We move into August with the best of the summer weather probably behind us. It's not common for August to be warmer than July although it does happen. In the end the average temperature for July was a fraction above the average over the last six years.
It was a dry month for us with only 33.6mm of rainfall making it the second driest July I've recorded and also the driest month of 2016.
It was a bit windy for July equalling last years record which was the windiest I've recorded. Despite the hot and sunny spells around the middle of the month it wasn't particularly sunny over the remainder of the month being the sixth least sunny July out of seven.
As you can see this cardoon hasn't managed to make it to the end of July before the windy weather took its toll. Usually the flowers continue to open even on the stems that have broken and fallen over so the bees won't be too disappointed as they love cardoon flowers.
Although July was a dry month there seemed to be numerous occasions when we were rained off down on the allotment. Not that there were great quantities of rainfall but just enough to think jobs would be better put off until another day. Monday was no exception with some light rain in the afternoon that was absolutely useless as far as watering the plot goes but will be enough to wet the top of the ground and encourage the slugs out of their daytime hiding places.
Before the rain arrived, I did manage to pot up some strawberry runners from what we think is our best strawberry of the year called Malwina. I've potted up 12 runners to fill some gaps left by other varieties which didn't do too well. I'll have to make sure to water the plants on visits to the plot to encourage the runners to root. Unfortunately our strawberry harvest is coming to an end now.
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