Friday 23 December 2016

Battening Down the Hatches

For a few weeks now high pressure systems have been in charge of our weather giving some settled conditions. All that is about to change as a low pressure system, named Barbara, moves in from the Atlantic bringing wet and windy weather.

We visited the plot to top up out supply of fresh vegetables and I wanted to make our cold frame a little bit more secure so it has a better chance of surviving the windy weather intact.
The cold frame moved to the allotment a few years ago, when we upgraded to newer wooden cold frames at home. It was in a much more sheltered spot at home and survived many gales without any damage. On the plot it is far more exposed to the elements and constant battering from the wind gradually loosens the fixings which hold the glass in place. Eventually this results in the glass panes falling out and breaking. In an attempt to stop this happening I’ve taken to cocooning the cold frame in environmesh to lessen the effect of the wind. The environmesh isn’t used for anything else over winter.

We have been storing our onions in the shed at the allotment. Conditions in the shed aren’t ideal as it gets too damp during winter and some of the onions had started to go mouldy. We decided to bring all the remaining good quality onions home and store them in the summerhouse. I’m not that convinced it will be much better for them in there but at least we will be able to inspect them more often removing any that start to deteriorate.
Onions - Sturon, Stuttgart and Red Karmen
It’s good to know that the hours of daylight are now starting to lengthen even if it only by a few seconds a day to start with. On Thursday, we left the plot at 15:00 and the sun had already disappeared below the level of the conifers that form one of the boundaries to the allotments.
I'm hoping that we don't get too much rain, in the wet and windy weather that's forecast, to make it too wet to work on jobs at the allotment.

6 comments:

  1. Very dark here. Rain is coming. Solar radiation is at 40. Now I watch it because of your post. What I have growing best are herbs. Nice and green and leafy.

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    Replies
    1. I think I can safely say we don't have anything that's actually growing but we've a few crops in the ground okay to harvest carrots, parsnips, leeks and sprouts.

      Have a good Christmas Jane

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  2. Great idea to protect the glass with enviromesh, I hope it does the trick. Our allotment site takes quite a battering sometimes too. I've seen overturned sheds and fruit cages that have blown away. I hope you and Sue have a good Christmas.

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    Replies
    1. Storm Barbara didn't seem too bad here just wet and windy as we might expect in December.

      Have a good Christmas CJ.

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  3. Hope you are able to dry all the onions nicely! That's beautiful view of Allotment! Merry Christmas!

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