Jam spread Thinly

Wednesday wasn't too bad with some sunny intervals, a bit of a blustery wind and mostly dry.

The first part of my jam tomorrow post was the rain forecast for Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning. It did rain but only enough to wet the surface of the ground and it definitely wasn't enough to do any serious watering of the garden or allotment with a total of just 3.4mm. 

Chart starting at midnight Tuesday 02 July

The second part of my jam tomorrow referred to the build up of high pressure over the UK giving us some fine sunny weather. That forecast still holds good for the next few days.

It looks likely that this spell is more than likely to produce our warmest day of the year so far. That record stands at 23.3°C on 19 June.

With the rainfall not really materialising and some good summer weather on the way it looks like more of this will be required. 

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

Hedging My Bets

Tuesday wasn't a particularly good day as July days go. It was cloudy all day with some light drizzle starting mid afternoon and continuing into the evening. Mustn't complain about the rain though as both the plot and garden need a good watering.

A good number of years ago I was given some laurel seedlings by a good friend at work on the grounds I could give them a good home. They were planted at the plot to try to give some shelter from prevailing winds. This windbreak has got a little out of control and was in need of some serious pruning.

The laurel hedge and kiwi have become entangled. There should be a path between the two leading up to our cherry tree. Severe pruning began this afternoon to rediscover the path and bring a semblance of order back to both the kiwi and laurel.

I made some good progress hacking through the growth before the drizzle brought a premature end to the job. I must admit I wasn't too disappointed as my arms did ache a little bit after all the pruning. I've pruned round all the sides but still have to level off the top and do a little bit of tidying up.

I've now got an impressive pile of laurel clipping to deal with. It’s nearly all softwood but I might find enough amongst this lot for some shortish pea sticks. 

We're still trying to decide whether or not to make some elderflower cordial. Some of the flowers we will need to use can be seen to the left of the photograph so we will have to make our minds up quickly.

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

Jam Tomorrow!

Monday didn’t get July off to such an impressive start. There was a blustery breeze all day taking the edge off the temperature (17.8°C) but we did  get some sunny spells and it remained dry.

After a dry June when we had just 50% of our normal rainfall for the month the forecast is for rain overnight into Wednesday.

Some rain would be very welcome for both the garden and plot.

The forecast is for high pressure to build over the UK by next weekend bringing warm or even hot weather by Saturday and lasting into the following week.

Will the forecasts be right. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what we get.

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

Difficult Digging

The weekend wasn't too bad, reasonably mild with some sunny periods but with a persistently strong breeze blowing most of the time.

On the plot I had one last bed to dig over ready for some peas and french beans. This bed had grown potatoes last year and had been well dug over in autumn when the potatoes were lifted. Any weeds that had grown over winter and early spring had been cleared a couple of weeks ago. Although it’s been a dry month I didn't anticipate it would be too difficult to prepare this bed. How wrong I was. I'd anticipated giving it a quick tilling but once I got the machine working I realised the ground had become too hard for the tiller to work. There wasn't much else for it so I dug the bed by hand. 

It was hard going with the soil remaining in large dry clods as it was turned over. A dry June had certainly had an effect.

Even a few hefty blows with the back of the fork didn't do much to break up the ground and it definitely wasn't a fine tilth suitable for planting into. Fortunately though my tiller does act as a pretty good sort of harrow at breaking up this sort of soil. After several passes with it I managed to get the soil into what I considered a suitable condition for planting. 

I raked in some fish blood and bone fertiliser before the bed was covered with weed control fabric ready for planting our Onward pot grown peas.

As we've no rain forecast over the next week it’s probably just as well I've no more beds to dig over on the plot. It looks like serious watering is going to be required.

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

Strange Sort of a Day

Friday was a strange day with some rain through the morning clearing away by lunchtime. Outside it felt muggy even though there was a strong to almost gale force wind blowing at times. We didn't get the amount of rain I expected from the forecast with just 2.6mm bringing the monthly total up to 26.4mm around half the amount we might expect in June.

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

And Finally….

Thursday was mostly dull. Light drizzly rain started just after lunchtime and continued into the early evening but produced a total of only 0.8mm of rainfall, hardly enough to wet the top of the soil.

It wasn't too bad though, for finally planting up the plot greenhouse with its summer tomato plants. As the dull weather kept the outside temperature down it wasn't too warm working in the greenhouse out of the drizzle.

We planted up five large growbags. Each one  has a different variety of tomato. Working around the greenhouse in a clockwise direction these are Sioux, Alicante, Brandy Boy Hybrids, Pink Wonder and Amish Gold. So far I’ve just about managed to keep a track of the sowing, germination times, potting on and planting up times for our tomato plants. I’d like to complete this by keeping cropping dates and quantities along with some sort of tastiness rating of each variety.

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

How’s the Month Doing

Wednesday was another decent sort of a day until around tea time when dark clouds appeared as though it was going to absolutely tip it down. It never did though.

So with June coming to an end I've had a look at how the month has been doing weather wise. Temperatures look as though they will finish up a little below normal but certainly warmer than last June.

We haven't had any temperature extremes this month in fact it’s been the coolest June high temperature I've recorded if you understand my meaning.

It’s been a dry month so far with only 23.0mm of rainfall against a typically expected 55.2mm. However we are forecast heavy rain for Friday so this could easily change. Our rainfall  up to the 26 June is shown below.

A good downpour certainly wouldn't do the garden or plot any harm.

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

Ready for Plot Tomatoes

Tuesday was the better of the two days with the temperature managing to make it to 20°C with some decent sunny spells. We did have a chilly start to Tuesday with an overnight low of just 8.9°C. Monday was cool and cloudy.

I've at last sorted out our plot greenhouse ready for some tomato plants. It’s a little bit late but I'm hoping for a good late crop.

The tomatoes have been growing on in large pots at home so I'm intending to transfer them into some grow bags in the next few days. I thought I was rather late last year planting up the plot greenhouse which I did on 11 June 2012. We had a decent crop last year so I'll find out what difference a couple of weeks make.

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