Tuesday 27th April saw our run of 18 consecutive nights of ground frosts come to an end.
The cold frosty mornings have taken their toll at the allotment. This buddleia is certainly showing the effects of a long spell of cold nights. This April has so far produced 23 days with a ground frost with 12 nights of below 0°C or 32°F. In the last 11 years in April, we've had a total of 14 nights with temperatures falling below 0° so to have 12 nights this year is an indication of how cold this April has been.
All our tree fruit has blossomed through this period of cold frosty mornings. First out were the plums and greengages followed by the pear trees and finally the apple blossom
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| Apple - Fiesta |
As if the cold nights weren't enough to contend with the ground is now bone dry and some beds will have to wait for some rain before they can be dug over. April's rainfall has so far amounted to 1.6mm or less than 0.1in. The last day we had any rain of note was the 13th March and since then nothing other than very light showers.
Sowing seeds at the allotment is on hold at the moment waiting for an improvement in the weather conditions. There is some rain in the forecast for the next few days but it's likely to be of a showery nature so hopefully, we'll be lucky and catch a few. However, the forecast is for the temperature to remain below normal for at least the next 10 days. It's turning into a challenging year at the allotment.
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The rain has arrived here today, no doubt on its way south to you.
ReplyDeleteProper rain never made it to us. A couple of showers early evening amounted to 1.0mm. Total for the month now up to 2.6mm. No frost though!!
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