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Tuesday, 7 February 2012
Cold & Grey
Tuesday morning started off sunny but by lunchtime it had turned into another cold grey February day. It didn’t get very warm all day (max 3.3°C) and by midnight Tuesday the temperature had fallen to -3.5°C. It continued to fall to -5.6° by 03:00 Wednesday morning before beginning to warm up slightly so that by day break it was only -2.6°C.
The sunshine on Monday tempted me outside, well into the greenhouse at least as the early afternoon sun lifted the greenhouse temperature up to a positively balmy 14°C. There’s plenty of tidying up to do to remove the remnants of last years crops. The old tomato grow bags need to be cleared out and taken down to the plot to be added as compost to this year’s potato beds.
Our grapevine always manages to get unruly despite my best efforts with the secateurs. The first essential job was to cut back the remaining old vines and tidy up all the dead fallen leaves to give the vine a good spring clean. There was a surprising amount of debris once the vine was cut back to the main stem and the leaves gathered together.
The old gnarled stem looked much better once it was trimmed back. I’m always amazed that this rather dead looking vine will be growing out of control come summer.
Once all the debris had been removed the greenhouse was already starting to take on a tidier look - well one side of the path - ready for some serious growing to get started when the weather begins to warm up. Next job sort out the rubbish on the left of the path, that’s the bit out of shot.
Wednesday, 8 February 2012
Coldest Day of Winter
Wednesday set the new record for this winter as with a high of 1.3°C and low of -5.6°C it turned in an average temperature for the day of minus 2.0°C.
The chart starts at midnight Tuesday. Wednesday managed a few hours just above zero around the middle of the day. Overnight the temperature fell to -5.6°C not quite the coldest of the month.
In the garden our snowdrops are in a state of frozen suspension waiting for the temperatures to rise a little before putting on their display. I can’t say I blame them. They were in full flower last year by the 8th February.
It’s a little bit easier to see the frost on these self sown cyclamen seedlings. They’re tough as old boots and the freezing temperatures wont do them any harm.
Our pond has frozen over again as a result of the length of the cold spell together with the well below freezing overnight temperatures.
Thursday, 9 February 2012
Sparrows don’t seem to mind
Thursday was a horrible day even allowing for it being the middle of winter. No sunshine, it was a dull misty murky cold day with outbreaks of light rain or drizzle at times. At least we didn’t get any snow.
From noon onwards we had some light rain. It might well have been this rather rare freezing rain but I didn’t venture out to check. Strange that it rained with the temperature almost at 0°C.
The weather didn’t stop our resident flock of sparrows tucking into their bird seed as soon as it went out onto the bird table. They were even prepared to share the space with one of our regular collared doves.
Friday, 10 February 2012
Another Cold Night
Friday was another cold grey winter’s day. We’ve had a few of them just recently and they’ve put any gardening activities on hold.
Overnight into Saturday the sky cleared producing another severe frost with the temperature down to -5.9°C (21.4°F) yet a further lowering of this winter’s coldest night. At least Saturday has dawned bright and clear but still well below zero. The pond had somehow managed to lose its covering of ice despite the temperature hardly rising above 0°C for the last couple of days, but it’s now frozen over once again.
Our snowdrops still remain frozen in time, just waiting for a rise in temperature before coming into flower. They’re now going to be later into flower this year than last so the mild start to winter certainly hasn’t brought our snowdrops into early flowering mode.
Winter this year is the opposite way round to last year in that we started off mild in December and the first part of January and then the cold spell kicked in. Last year December was very cold with a milder January and February. Unless February remains very cold it looks like this winter will be milder than last year but may well turn out to be on the cold side of what we might expect. The chart below is updated to 10th February.
Just where will this year’s brown trace finish. Moving towards the yellow line moves closer to an average winter but temperatures will need to warm up for this to happen or will it continue in its relentless downward trend towards last year’s winter value.
In the meantime whilst the weather remains this cold my seeds are staying cosy in their packets waiting for some milder weather.
Saturday, 11 February 2012
February’s Peaked!
Saturday was a beautiful sunny but cold day and the frost didn’t thaw out all day.
I think February’s cold weather has peaked as following on from the winter’s lowest temperature overnight Friday/Saturday we’ve just had our warmest overnight temperature this month of 3.0°C. The forecast for next week is for predominantly cloudy weather with temperatures around 7°C or 8°C during the day. Have we seen the last of this cold February cold snap or is there another spell still to come?
It certainly has been a cold start to February although despite our severe frosts the temperatures recorded in Ossett haven’t been down as low as those recorded in England in the winter of 1947 one of the coldest on record.
With no severe frosts forecasts next week I’m hoping it will be safe to move my seed potatoes back into the greenhouse so that they can form some good chits ready for planting out in April.
Sunday, 12 February 2012
All Thawed Out
Sunday was much milder than of late bringing to an end the bitterly cold start to the month. The daily average temperature was 4.7°C (40.5°F) making it the warmest day of the month. It’s the first time in days that the ice in the bird bath has thawed out and the final remnants of last weeks snow have disappeared too.
All we need now is a little bit of sunshine and it would feel like spring is on its way. Unfortunately the Met Office forecast is for a cloudy but much milder week, I don’t suppose we can have everything.
Monday, 13 February 2012
Chitting Part 2
Monday saw a continuation of our milder weather. It was a bright sunny morning but it clouded over in the afternoon with some dark clouds threatening rain which didn’t materialise.
I thought it was time I moved my seed potatoes out of the garage and into the light of the greenhouse for some more chitting now the severe frosts have finished.
The potatoes appeared to have survived a couple of very cold weeks in the garage with no ill effects. They're now back in the greenhouse to continue chitting. Hopefully we haven’t any more -6°C to come otherwise they will end up in the garage again.
It also gave me chance to set our 3 new varieties out into a seed tray to chit. These were much smaller seed potatoes but hopefully in this case size wont matter too much.
I decided whilst I was in the greenhouse to inspect some of our plants placed inside for a little winter protection. Our kiwi looks like it has managed to make it through the cold spell and already has the tiniest green shoots showing.
It’s a reminder that we need to sort out improved growing conditions for it this year. I think it needs to be in a bigger pot and I might try some JI compost mixed with extra topsoil as compost. It needs some careful pruning too to form a basic network of branches. It was rather left to do its own thing last summer probably not the best of ideas.
I also did a little bit more tidying up in the greenhouse. I’ve now plenty of bags of spent growing bag compost to take down to the plot to help improve the soil down there. Once the old growing bags were removed and the debris swept up the greenhouse looked much tidier.
I’m not going to be able to hold out much longer, it’s that urge to start sowing seeds trying to convince me that spring is just around the corner.