We're In A Dry Spell!

It seems rather hard to believe that at the moment we are in a dry spell of weather. I noticed a Met office article a few days ago now reporting how low the rainfall had been between October 2016 and the end of January 2017. They went as far as to suggest it was one of the driest on record for the time of year. We've been working down on the plot and it didn't seem all that dry.

Certainly the soil in the bed we were cultivating had a habit of sticking to our spades and forks as well as boots. The top of the soil was certainly very clinging but it didn't turn over too badly considering it's February. I decided to consult my weather figures to see if we were in a dry spell.

This chart suggests that we are in a dryish spell of weather as the average rainfall per month has been below average since October 2016, as reported by the Met Office. At the end of September 2016 we'd had more than 720mm of rainfall in the preceding 12 months compared to an expected rainfall of 620mm. By the end of January 2017 we were down to 583mm in the preceding 12 months. Our actual rainfall figures for each month are shown in the table below.

The forecasters are suggesting that our weather, over the next week or so, will be governed by a large area of high pressure sitting over Scandinavia probably meaning colder rather than wetter weather over the next few days.

Judging by the state of the soil on our allotment I don't think we need to worry about a drought just yet.

As Tuesday afternoon was reasonable mild I decided to take a little bit of video of our hellebores and snowdrops before we get any actual snow which may arrive in small amounts over the weekend.

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

Winter Brassica Issues

Last summer I ordered some brassica plants from one of the well known seed companies. The plants arrived around the expected date and they were potted up on arrival and planted out in the plot as soon as they were large enough.

Planted out 06 September 2016 (Aalsmeer  in foreground)

On my GrowVeg plan they looked like this

For good measure here is what the seed company had to say about each variety. Please ignore the top line regarding sweet Williams which just happened to be planted in the plot on the same day.

So far we haven't harvested anything from this bed.

I took a little bit of video of them on Sunday 05 February 2017 to check on their progress. It's not a pretty sight.

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

From the descriptions supplied some of these varieties should have matured whilst others still may produce a crop as we move into spring. Certainly the cauliflowers Moby Dick and Amsterdam didn't make it through the autumn and early winter weather and might as well be removed to the compost heap. I might try one of the smaller cabbages as some different winter greens for the dinner table would be welcome. I'm still hopeful that the cauliflowers North Foreland and Aalsmeer will produce some sort of crop over the next couple of months. So far though the results have been very disappointing.

We've another smaller bed of brassicas planted up from this collection. I'll have to look and see how they are performing.

Looking Brighter

It's been a mild damp start to February. Although we've had some rain each day it hasn't amounted to very much totalling only 6.6mm or 0.26in.

Temperatures and Rainfall Records 01-05 February 2017

All of a sudden we have flowers appearing in the garden. Those promising buds of a few days ago are now open.

Iris - Katharine Hodgkin

Iris - Joyce?

We've a few different varieties of iris in our front garden all coming into flower but they're not labelled and whilst we thought we knew which ones were which we are not at all sure now. Even knowing the names and comparing photos on the Internet doesn't help a great deal. It doesn't stop them from looking good and reminding us that spring is on its way even if we have to wait a few more weeks.

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

Huge Parsnips

Thursday equalled our mildest day of the year so far, as the temperature reached 11.6°C. However, it wasn't a particularly pleasant day as it remained overcast all day with spells of light drizzle in the breeze. It didn't actually rain though.

Temperature Records for 02 February 2017

Even though it wasn't that brilliant a day we decided on a visit to the plot. We're in the process of refurbishing our perennial flower border and we needed some more fresh vegetables. We managed to pick some sprouts and dig up parsnips and carrots as well as doing a little bit more work on our perennial flower bed.

Brussel sprouts - Crispus, carrots - Autumn King, and parsnips - Gladiator

Even though some of our parsnips have forked it doesn't affect the taste at all and each root provides plenty of parsnip to eat. They can be a bit difficult to get out of the ground without doing too much damage to the root as the video below shows.

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

Promise of Things to Come

January 2017 finished the driest January I've recorded over the last eight years. It didn't seem a particularly dry month to me as we had lots of dull damp days when the ground never dried up even though it never actually rained much. Temperature wise it finished around average for recent Januarys at 4.7°C (40.5°F) ranking 4th coldest out of eight years. Although the month was predominantly governed by high pressure systems giving us relatively calm and settled conditions the storm with no name on the 11 January gave us a new record January wind speed of 41mph.

February has started on a milder note but with the threat of gale force winds into Friday and over the weekend. Although I always think that we usually get the coldest weather in February there are promising signs of things to come in the garden.

Snowdrops

Hellebore

Our first "spring" flowers will hopefully be out over the next few days.

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

"Great Garden Birdwatch"

Well I'm not sure I'd want to count ours as the "Great Garden Birdwatch". We've done this bird count for the last few years and we are always amazed by the lack of birds in the garden when the count is due. Do they know that it's better for them if numbers are low and they get some widespread publicity about helping them out.

The menu on offer for the count was no different to any other day some standard bird seed, peanuts, niger seed, black sunflowers, sunflower hearts, suet pellets, fat balls, Golden Chorus and some dried meal worms.

This sparrow felt rather ashamed and didn't want to be identified lest he should be singled out for special attention having eaten in our garden on birdwatch day.

Thankfully though it was the sparrows who turned up in numbers. I think we do our best to keep a little flock of house sparrows fed through the year. They are happy to sit in the crab apple tree and wait their turn on the feeder which only has perching room for a couple of birds.

We managed six blackbirds. They're a little bit like the sparrows in their habits except they prefer to eat from the bird table taking it in turns to fly from tree to table for a feast of buggy nibbles.

Some of our other regular visitors decided to stay away. Normally we hear the starlings squabbling on the bird table as they try to find a space to land. Some take refuge on the window sill until they can push their way onto the bird table. How many did we have for the big count a grand total of five.

Even more amazingly we had one long tailed tit and one goldfinch. Since when do either of these birds go around in ones. The answer is only when it's garden birdwatch day.

Anyway it's over for another year now so the birds will be able to return to their normal routines. In our garden we have to be very glad of the little brown birds.

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

Potato Chitting

It wasn't too bad a weekend for the end of January. We had some sunny spells mixed in with a little bit of light rain but the rain didn't amount to much. It was still a little bit on the cold side as we wait for the warmer Atlantic weather systems to arrive through the week ahead.

We headed for the garden centre on Sunday to select our trial seed potatoes for the coming season. They've been placed in the summerhouse to chit before they are planted out in late March or early April.

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

A Cold Week But We've Some Seed Potatoes

It's certainly been a cold week even allowing for the fact it's late January.

Temperature Records 22-28 January 2017

Although Thursday didn't have the keenest frost of the week, it did have the lowest average daily temperature of the month just managing to creep up into positive territory at 0.2°C or 32.4°F. Friday didn't do much better averaging 0.3°C which is 32.5°F. Friday night into Saturday morning brought to an end a run of six consecutive nights of sub zero temperatures. That last happened in January 2012.

The first part of our potato buying plan came to fruition on Thursday with a visit to our local (Horticentre) garden centre where we found our seven planned carefully chosen main varieties.

There's a little bit of space left at the bottom of the table as we plan a return visit at the weekend when the garden centre has its annual potato day event. We plan to purchase enough tubers of six different varieties to fill one of our smaller beds.

This is how our small bed of testers looked last year at the end of June. We are hoping to do something similar this year to see if we can fine some different varieties to grow. Last year Armour was one of our testers and it did well enough for it to be added to this year's main crop. I've just emptied the sack of last year's Armour crop which was stored in the garage since being lifted in the middle of August last year.

From the look of these there doesn't seem to be a problem with the keeping qualities of this variety. Our seed potatoes for this season have joined last year's crop of potatoes stored in the garage. They've gone into a potato sack and they will be stored in the dark and hopefully frost free garage until the end of February when they will be set out to chit in the greenhouse.

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