Old Fashioned Transport

The last few days have been lovely and sunny but a bit on the chilly side. Night time temperatures have dipped low enough for a touch of frost.

Temperature & Rainfall Records 27-29 September 2018

At the allotment our last three rows of potatoes were dug up and once again they were on the disappointing side following a similar pattern to the rest of our crop this year which has suffered from a lack of rain. If I hadn't grown potatoes before I might think that they weren't worth the effort. I'll be trying the same varieties again next year.

We had a couple of days visiting the North Yorkshire Moors Railway's annual steam gala. On our journey we spotted another form of older transport as some hot air balloons appeared in the sky around York.

There are a bit difficult to spot in the photo but there are three little black dots in the sky which were hot air balloons. The other old form of transportation, steam locomotives were much easier to spot.

The photo shows an old restored southern region locomotive 926 Repton with a demonstration freight train between Pickering and Goathland. It was far more difficult to get the photo we wanted at the stations as it was a case of jostling with the crowds.

The scene at Goathland station as a Pickering bound train arrives and crowds line the footbridge and platforms to get a photo.

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

What A Difference!

After last week's storms the weather has settled down again bringing us some sunshine through the day but some very chilly nights, or more appropriately chilly mornings. Tuesday morning has been the coldest with the temperature falling to 3.1°C or 37.6°F.

Temperature Records 23-25 September 2018

We had a visit to the plot on Monday afternoon and were pleased to find no storm damage worth noting. However, I was most interested in seeing if all that rainfall had made the ground "diggable" once more.

I last tried to dig over this summer's onion bed on 27th August. After trying to turn over a couple of spadefuls I gave it up as a bad job and decided I'd wait for some rain to soften the ground.

27th August 2018

27th August 2018

Our clayey soil more resembled concrete than soil. It was in such a state I was beginning to doubt my cultivation methods developed over 20 years of allotmenting. After a month's worth of rain in 12 hours would the soil still be dry or would it have become waterlogged. On first inspection the ground looked much better than it had for the last few months. I wanted to plant this bed up with some green manure to grow over winter before being dug in next spring. I decided to see if my hoe would break up the top few inches of soil to allow me to sow some green manure seeds.

Amazingly, that concrete had become easily workable soil. Once more it was easy to hoe through the top few inches, sow some green manure a variety called Autumn Mix", and rake the seeds into the surface of the soil.

There's a video below covering the sowing of the green manure and I also managed to dig over the bed where our climbing French beans had been cleared away.

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

Summer Ends, Drought Ends - Big Time!!

I'm not sure of the official date when astronomical summer ends but weather wise Thursday saw our very dry summer come to a very abrupt end. The rain began reasonably gently early afternoon and continued through to almost midnight with some bouts of very heavy rain mixed in.

Temperature & Rainfall September 2018

After a very dry summer Thursday saw a rainfall total of 41.6mm (1.64in), in less than 12 hours, making it the wettest day of summer. That's a typical month's rainfall in half a day! Since May we haven't had a monthly total as high as that. It's certainly brought our drought to an end. However,  as you can see from the table below, it's also taken over as the wettest day we've had since 2010.

There seems to be a few instances of local flooding as drains not used to rainfall couldn't cope. We managed to find one such spot in Wakefield last night.

It will be interesting to see what effect all the rain has had at the allotment. Will we have gone from too dry to do any digging to too wet with almost one month's rainfall in less than 12 hours?

To add insult to injury it became very windy Thursday night into Friday morning with my weather station recording a wind gust of 30mph. That's another September record as it's the highest wind speed I've recorded in September.

The wind abated through the early hours of Friday morning and a quick look around the garden doesn't reveal any damage apart from a blown over bird feeder. That's now back in an upright position and the feeders filled up so the birds will be happy.

We'll have to plan a trip to the plot to check if there is any damage there and to see if soil conditions are suitable for digging or whether the ground will have gone from too dry to too wet. If the latter is the case we will have had an amazing turn around in the space of one day!

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

A Rainy Day - At Last!

We haven't visited the plot since Monday. We've had a few other things to do and with a couple of early autumn storms turning the weather very windy we have given plotting a miss. Thursday afternoon is turning out to be wet, one of the wettest days we have had since early spring.

On our visit on Monday I made a short video of how the plot was looking in the middle of September.

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

Autumn has Arrived

After a lovely warm start to the month it's been downhill ever since, to such an extent that the month's average temperature is now just that, distinctly average for the middle of September.

Temperature & Rainfall Records 01-15 September 2018

There's no doubt that the allotment has taken on a noticeable autumnal feel as beds are cleared of summer crops and harvesting moves on to apples and pears.

However, one theme from summer is continuing and that is our continuing lack of rainfall. So far this month we've had some sort of precipitation on 10 days out of 16 including some rain today, Sunday. It's amounted to a grand total of 13.6mm (0.54in) falling in lots of small amounts which do nothing to alleviate the bone dry soil at the allotment and in the garden.

We did manage to plant our winter onions last week besides clearing more beds at the allotment. As the cleared beds are too dry to dig over, the backlog of beds that need digging over is building up at an alarming rate. None of the beds will be needed for planting or sowing seeds until next spring so there's no particular rush, but it's a job I like to do in short stints rather than have lots to do together.

We're not having to spend as much time watering at the allotment, as crops take longer to dry out now the weather is much cooler than on those hot summer days. Some crops though have still got plenty of time left in the ground before they're harvested. Our leeks have grown well but until some wet weather arrives they'll still need watering even if it's not as often. It would be a shame if we forgot them now after watering them for the last two or three months. The same can be said of our carrots, parsnips and winter brassicas.

The weather next week will be governed by the remnants of ex-tropical storm Helene. Whilst it might bring some mild southerly winds on the other hand they might just be strong enough to be gale force and there maybe even some wet weather as well. However, with the exact track of the storm still unknown there's a great deal of uncertainty about next week's weather.

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

Autumn Clearing Jobs

I'm not sure whether it's me or not but autumn seems to be well underway this year. The weather has turned cool for early September, although we are still awaiting some prolonged wet weather. At the allotment we're well into clearing beds of their summer crops. 

The above beds have been cleared of climbing French and runner beans. Ideally I'd have liked to dig over the bed but I think the soil will be far too dry and hard for cultivating even though the beans were well watered through the summer. The only rain we get at the moment comes in dribs and drabs which does nothing for our bone dry soil. I did manage to resow one of our beds with a green manure crop. The first sowing of buckwheat in early August hadn't been successful despite our watering efforts. I've resown it with Caliente mustard and I'm hoping for better germination this time around.

One of our cardoon plants has been cut down, a couple of plum trees have been tidied up by removing some of the lower branches and Sue has given our red currants a good cutting back. They were starting to outgrow their allotted space.

Plum Tree - Marjories Seedling 

Redcurrants

Although we've spent a good deal of time cutting back and clearing beds we've still had time to do some harvesting.

Harvest Sunday, 09 September 2018

The dry weather this year has meant no blight on our potatoes and tomatoes and, whereas the potatoes have done poorly in the very dry conditions, our outdoor tomatoes have done very well. If all years could be guaranteed to be blight free I think we'd manage without greenhouse grown tomatoes. 

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

The Wait Goes On!

Harvesting on the plot is slowing down and the regularity of our visits are slowing down too. The start of September has brought with it some much cooler weather but so far no "proper rain". However, as the temperature cools the crops that are still growing will last longer between waterings.

Temperature & Rainfall Records 01-07 September 2018

On the plot it's a case of harvesting and clearing crops and waiting for rain before any beds can be dug over. I've managed to get a couple of beds ready for some flowers seeds and a crop of winter onions and garlic.

Last month a couple of beds were sown with green manure crops. One bed is doing reasonably well and one looks like it will need re-sowing.

This bed was sown with grazing rye in August and germination of the green manure crop has been good. There's also been excellent germination of weed seedlings too so it will be interesting to see how things progress. There's no point showing you a picture of the second bed as it's just a patch of mostly bare earth with very little signs of any germination including weed seeds. 

I'm planning to get some more beds ready to be sown with green manure crops as soon as conditions improve and I've bought some seeds ready to sow as beds are prepared. The seeds don't have to be sown until the end of October but I'd really like to get some in as soon as possible. I might rake over the bed with the failed green manure crop of buckwheat, give it a good watering and re-sow it with some of my new seeds. It's a question of deciding whether to use Mustard Caliente or Autumn Mix.

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

End of a Hot Summer

September heralds the start of meteorological autumn and brings to an end a very hot and dry summer in our part of the world. The heat hasn't been the main problem for us, rather the lack of rainfall, as this summer finishes up as the hottest and driest I've recorded.

Some beds on the allotment have been unusable through summer as the hot, dry weather continued to bake our clay soil. The rainfall figures for this summer speak for themselves.

Summer Rainfall Totals 2010-2018

Our total summer rainfall has amounted to what we might expect in any one of the three summer months. No wonder we've had lots of watering to do at the allotment. Of course summer 2018 might be at the bottom of the rainfall table but the positions are reversed for the temperature table.

Summer Temperatures 2010-2018

Little did we know that as the lovely summer weather began in June it would last through into August although August didn't match the standards set by June and July.

RHS Harlow Carr in June 2018

As I've already mentioned August was the poorest of the summer months and didn't manage to top my table of August temperatures coming second to August 2013.

Only a few days into autumn and those hot summer days have disappeared but we're still waiting for some "proper rain".

Until that rain arrives our soil will continue to more resemble concrete that soil. Autumn digging is on hold as all we can do is clear the ground of its summer crops and wait for the rain to arrive. No doubt that once it starts it won't know when to stop. Hard to believe that in April we were waiting for the ground to dry out so that we could start sowing and planting spring crops.

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