny spells but the wind remained strong throughout the day although not as bad as Monday.
We visited the plot in the afternoon to see exactly what damage, if any, the wind had done. Certainly the plot looks worse for wear now as the long dry spell and two days of gale force winds take effect.
It was a surprise to discover that our quinces were still on the tree, although the tree has developed a lean and the leaves look a little yellow due the wind, dryness and of course the approach of autumn.
