We’ve had plenty more rain through the first week of April. The amount so far is 25mm or around 1″ and about half a month’s rainfall. That wouldn’t normally be too much of a problem, but as the ground was already well saturated at the end of March, more rainfall hasn’t helped any drying out of the ground at the allotment.
Normally at this time of the year, we try to decide on the correct timing for sowing and planting all sorts of seeds. There’s no scientific basis for the decisions it is all based on experience and some guesswork regarding the weather. February has seemed like a wet month even though rainfall has been about average. It’s due to all the rainfall coming in the form of showers resulting in some rainfall on most days.
It did set me thinking that perhaps the first three months of the year have been particularly wet but, as you can see from the charts, that’s not the case.
It looks like it will be another weekend with very little work done on the plot. The weather continues in an unpleasant mode with a mixture of sunshine and showers accompanied by some strong to gale-force winds. It’s not that we’ve had a tremendous amount of rain through the week but we don’t seem to be able to manage more than a dry day at a time. We haven’t done any work on preparing beds for planting since last September.
It’s been another miserable week weatherwise, with more showery rain and dull overcast days. Saturday morning broke the rules with some lovely sunshine but it only lasted until lunchtime. For a few hours, it felt like a different world after what seemed like months of gloomy weather.
At home, a south facing window acts as a plant recovery centre. It’s used mainly to get our tenderest plants through winter but it’s a good place to get cuttings rooted when it’s too cold in the greenhouse. Last year I took some cuttings of a weeping fig and they’ve now grown into some decent-sized plants but along with the weeping fig, a couple of fern plants have appeared. The fern plants gave the impression that they would take over, so I decided to see if I could repot and remove them.
The start of the weekend produced our first dry day for 14 days. We’ve had some amount of rainfall each day from the 8th to the 23rd of the month.
The problem hasn’t been due to excessive amounts of rain. Lots of the rainfall we’ve had has been as showers. It’s more the fact that the rainfall that has fallen hasn’t had time to dry up. I’m sure some areas will have had larger amounts of rainfall than us.
It’s that time of the year when social media posts are full of “should I start sowing some seeds or is it too early?” There’ll be pictures of long leggy seedlings and people asking what to do with them. Of course, the answer is far from simple and depends on where you live in the country. The trick is knowing the dates of the last frosts where you live. Once you have managed to germinate your seeds where will you be able to grow them until the danger of frost is finished?
I've been busy making gardening videos and have rather neglected writing any blog posts about the weather.
So how did 2023 finish up for us? Well in general 2023 is supposed to have been the hottest, warmest year ever but in our little neck of the woods that wasn't the case. 2023 wasn't even the runner-up, that place went to 2014 with 2022 holding on to the number one spot and 2023 coming third equal with 2011.
The weather in June was gorgeous for taking Ruby on long walks at Temple Newsam, Rothwell Park and Nostell Priory. A few days were particularly warm and we decided on evening walks for Ruby once the heat of the day had died down. Indeed this June turned out to be the warmest since I started keeping records in 2010.
April’s weather hasn’t been all that good for gardening. Last week was on the wet side and the result is that the allotment needs a few days of dry weather before any more beds can be dug over.
So far March has been a disappointing month weather wise. It started off cold before turning cold and snowy. The last week has been on the wet side.
Temperatures for the last week have been all over the place.
Posts
All Comments
