Overnight Rain

Wednesday wasn't too bad a day. After overnight rain it turned out to be a rather windy sort of a day for August and with some sunny spells throughout the day the combination probably had the effect of drying the ground back out again.

The rainfall overnight amounted to 5.0mm. I didn't think that was much given that our plots are now very dry and need a good watering. Our long beds on the plot are 10.0m long by 2.0m wide as shown in the photo taken a couple of weeks ago before our onions were lifted onto chicken wire frames.

Exactly how does 5.0mm of rainfall compare with me watering using my trusty 10 litre watering can. I think I've got the maths correct (if not please put me right) that my 10 litre watering can is equivalent to 10mm of rainfall if I empty the can over 1 square metre of ground. So our overnight rainfall of 5.0mm saves me from pouring 10 watering cans full over one of our large beds.

That’s not too bad on beds where the rainfall falls directly onto the ground but where large crops are growing such as sweet corn, sweet peas and squashes most of that rainfall probably isn't going to get anywhere near the roots where it’s most needed.

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

Drinking Styles

Tuesday for the most part was another lovely sunny summer day but it did spoil itself by clouding over and threatening to rain late into the afternoon.

In the morning I was side tracked by a young greenfinch being fed beneath our bird feeder from fallen sunflower seeds. A blackbird, starling and sparrow decided to have a drink from the bird bath so I made a little video. It’s interesting to watch the different drinking habits the birds have. The blackbird has a very delicate approach unlike the starling which dips its head into the water using its beak like a water scoop.

On the plot our broad bean plants were cut down and the old stalks added to the compost heap. As they've been grown through weed control fabric I've covered the bed with some manure from the allotment bay. It’s very fresh manure and I wouldn't want to add it directly onto a bed that’s planted but the manure disappears before it’s had time to rot down so it’s a question of getting some when you can.

I'm now planning on leaving this bed over winter. In spring I’ll remove the weed control fabric and dig over the bed and incorporate the manure. Blimey it’s only the first week in August and I’ve a bed cleared and ready for winter.

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

Walking the Rail Trail

Monday was a lovely sunny day and we headed out into the North Yorkshire Moors National Park to walk the Rail Trail from Grosmont to Goathland.

The Rail Trail is a walk of about three miles following the route of George Stephenson's original railway line of 1836 when the mining of iron ore was a thriving industry around Grosmont. The original railway didn’t use steam locomotives and was eventually replaced after several fatal accidents as a result of a line breaking which was used to haul carriages up the steep incline from Beck Hole to Goathland.

As you walk along the Rail Trail the miners cottages are still occupied today. The path follows the valley of the Murk Esk passing through woodland and more open pasture land. In places it’s possible to see the steam locomotives making their way along the North Yorkshire Moors Railway between Grosmont and Goathland.

We decided to let the train take the strain on our return journey to Grosmont. We had time for a cup of coffee from the station’s tea room whilst we waited for our train along with lots of other tourists. 

The train soon whisked us back to Grosmont where we'd parked the car and we began our journey back home.

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

Onions!!

Sunday was a big improvement weather wise with some sunny spells and the temperature just nicely into the twenties centigrade. It was a bit blustery at times and on a couple of occasions some dark clouds made an appearance but cleared away again to give a bit more sunshine.

On the plot it was time to sort out our onions. We've had a few worries in the last few weeks about the state of our onion crop but although the remaining onion tops look a real mess the onions themselves all seem generally sound. Sue had eased the onions out of the ground a week or so ago so the task now was to set them out to dry.

In the past our first priority has been to keep them out of any rain and to do this we’ve found space in the plot greenhouse to store them. Sue has a concern that whilst we are still watering our plot tomatoes in the greenhouse this maintains a humid atmosphere inside and whilst the onions are out of the rain these might not be the best conditions for getting them to dry off for winter storage. So this year we are trying something different. I've just fixed some chicken wire frames above soil level to keep all our harvested onions off the ground. 

Hopefully using this method the onions will soon dry off again and won't resting on damp earth after any rain. 

It’s a catch twenty two situation at the minute as we’d appreciate dry weather to dry off our onions and shallots but on the other hand the allotment needs some rain to keep our winter brassicas, sweet corn, runner beans, leeks, carrots and parsnips growing. 

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

Does Size Matter?

The forecast for Saturday was correct. Whereas on Friday we more or less missed any rain and heavy showers that were about, we caught a couple on Saturday. Nothing too spectacular but I'm hoping the plot won't need watering for a few days, although with the total rainfall for the two days amounting to 5.4mm I doubt it will have done much more than wet the surface.

In our home and plot greenhouses Sungold tomatoes are continuing to ripen quickly and are keeping us supplied with extra tasty bite size tomatoes for our salads.

The remaining varieties are much slower to ripen and up to now we've only managed a couple of ripe larger tomatoes. All these varieties are larger fruiting types and I'm wondering if they are slower ripening as they've got a lot of extra growing to do compared to cherry types. 

This shows one of our larger Sungold tomatoes against a beefsteak tomato. Perhaps size really does matter after all.

Rightly or wrongly it seems to me that most things are starting to or even finishing cropping much earlier this year than normal. After picking the Sungold tomatoes in our home greenhouse I decided it might be time to try one of our Himrod grapes to see if they were sweet enough.

I only needed one to confirm that they still need a few more weeks of sunshine to complete the ripening process. Mind you I must admit that even in its unripe state this little grape had far more flavour than the cucamelon. We managed to pick another couple of fruits today and they didn't do anything to change our opinion that they aren’t worth growing.

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

RSPB Fairburn Ings - Sand Martins

Saturday’s not got off to a very good start and it’s given me a bit of time to process yesterday’s photos and video from our visit to RSPB Fairburn Ings. The photos were easy to deal with as it mostly meant hitting the delete key. The video turned out better. After sheltering from some light rain at one point in the afternoon we spent 45 minutes at Pickup hide. For us that’s a long time at one spot. It was fascinating watching the sand martins wheeling around collecting insects before heading for the sand martin wall and into holes at amazing speed.

I've condensed our 45 minutes into a little over 7 minutes and managed to capture the sand martins feeding their young. It’s the first time we've seen sand martins.

Sue has posted some pictures from our visit here.

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

Hot and Wet!

Friday got August off to a mixed start. It was a mild and muggy day with lots of cloud and a bit of light rain in the afternoon. We went for a walk around RSPB Fairburn Ings and had to take shelter in one of the hides for a few minutes whilst the rain shower passed over. The forecast heavy showers for the evening and overnight into Saturday didn’t materialise. 

Although July has had some lovely sunny days with temperatures into the high twenties centigrade it’s finished a little cooler than last year which had an average temperature of 18.8°C compared to 18.3°C this July. 

One rather strange weather fact for July is that it’s now our wettest month of the year averaging 68.3mm of rainfall over the last five years. You wouldn't think we'd had a wet month looking around the allotment which seems to have taken on an autumnal look already.

I suppose the problem is that the rainfall tends to come in the form of heavy downpours rather than steady rainfall throughout the month. A bit like only giving plants a good watering a couple of times a month which doesn't work.

After an excellent spell of weather in July it would be lovely if August continued in the same vein.

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

From Could Do Better to Couldn't be Worse

That about sums up our experiment of growing potatoes under weed control fabric. Our experiment started back on 10 April when we planted two rows each of first early potatoes Casablanca and Rocket with a row of each planted conventionally and under weed control fabric.

This is how the ones under the fabric looked before I began to lift the potatoes. All four rows had been affected by blight early in June but the ones under the weed control fabric less so than the ones planted conventionally. I didn't know what to expect when the straw and fabric were removed.

With the fabric removed from the row of Casablanca it was a bit odd to see potatoes on the surface of the soil but as I looked a bit closer my heart sank as I saw the slug damage to virtually every one of these potatoes. This was probably my worst fears of using the fabric in that it would provide a safe haven for slugs with no obvious predators.

I started putting the slug damaged potatoes in one bucket and any undamaged ones in another. As I collected the potatoes on the surface the undamaged bucket remained worryingly empty. It was then time to see if there was any crop underground. Fortunately as I dug up each root I found a decent crop of undamaged potatoes under each one and thankfully at this stage the undamaged bucket was filling up faster than the damaged one. By the time the whole row was lifted I had 9.97kg of quality potatoes and 3.90kg of slug damaged ones ready for the Council recycling bin.

It was then time to lift the weed control fabric from the row of Rocket potatoes. I'm not going into great detail but this was one of the worst crops of potatoes I can remember lifting. After a couple of roots I would have left the whole lot in the ground if that were an option. Almost 100% of the crop was damaged in one way or another with either slug damage or what I'm assuming is wireworm damage. It might be possible to salvage some usable potatoes from the wireworm damaged ones which amounted to 6.3kg but the remaining 5.73kg are only fit for throwing away. Some of the tubers were badly affected by blight giving off that unmistakable smell as the potatoes had already turned to mush.

They don't make a very pretty sight do they. 

So what can I make of our experiment. In out and out crop weight the potatoes under weed control fabric produced heavier crops but in the case of Rocket with unacceptable amounts of slug and wireworm damage. Casablanca on the other hand isn't quite so straightforward. There was far more slug damage under the fabric but the crop of undamaged potatoes was 9.97kg under the fabric compared with 5.29kg grown conventionally.

My own conclusions are that I’d probably give using fabric another go. I wouldn't use the method for first earlies as it’s not that easy to just dig up one root and leave the rest growing. Having a look under the fabric to see how things are progressing  seems a good thing but isn't that easy to do in practice.

I won't be growing Rocket again. The row planted conventionally suffered pretty badly from slug damage too when a row of Nicola planted alongside didn't have any slug damage at all. I’m sure some varieties of potato are more susceptible to slug damage than others and I've now put Rocket into the very susceptible category.

The fabric and straw have been put back over the bed and will be left there until the autumn when it will be dug over for winter. The soil wasn't quite so dry and hard as that where the conventional planting had taken place but it would certainly take a lot of work to get it ready for another crop straight away.

I’m not sure I want to lift any more potatoes for a while. Lifting a row which might as well be dumped straight into the Council recycling bin is a bit soul destroying. 

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