Autumn arrives!

The temperature just continues to keep falling. Sundays high was just 8.0°C a far cry from the heady heights of 17.3°C of just a few days ago. The weekly chart shows how the temperatures have fallen over the last few days.

From 03 Weather 2010

At the moment a deep area of low pressure is crossing the UK. It’s the deepest low pressure for over 12 months from my weather station records. At the moment it’s just steady rain and strong winds.

From 03 Weather 2010

Temperatures tumble

Saturday turned out to be a lovely sunny day. Temperatures returned to normal today after a week of rather unseasonably mild levels. It’s now tricky to accurately record hours of sunshine as by early afternoon all our garden is in shade as the sun gradually gets lower in the sky as winter approaches.

The windy weather of the last few days has stripped many trees of their leaves. The Met Office are predicting gale force winds for many parts of the country on Monday so the trees may well be better off leafless.

From 03 Weather 2010

Dahlias go into hibernation

Friday continued mild with the strong winds easing through the morning. On the plot we took advantage of the mild and relatively calm afternoon to protect the dahlias lifted last week with straw and a waterproof layer. Light rain started to fall just as we finished placing timbers and bricks on the polythene to keep it in place.

From 03 Weather 2010

Incredibly mild but wet and windy

What an unusual day Thursday turned out to be. The temperature reached 17.3°C unusually high for the beginning of November. It was a windy morning with some sunshine but spits and spots of rain too. The wind eased mid afternoon and the rain came to be followed by more windy weather in the evening. A wind gust speed of 23mph at 20:00 is equal to the highest speed I’ve recorded. The temperature remained into double figures into the evening.

I suppose the wind will have stripped the trees of their autumn leaves. Our medlar tree looked very autumnal this week.

From 03 Weather 2010

Win a £25 gift voucher to spend on seeds

Win a £25 voucher to spend on the Vegetableseeds.net website.

The competition is open to visitors to any of our blogs and websites. Unfortunately the seed company only ship within Europe.

Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments

Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments  Garden in Ossett

Green Lane Allotments Weather Diary

The School Vegetable Patch

The School Vegetable Patch website

Click here for more information on how to enter the competition

The closing date for entry is 19 November 2010

Mild

Wednesday continued the mild and windy start to the month. The autumn colours will soon be blown away if this windy weather continues.

It’s not just the trees that have autumn colour as this gooseberry bush on the plot shows.

From 03 Weather 2010

Old Moor RSPB reserve

Tuesday was dull and windy in the morning and early afternoon. We made a spur of the moment decision to visit the RSPB reserve at Old Moor near Rotherham. Never having visited the RSPB web site was used to plot the location of the reserve on our Sat Nav and off we went.

View Larger Map

It was still cloudy and windy when we arrived and it seemed sensible to take precautions against any sudden showers that might descend on us as we walked around the reserve. The reserve is on the site once occupied by a colliery.

From 03 Weather 2010

It’s hard to believe that this was once an area decimated by colliery spoil. There’s plenty of hides around the small lagoons from which to view the birds.

From 03 Weather 2010

We had a look from most of the hides which have views out across the water. My favourite spot though was the hide just outside the main RSPB building. Here the super large bird feeders were visited by many birds including this bullfinch.

From 03 Weather 2010

After our walk around the reserve we popped into the café/restaurant for a cappuccino each. We may have to visit again and try the lunchtime menu which looked very appetising. As we left the café after our cappuccino it was just starting to rain. Our timing had been just right as the rain continued to fall from late afternoon into the evening.

Drier than last year

Monday wasn’t too bad as it turned out to be a calm, mild and dry day. Just a little bit of brief autumn sunshine in the afternoon made it good for working on the plot. Last year the first day of November produced about 20mm of rainfall. It was followed by lots more rain during the month which put a stop to plot tidying up last year. So it’s just a question of how long the weather holds this autumn.

From 03 Weather 2010

There are certainly some dazzling autumn colours about at the moment. This tree was snapped on our way back from the allotment.

On the plot we made an effort to sort out our now frosted dahlias and prepare them for winter. All the remaining frosted foliage was cut away and composted before the tubers lifted. Judging the colours of each plant from the brown crispy frost damaged flowers wasn't easy and plenty of guess work was involved. The soil around them was surprisingly dry making lifting the tubers easy. Our choicest colours were then placed in a trench dug in the dahlia bed and once they were all in place they were covered with soil. All our remaining dahlia tubers were placed over the top of these buried tubers. Our best tubers will have most protection from the winter cold. I think the ones on top will be more prone to damage from mice but hopefully they will survive the winter too.

From 03 Weather 2010

All that remains now is a visit to the local farmer to purchase some bales of straw to place over the dahlia heap and act as insulation. It will all be protected by polythene to keep off the winter rain. Lots of bricks and stones are required to keep the polythene in place from the winter gales that are bound to come.

Sunday was a dry dull and sunless day. It wasn’t particularly cold but we didn’t visit the plot as we just hoped that there would be some better days even in November!