Cool As Well As Wet

Wednesday was a sort of an improvement on the previous couple of days. There were spits and spots of rain throughout the day but at one point we even had a brief glimpse of sunshine. We had a couple of very heavy showers late afternoon 　and early evening which accounted for most of the 4.4mm of rain.

Last year September went out in a blaze of glory with temperatures into the high twenties. 　It doesn’t look like we’re going to get a repeat this year as September looks like turning out to be rather on the cool side. At the moment the average temperature for the month is 13.33°C making it the coldest since 1994.

 

This collared dove found a pleasant roost in the afternoon on our bird table roof just outside our study window. It didn’t seem too bothered that I was standing at the window trying to take its picture. Perhaps it was guarding the remaining food left on the bird table.

A Lucky Miss

It was wet and rainy again on Tuesday but at least we avoided the heavy rain which struck a little further north resulting in severe flooding and major delays to road and rail networks.

 

It’s amazing how much rain we’ve had since Spring when the predictions were for lots of dry weather leading to devastating drought conditions. It started to rain and it’s continued to do so ever since those forecasts were made. Out of the last 6 months we’ve exceeded the expected rainfall in each month apart from May which was a pretty dry month. April, June and July all produced over twice our expected rainfall with August not far behind.

At the end of March the previous 12 months had produced only 393.5mm of rain against an expected amount of 651.5mm or 60% of our annual expected rainfall. Now almost at the end of September the previous 12 months have produced 793.7mm of rainfall or 122% of expected.

 

All this rainfall may impact pretty drastically on our allotment activities. Autumn and winter digging might have to be put on hold whilst the ground dries out something the plot is not good at in Autumn and Winter especially if this wet weather continues.

Wet - Very Wet!

It rained all day on Monday with no let up at all. It wasn’t torrential, thank goodness, but just steady rain all day. It always seems to be on really rainy days that I find out that my main rain gauge has become blocked with pigeon doo doos. As you may know Woody likes to sit on my weather station and take in the surroundings. 　

I guessed there was a problem when my old back up gauge was recording far more rainfall through the day than the newer gauge and sure enough on inspecting my main gauge on Tuesday morning I found the collecting bucket full of water. At least I’ve found out how to make the totals of rainfall correct on my charts if not the hours the rain actually fell.

Monday’s rainfall amounted to 29.0mm putting into 4th placed in the wettest days I’ve recorded.

2012 now holds 6 spots in the top ten of wettest 10 days since September 2009.

 

　

Potato Summary and a Short Lived Record

First thing Sunday morning was fractionally colder than Saturday and it remained cool and cloudy all day with rain setting in mid afternoon. This meant Sunday took over the record of coldest September day I’ve recorded at 7.7°C breaking 8.3°C set yesterday. The rain started mid afternoon and is still falling mid morning Monday although it’s not been particularly heavy. The forecast is for much more wind and rain over the next 24 hours. Autumn has definitely arrived big time.

 

Now all our potatoes are lifted I’ve summarised the crop from each of our varieties in the table below. Despite this spring and summer’s poor weather and the potatoes getting away to a very late start the total crop weights for 2011 and 2012 are very similar with a total for 2011 of 152.304 kg. As lots of you measure in pounds 150 kg is equivalent to 330 lbs.

To finish on a rather gruesome note. I’d accidentally placed a bucket full of potatoes on top of a snail on Saturday night. I heard that crunching sound of breaking snail shell as I put the potatoes down onto the patio. I didn’t think too much about it as there are plenty of other snails in the garden to take its place. I was really surprised on Sunday morning to find a large slug tucking into the remains of the crushed snail.

Apparently after a little Internet research slugs will clear away the remnants of dead snails. That’s something I hadn’t expected and I’ve certainly not noticed happening in the garden before.

Potatoes Lifted

Saturday was a beautiful sunny autumnal day but after an overnight low of 3.3°C it’s taken the record of the coldest September day I’ve recorded with an average temperature of only 8.3°C. The previous record was 9.0°C set on 25 September 2010.

The sunshine tempted us down to the plot. It was nice enough to sit and enjoy a cup of coffee with our plot neighbours in the afternoon sunshine. I did manage to finish lifting our potatoes which consisted of a few roots of Winston that I’d been planning to lift for a while but always found something more urgent to do.

 

I managed to harvest a bucket full of Winston’s on the left in the picture above. I really should have lifted them earlier as the delay had given potato devouring creatures more time to enjoy the tasty tubers. Our Winston’s do seem to have been prone to attack from underground pests this year but have still produced a good crop of large tasty potatoes and so will earn themselves a place on the order list for next year.

These are the worst affected and not even worth considering using as most of the potato has been eaten. They have a hollow feel and sound to them when picked up a sure sign that there’s not much useful potato left.

There’s are lots of holes in the eaten potatoes which I’m assuming is mostly slug damage although I didn’t see many slugs as I dug them up. I will now need to keep a check on the stored potatoes and remove any potatoes showing any signs of rotting or other problems.This year’s potato harvest is now complete and, assuming they store okay during the winter months, we’ve enough in store to last us through into next spring.

Cold and Wet

Friday was cold and wet with rain on and off through most of the day. It was cold too with the daytime temperature just making it to around 10°C.

As you can see it was actually warmer overnight with the temperature falling quickly around dawn. The give away is the rapid fall in temperature in the evening resulting in the coldest September night I’ve recorded of 3.3°C.

On a positive note Saturday has started bright and sunny with the promise of a decent day so I’m hoping that I can finish lifting my few remaining potatoes this afternoon before we get any more wet weather.

Picking Pears

Thursday morning wasn’t too good. It was dull and cool but it was a little better in the afternoon.

As the afternoon wasn’t too bad, I decided to pick the pears from the garden. It took about 2 minutes, in fact it took as long to photograph and weigh the pears as it did to harvest them.

 

This is it our completed pear harvest just two pears from 3 allotment trees and the tree in the garden. The two Conference pears weighed in at 341gms. How different it all appeared back in April when the trees were in flower and the fruits just setting.

 

Then came the summer that never was and the fruitlets never made into full grown fruits apart from the two which I’ve just harvested. Gardening can be a little bit disappointing at times but hopefully next year will be better. Isn’t it strange that we managed to grow more peaches than we did pears?

 

On a different note. Do you fancy helping out on a research project being undertaken at Sheffield University. If you keep any sort of records about your fruit and vegetable harvests you may be able to assist in their research. Have a look at their web site and see if you can help.

 

Bad Year for Onions

Wednesday was another cool day with some decent sunny spells and a bit less breezy.

 

A couple of weeks ago Sue had eased our onions out of the ground and they had been left to dry out on the plot. The forecast for the next couple of days is for some wet weather so I decided complete the harvesting job by collecting the onions to keep them dry for storing over winter.

 

We’ve had doubts all summer about how well our onions were growing. They certainly didn’t like all the wet weather. We grew 5 varieties of onions all from sets, Snowball and Setton from normal sets and Hyred, Hytech and Marshalls Fen Globe from heat treated sets. Snowball and Setton were started out in modules back on 14 February with the heat treated sets following on on 15 April as soon as they arrived. Once planted out in the plot initial growth was good.

 

This is Setton in early July beginning to grow away well after transplanting into the plot. But the rain and poor weather took its toll and the end result is a pretty poor crop of onions.

 

The worst result came from Hyred which is a crop failure having produced nothing larger than the sets that went in. Snowball a white onion is probably the next worse as the bulbs seem to be starting to re-grow and don’t look as though they will keep in store for very long. Setton, (probably benefiting from an earlier start), produced the best crop of decent looking onions but even then I’d expect better in a normal season.

 

 

Last year we had trouble storing onions over winter and decided to grow an extra couple of varieties to be sure of having enough onions to last us until spring. Just shows how this gardening is always unpredictable and no two years are ever the same.

Onion Harvest 2012