Chalk & Cheese

Monday saw a complete turn around in the weather again as we had a really dull and miserable day after yesterday’s almost unbroken sunshine. It must have remained cloud free well into the early hours of Monday morning allowing the temperature to fall to minus 0.1°C just before dawn at 05:45.

This is our first below zero temperature of the autumn, it still counts even though it’s just fractionally below. As the cloud and drabness arrived the temperature did recover a little through the day but didn’t manage to get into double figures. It’s forecast to stay like this all week, perhaps improving a little towards the weekend.

What a change

Sunday saw a complete change in the weather. The drabness disappeared to be replaced by sunshine almost all day long. Although the temperature only managed 11°C it felt mild in the afternoon sunshine.

Down on the plot it’s amazing how the recent rain has transformed our soil. It’s not that we've had any great amount of rain but after being too dry to dig the soil is now such that it sticks to boots whilst digging.

At least having grass paths around our beds means that digging can be done without standing on the soil too much which is a great help now that the soil is a bit claggy. Much more rain and it will be too wet to turn over and digging will have to wait for the soil to dry out a little.

New Rhubarb

Saturday saw and end to the milder weather but not the dull and dreary bit. The temperature struggled to reach double figures managing only 10.5°C in the afternoon which is just below average for early November. The clouds didn't lift all day with some light rain in the morning.

As I've been concerned about loosing some of our rhubarb plants on the plot through this dry summer I decided to order a couple of new crowns from Thompson & Morgan. These have already arrived and I’ve potted both crowns of Stockbridge Arrow into a large pot and will keep these in the greenhouse to protect them from the worst of the winter weather.

Both pieces of rhubarb root had some tiny shoots so although they don’t look much now I’m hoping they will produce strong healthy plants for next summer. It will be a couple of years however, before they have any rhubarb ready for pulling.

In a rut

Friday was another mild and mostly overcast day. A little more rain on and off throughout the day gave the day a miserable feel despite the temperature.

It was just the sort of day I needed for my change over computer day. I've now managed to change over most of my software and data files to a new PC before my old one gave up the ghost completely. Tracking down all the software serial numbers, downloading latest software versions and drivers was quite a task. I've still got more software to install but I think all the vital bits are working.

Continuing dull and mild

Thursday continued along the lines of the last few days, mostly dull but remaining mild for November.

We still haven't picked our medlars this year. The autumn foliage looks especially good at this time of year. Perhaps the medlars will be better left on for a few more days as there are no frosts forecast.

Dull, mild and good for digging

Wednesday was another mild day for November with just a little sunshine now and again.

In the afternoon on the plot it was a dull and gloomy day but good for digging over some of the beds which have been cleared over the last few weeks.

During the summer we dug up our old strawberry plants and this left us with three small beds that hadn't been dug for several years. The ground was dry and hard after a very dry spring and summer and it was nigh on impossible to dig over these beds to produce any sort of reasonable tilth for sowing or planting.

This was the first strawberry patch to be cleared at the beginning of August. It's difficult to spot the other two beds as the old strawberry plants finished up over run with weeds. The grass paths had also taken the opportunity to spread a little and take over some of the old beds.

Although we haven't had a great amount of rain it's been enough to soften up the ground and allow us to get on and do some winter digging. The cleared strawberry beds now look in much better shape after being dug over and the grass paths trimmed back. It might be good to plant our early potatoes in these beds next year.

Starts like last year

November has started off on a mild pleasant note, in fact very similar to last year. Last year November started off mild but after a week temperatures plummeted to give us a very cold month. I’m hoping that’s not going to be the case this year.

October was certainly a mild month here, with an average temperature of 11.88°C ranking 16th warmest, going back to the 1700’s, based on the Central England Temperature Record. Mild Octobers don’t seem to be a completely recent phenomenon with milder Octobers having occurred in 1811, 1818 and 1838.

It’s been yet another dry month with below average rainfall of 44.4mm against an expected 68.7mm becoming the eighth month in a row with below average rainfall.   

Goes out like it came in

The last day of October was mild, the month going out on a good note. We had a light southerly breeze, a few sunny spells and with the temperature reaching 16.7°C in the afternoon it was very pleasant.

This is the last of our October harvests. Our pickings will become more meagre as we head into the winter months. 

• A full list of our October harvests can be found here
• A list of sowing and planting for October is here
• Octobers weather details can be found here and figures for 2011 to date are located here