Sunday 27 October 2019

Non Stop Rain for More Than 24 Hours

If I had any doubts about the ground being too wet to dig over, rain on Friday and Saturday has put an end to them. It began raining on Friday lunchtime and it continued unbroken until the middle of Saturday afternoon.
Temperature & Rainfall Records 25-27 October 2019
Friday's rainfall amounted to 25.8mm (1.02in) making it the tenth wettest day I've recorded over the last 10 years.
Top Twenty Wettest Days 2010 - 2019
After Friday's rainfall October becomes the wettest October I've recorded and a further 14.6mm (1.59in) on Saturday before the rain eventually stopped was enough to move it into third spot in the table of wettest months.
Wettest Months 2010-2019
The daytime temperature on Saturday only made it up to 6.7°C (44.1°F), the equal lowest for October since 2010, tying with 27 October 2018.

It's difficult to believe now but three quarters of the way through September the ground at the allotment was too dry to dig over. Since then we've had 182.2mm (7.2in) of rainfall and the ground has gone from too dry to waterlogged in a little over 4 weeks. I've a feeling the ground won't really dry out until spring making for an extremely busy spring next year, weather permitting of course.

Before the last bout of rain I managed to make this birds' eye view of our plots.


Posted by Martyn at 10:28 6 comments

Tuesday 22 October 2019

Drying Up A Bit!

Tuesday morning's temperature was the lowest of this autumn as the temperature fell to 1.4°C or 34.5°F.
Temperature Records 20-22 October 2019
Daytime temperatures haven't been all that impressive either with Monday's reaching a high of 11.0°C or 51.8°F. We needed to harvest some fresh vegetables so in a very light drizzle, we set off for the allotment not intending it to be a long visit. However, the drizzle stopped so we decided to clear a few beds and see if they would dig over.
I thought this bed on plot 29, which grew some onions through summer, might be too wet to dig over but it was just about manageable. It was pleasing to make a start of getting some autumn digging done. 

One of our winter jobs is to progress the rejuvenation of our old strawberry bed. It had been covered over with weed control fabric and wood chippings since spring. The ground had large cracks in it when the strawberries were cleared.
Strawberry bed spring this year
The weed control fabric and wood chippings were cleared away to reveal the ground beneath.
First impressions were that the ground was very wet but all those large cracks that had developed as a result of a long spell of dry weather had disappeared which was what we had aimed for when we covered the bed.
The next stage is to roughly dig over the bed and leave the winter rains and frost to break down the soil. Hopefully, in spring we'll be able to plant a crop of potatoes in this bed.

Posted by Martyn at 15:02 1 comments

Wednesday 16 October 2019

A Cold October So Far!

Gardening activities have gone on hold due to the wet weather. In the last 24 days we've managed just 3 dry days and a rainfall total of 129.9mm (5.11in) or the best part of 3 months rainfall in a little over 3 weeks.
The rainfall isn't the only thing though, as it's been an unusually cool start to the month as well. Daytime temperatures have really struggled to reach anything like average values for October.
High Temperature October 2010 - 2019 
The image above shows part of my table of daytime high temperatures for the last 10 Octobers. The highest October daytime temperature for each year is shown in the red box. At the moment a value of 15.9°C (60.6°F) is the lowest value over those 10 years.

The second table below shows the temperature record for this year with the monthly high temperatures indicated in the red box.
Temperature Records for 2019
Amazingly, only January has a lower daytime high temperature with even February managing one day reaching 16.9°C or 62.4°F. At least, night time temperatures have held up reasonably well, with the exception of the third of the month when it fell to 1.6°C or 34.9°F. Perhaps this means we are due a couple of nice warm days before the month is out, however, the weather models are suggesting a cold snap towards the end of the month rather than any warmer weather.

Posted by Martyn at 09:27 0 comments

Monday 14 October 2019

Gardening Activities Have Stopped!

We've had more rain over the last week, enough to put a stop to visits to the plot. We've managed only 2 dry days so far in October. Whilst we've had more rain over the last week it's not been in large amounts but enough each day to keep the already saturated ground saturated. By Sunday night October's rainfall has already amounted to 46.8mm (1.84in) and is already above October's average for the last 10 years.
Temperatures have staged a bit of a recovery over the last week but still only October 2012 remains colder at this point in the month. We've just had a couple of days where the daytime temperature has reached what we might expect at this time of the year. The recovery in the average daily temperature has been due to some milder nights.

We haven't visited the plot since my last blog post when we cut back the hazel and cobnut trees and began removing the honeyberry bushes. We'll need to visit soon to harvest a few fresh vegetables. There's plenty of jobs to be getting on with both at the allotment and in the garden but we need a spell of better weather before we can make a start on them.

We did have a day out on Saturday heading up to Cumbria and then to the Settle to Carlisle Railway line to do a little bit of steam train photography. We managed to find some heavy showers in Cumbria but at Ribblehead Viaduct conditions were much better with some sunny spells. I've included our video of 6201 Princess Elizabeth working hard on the climb up to Shap summit on the West Coast Main Line and then as she crosses the famous Ribblehead Viaduct on the picturesque Settle to Carlisle railway line. 


6201 Princess Elizabeth crossing Ribblehead Viaduct - The Cumbrian Mountain Express

There still doesn't seem to be much improvement in the forecast for the next week but there seems to be the possibility of some drier weather towards the end of the month.

Posted by Martyn at 09:55 0 comments

Thursday 10 October 2019

Cold and Wet First Week of October

It's been a cold and wet start to October in fact one of the wettest and coldest starts I've recorded.
October Average Temperatures 2010-2019 
As you can see from the table above, colour coded red to blue indicating hottest to coldest, it's almost the coldest start to October with only 2012 marginally colder after the first 8 days of the month. It was cold enough on the third of the month for a touch of frost which finished off our courgettes.
It has been the wettest start to October I've recorded as indicated in the table below. 
October Rainfall Totals 2010-2019
The rain has meant that the beds on the allotment have gone from too dry to dig to too wet in the space of about two weeks. Autumn digging is on hold until the soil dries out a little bit. I know that digging over the ground now when its too wet will lead to problems in spring and it will be difficult to prepare the soil for sowing and planting.

That doesn't mean that all allotment jobs are on hold and beds can still be cleared of their summer crops and the cleared vegetation added to the compost heap. We've been thinking all summer about clearing our honeyberry fruit bushes which over the last six or seven years that they've been planted haven't produced us a single honeyberry. They are going to be cleared to make way for some new gooseberry bushes. 
It's a patch of the allotment that has become rather neglected due to the fact that it has been very unproductive. The cobnut and hazel tree growing nearby have been cut back. Both trees produce cobnuts but these are eaten by the squirrels long before the nuts are ready to pick.
Whilst the trees have been cut back the honeyberry bushes still need to be cut back and dug up. It's one of those jobs on the allotment where the cutting back doesn't take too long at all it's the sorting out of all the debris that takes the time.
I’ve now got a large heap of hazel and cobnut branches to sort out. Many of the branches will make some excellent sturdy bean poles for next year and the smaller branches will make some fine pea sticks. Any left over material that isn't suitable for the compost heap will hopefully be burnt on a bonfire later in autumn.

Meanwhile we need some decent weather to dry out the ground and dry off some of the prunings that will need to be burnt.

Posted by Martyn at 09:42 2 comments

Friday 4 October 2019

After A Wet September, October Begins With A Cold Spell

September seemed like an odd month to me. It certainly didn't seem like an extension of summer more like the immediate arrival of autumn. Early in the month we had a few cold nights which came as a real shock after a hot spell towards the end of August.
Temperature & Rainfall Records 04 August to 02 September 2019
After August's hot spell we had a dry spell of weather and although we had some rainfall it was no more than enough to keep the top of the soil moist. Such was the spell of dry weather that by the middle of September we decided some parts of the allotment needed some water.
When our mid month birds' eye video was made, our hosepipe was set up to water our brassicas. Of course doing this could only result in one outcome, a spell of wet weather. September went from being one of the driest over the last 10 years to the wettest in a matter of days. Firstly, 24th September became the wettest day of the year only for the 29th to take over the record. By the end of the month September had become the wettest month of the year and the wettest September of the last 10 years.
Average Temperatures & Rainfall Records for September 2010-2019
Temperature wise, September 2019 was around average for the last 10 years producing no high or low temperatures worthy of note.

Initially, we didn't think we'd be able to start digging over beds at the allotment because it was too dry. Now it might be too wet but we'll have to pay a visit to see just what condition the ground is in. Even if we can't start our autumn digging we've got plenty of clearing up to do with lots of spent crops to be cleared away to the compost heap.

If you would like to have a look around our plot at the end of September I've added a video tour below.


October has started wet and cold with an early morning low of 1.6°C (34.9°F) on Thursday and more than likely a touch of frost. It will be interesting to see if our dahlias survived at the allotment. It's the coldest start to October in the last 10 years.
The above chart showing October's average temperatures is a little bit messy but the purple line showing the average temperature for the first few days of the month indicates clearly how cold a start to the month we've had.

Posted by Martyn at 09:56 2 comments
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