Not Playing the Game

Gardening and allotmenting were on hold again today as the weather changed for the worst. Thursday produced the lowest average daily temperature of the month at only 7.1°C. Summer should be on its way but that seemed a long way off today.

We had blustery showers of hail mixed with rain throughout the day and even a few very short spells of sunshine. All in all a pretty poor day for late May and a very different story from 23 May last year which went like this:-

In Search of Perfect Sunshine Trace
Wednesday produced another fantastic day with virtually unbroken sunshine and a new hottest day of the year 25.7°C (78.3°F) beating yesterday by 0.4°C. 

The last couple of days have produced almost unbroken sunshine. Tuesday gave 10.2 hours of sunshine according to my weather station and the trace for the day looks like this.

Note: The reference to Tue 22 May is confusing but it is the start point of the chart which in this case is midnight on 22 May through to midnight on the 23 May.

Back in the real world of this spring we've had gale force winds over night and into Friday morning. The temperature hasn't improved much either only 7.4°C at 10:00 a.m. On a positive note the forecast for the Bank Holiday weekend isn't too bad. Roll on summer if this is spring.

Original post from A Gardener's Weather Diary http://ossettweather.blogspot.co.uk/ author M Garrett

Digging & a Visit to Leighton Moss

Not a bad couple of days although we had more sunshine on Wednesday and the temperature both days was only into the mid teens centigrade.

On the plot on Tuesday we got a couple of beds cleared and cultivated. 

This bed will be planted up with more onions, shallots and peas patiently waiting in our cold frame at home.

I also managed to clear, cultivate and plant up with potatoes another bed. It will be interesting to see how these late planted potatoes compare with ones planted at a more traditional date. I’m expecting a good crop just a few weeks later. There’s a mixture of varieties planted so I’m hoping I’ll be able to tell my earlies from maincrop in this bed. 

On Wednesday we had a day out spent mostly in Lancashire at Leighton Moss RSPB reserve. As usual most of the regular bird sightings went into hiding for our visit. I suspect some were well outside the range of our camera and video lenses. 

It didn't stop us having a very pleasant walk around the reserve stopping off at the various hides around the reserve.

Original post from A Gardener's Weather Diary http://ossettweather.blogspot.co.uk/ author M Garrett

Good and Bad This Spring

Monday continued with warm cloudy weather as the temperature only just failed to make it to 20°C again.

The last week or so of May last year was one of the best spells of summer with May 28 being the hottest day we had all year with a temperature of 82°C. The forecast this year seems for the weather to cool off over the next few days rather than warm up. 

Whatever the weather is until the end of May it’s not going to improve the average temperature for the spring months of March, April and May.

The chart needs to be viewed in full size to see the detail. This can be done by clicking over the image. This spring is almost certain to finish up colder than last year but at least we've had a significant improvement from midway through April when we were flirting with one of the coldest springs ever recorded.

May hasn't been too bad temperature wise and looks certain to be warmer than last year but still below what we might expect for the month.

Once again click on the chart for a full size view to see the detail. I suppose all options are still open as a warm end to this month could soon bring this spring’s value up to average or better whereas a continuation of the colder spell of weather as forecast could see the month tail off and finish up very similar to last year’s value.

Original post from A Gardener's Weather Diary http://ossettweather.blogspot.co.uk/ author M Garrett

Magic

As if by magic Sunday was a much better day allowing us to get down to the plot and plant out some broad beans, peas and plant a few more potatoes. It was mostly cloudy all day with a few short sunny breaks in the afternoon but with the temperature making it to 19°C it was very pleasant working on the plot.

Our quince Meeches Prolific is almost into flower on the plot. It’s absolutely loaded with flower buds.

If all those flowers set fruit the branches won’t be able to take the weight. It would be a lovely problem to have though.

I've still got one patch of green manure to dig in. It’s over wintered pretty well with just a few bare patches showing. I sowed 2 varieties Winter Tares and Phacelia. The Phacelia sown in the centre of the bed is about to come into flower, which is loved by the bees, but unfortunately for them I’m going to strim down the top growth before digging the bed over. Our runner beans and sweet corn will be planted in this bed so I need to get this task done fairly soon. 

The green manure does seem to have kept any weed growth to a minimum in this bed so I think I might add this into my crop rotation. Once this year’s potatoes are lifted that bed will be sown with green manure which will be left to grow on over winter.

Original post from A Gardener's Weather Diary http://ossettweather.blogspot.co.uk/ author M Garrett

Same Old

Saturday was the coldest day of the month with the temperature just managing to creep into double figures at 11.2°C. The morning was drizzly clearing away in the afternoon but making absolutely no effort to brighten up.  

My weather station output at 19:00 confirms what a cold dull day it was. Gardening was on hold again but we've got some pea plants Meteor and Sugar Snap, as well as broad beans Masterpice Green Longpod, all sown in pots at home which really need planting out in the plot. We could do with a break in the weather to get them planted.

Judging from the state of the trays the peas and broad beans are standing in they won’t be short of water. If anything after the last few days of wet weather they will more than likely be waterlogged.

At least our marsh Marigold doesn't mind the wet weather and is looking at its best at the moment in the shallow area of our pond.

Original post from A Gardener's Weather Diary http://ossettweather.blogspot.co.uk/ author M Garrett

Normal Service Resumed

After a better day yesterday Friday was back to more like we've become accustomed to. Cloudy and cool all morning with a few brighter spells in the afternoon and a little rain again into the evening.

The rain and wind has given blossom a hard time this spring so that blossom on trees and bushes hasn't lasted very long. It’s a case of hoping that the fruit blossom has lasted long enough for the bees to have done their pollinating work. In the garden our Conference pear blossom is over but the apples are still in flower.

We've lots of blossom on the apple tree which we think is Peasgood Nonsuch. This is a really good cooking apple and has proved to be a good keeper. 

On the other had our crab apple John Downie hasn't got much blossom at all this year but as we often don’t use the fruit it produces this won’t be too much of a hardship.

Our medlar Nottingham may well be the last of the fruits to come into flower and will be another week or more before these flower buds open. Will we be able to decide when the fruits have bletted this year I wonder?

Original post from A Gardener's Weather Diary http://ossettweather.blogspot.co.uk/ author M Garrett

A Big Improvement

Thursday was dry and bright and feeling much warmer in the sunshine.

There still seems to be talk of frosts on the weather forecasts. I thought I’d look back over the last couple of years for which I've records to see when we had our last frosts. In the end I decided to make a note of the last day in spring when the temperature fell below 0°C and 3°C. Then out of interest I found the corresponding days these temperatures occurred in the autumn and calculated the number of days between each of the dates.

So our latest frost date over the last two years has been May 17th so hopefully we’re now past the last date for planting out more tender plants

.

The weather hasn't stopped the grass growing. One drawback of having grass paths on the plot is that it does grow quickly and needs cutting on a regular basis. It had become rather long so I needed my trusty strimmer to bring the grass paths back under control.

Once it was cut the fruit beds by the shed looked much tidier. Having a mid afternoon coffee break it looked like spring might have arrived.

Original post from A Gardener's Weather Diary http://ossettweather.blogspot.co.uk/ author M Garrett

Grim

Wednesday was our wettest day for quite some time with rain continuing from late Tuesday night through to Wednesday lunch time. It did brighten up a little bit in the afternoon. By the time it stopped raining we’d had 15.8mm in the day, more than the whole of April. The last time we've had over 10mm of rain in the day was 09 March 2013 so the rainfall was much needed.

It was also the coldest average daily temperature of the month with a figure of just 7.4°C

These were the tell tale reading from my weather station at lunch time. Needless to say all gardening operations were on hold.

Original post from A Gardener's Weather Diary http://ossettweather.blogspot.co.uk/ author M Garrett