ossettweather.com
Saturday 14 April 2012
A Surprise Shoot
Saturday was bright and sunny early on then clouded over for the remainder of the day. It was cold with a maximum temperature of 8.3°C following an early morning frost.
After last year’s very dry spring and summer our rhubarb suffered badly and I mistakenly thought we had lost many of our roots so last autumn I bought a crown of Stockbridge Arrow thinking I would need some extra plants to start replacing the loses.
This was planted in a large pot at the beginning of November and by early December it had produced a first tiny shoot. This shoot disappeared over winter and showed no sign of re-appearing in spring. I hadn’t been able to resist the temptation of ferreting around in the soil to find the crown. Once found it seemed a little soft and I thought it must have rotted through the winter. By now all but one of our crowns on the plot were showing some signs of recovery so to be honest I wasn’t too fussed about this root rotting although another variety would have been very nice. I just left the root on top of the pot to be disposed of at a later date.
Then almost by accident today I noticed this tiny shoot emerging from the crown. So hopefully with a bit of TLC I’ll soon be able to get the crown of Stockbridge Arrow growing well enough to transplant into the plot.
Sunday 15 April 2012
Inner Sanctum
Sunday was a lovely sunny day but the temperature remained on the cool side following an overnight frost.
With the cold April weather having no end in sight I’ve constructed an inner sanctum in the greenhouse to protect tender seedlings from the cold night time temperatures. That’s provided we don’t get any ridiculously frosty nights!
It’s nothing elaborate just a few pieces of timber screwed together and some fleece thrown over the top. Our tomato seedlings are already transplanted and we’ve some pepper seedlings ready to be pricked out which will benefit from this little bit of extra protection.
Monday 16 April 2012
It Just Goes to Show!
After another early morning frost it turned out to be a nice sunny day. We should probably have been planting potatoes but instead we had a walk around the nature reserve at Walton.
Walton Nature Reserve
Once we were back home I made the best of the weather getting some more brassicas, lettuce, flowers seeds and some extra tomato seeds sown. Our broad beans and onion sets, planted in cells until we can get them planted on the plot, were moved into the cold frame to make more growing space in the greenhouse.
I was having a quick inspection of a later sowing of broad beans when I spotted this seedling sprouting in one of the cells.
I’m pretty sure that this is a tomato seedling. It’s had no TLC at all as the broad beans have just been left in the cold greenhouse to germinate but this must grow tomato seed has germinated first. Perhaps I think I need to give seeds more care and attention than they need. As a test I’ve left the seeds I’ve sown today in the greenhouse although they are under a propagator cover to keep them a little warmer - just can’t resist a little bit of extra protection.
Tuesday 17 April 2012
Showers or No Showers
After a rather wet start in the morning Tuesday turned out not too bad and the showers that threatened most of the day actually stayed away until late afternoon. The forecast at the moment is for the weather to continue the same for the rest of the month. The rain is welcome but some warmer weather would be much appreciated.
Wednesday 18 April 2012
A Wet Day and a Rare Visitor
Not much to say about Wednesday’s weather other than it was wet and cold. I’m tempted to say things can only get better but perhaps that’s just wishful thinking.
I was chatting to my friend Graham on the telephone yesterday and looking out through the window at the rain falling beneath the magnolia tree. It sort of crossed my mind that there weren’t many birds about and at first I thought that they had all found somewhere dry out of the rain. Then I spotted a kestrel perched on a branch in the magnolia tree.
No wonder there weren’t any birds around. They didn’t fancy being an afternoon snack for this kestrel sitting on guard in the tree. I think it’s a female and she wasn’t in too much of a hurry to disappear. She remained in the tree for almost an hour before flying off to try to find a meal somewhere else.
A pity about all the raindrops on the window which blurred the pictures but maybe she wouldn’t have been in the tree if the weather had been drier. Maybe she was sheltering.
Thursday 19 April 2012
Bird Issues!
Thursday was another wet and cool day although we had some weak sunshine late in the afternoon.
I think I know why our visiting kestrel was so contented yesterday as she sat in the magnolia tree. She was digesting her lunch.
I found these feathers by our puddle as I checked if anything needed watering in the greenhouse once the rain had stopped. There wasn’t much left off whatever bird it was.
Another issue is that our collared doves just can’t be content to take easy pickings from the bird table and the find a nice comfortable tree to perch in like the kestrel. Their first flight is to alight on my rain gauge and deposit their droppings into the measuring funnel. Then it’s off to find a suitable perch for digesting some seed. I can tell when the deposits are blocking the gauge as it indicates it’s still raining long after it’s stopped as the water slowly percolates through the droppings which accumulate in the bottom of the funnel.
This was the case yesterday, in fact water had stopped running through altogether so a good clear out was required.
So once cleaned out I decide to try to add some anti perching netting to the funnel. I’ve also seen blackbirds doing exactly the same as the collared doves so at the moment the gauge hasn’t been going very long between cleans. I hope I can now look forward to many hours of rain measurements without the need for such regularly cleaning out.
Friday 20 April 2012
Proper Planting at Last
Friday was another cool day but we avoided any showers so we decided on an afternoon at the plot to start some proper planting.
The rain has left the soil a little on the wet side. It wasn’t too wet for planting although soil did stick a little to our gardening tools. It might just be a bit too wet for cultivating I’ll only find out once I start. We had beds ready tilled for planting our early potatoes so that was one of the main tasks for the afternoon.
We managed to get 6 different varieties planted, Swift, Premiere, Vales Emerald and Marilyn are all new varieties for us so we’ll have to see how they perform. We also planted some Winston and Juliette which have cropped well for us in the past. We’ve still got Charlotte and Nadine along with a few more Winston’s to plant as soon as another bed is cultivated.
Our early broad beans Witkiem Manita were planted out too. They were started off in cells in the greenhouse, then moved into the cold frame supposedly to harden them off, but as temperatures in the greenhouse had fallen to below 1°C I’m not sure how appropriate that was. The plants had got a little leggy waiting to be planted out but they didn’t look too bad once in the ground.
