What showers

Once again we missed any showers that were about. It was the sort of day that always threatened showers and indeed some drops of rain fell in the afternoon. It’s what passes as rain here these days, just a trace of dampness in the air but not enough to register on the rain gauge which means less than 0.2mm.

I’ve grabbed my web cam images, stored by Weather Underground, at noon for most days in May. Some days don’t have images I’m not sure why.

One of my set tasks this year was to tidy up behind the greenhouse to try to make better use of the space. I've managed to finish this off now so we have a new little area to grow some extra crops. The area behind the greenhouse is sheltered from the worst of the westerly wind and is a veritable sun trap at times so some normally tender crops might grow well in this sheltered spot.

More growing space

We used to have raspberry canes growing on the fence which were removed a few years ago after producing tasty crops for many years. They were being smothered out by ivy growing through the fence from our neighbour. The ivy is impossible to remove as it's rooted into the fence. On the grounds that it’s good for the birds producing lots of berries for them in winter the ivy just gets cut back each summer in a vain attempt to keep it in check. It seems that the raspberries are not that easy to remove either and suckers are continually appearing in some cases well away from their original location. I noticed that some of the canes have some ripe berries. These I suppose are raspberry weeds. I’ll have to pick these before our blackbirds spot them.

Raspberry weeds

When will it next rain?

Monday was yet another dry day. The weather improved as the day went along with a dull and cloudy morning giving way to a very pleasant sunny afternoon. The forecasts for the next week seem to offer no hope of any proper rain just some showers if we are lucky. I think I even heard a mention of frost in rural areas.

Our early container grown potatoes having been moved out of the plot greenhouse are taking up lots of space outside the greenhouse and getting comments about how well the tops have grown. I thought it was about time to see if the roots lived up to the tops so one container was tipped into the wheel barrow and I sorted through the compost to collect the harvest. It was a pretty good harvest weighing in at 1.45kg.

Winston Potatoes

Amongst the watering and weeding I finished planting our tomato varieties into the plot greenhouse in the space left by the potatoes. The tomato plants are the best of my remaining plants and not necessarily the varieties I had planned. These are a mixture of Marizol Gold, Gardeners Delight, Moneymaker, German Red Strawberry and Blondkopfchen.

Tomatoes planted out June 2011

The challenge this year is to actually produce some tomatoes as last years' plot crop was a complete failure which I think was due to the quality of the compost used. At planting out stage there is little to choose between this year's and last year's plants.

Tomatoes planted out June 2010

Not so scorching

A disappointing Sunday. It was dull and grey all day with very little sunshine. A little bit of sunshine in the afternoon managed to improved things for a while but it was short lived.

I decided to clear out the nest box used by our blue tits as they only have one brood each year so will not be using the nest box again. I was amazed at the depth of the material in the nest box. I did have the unpleasant task of removing the one dead chick that was left in the nest box from fledging time.

Blue tit nest box ready for cleaning

Short lived scorcher

Saturday morning started off as though we were in for another scorcher but it didn't materialise as by lunch time the wind picked up moving into a cold north easterly direction bringing cloudy conditions. 

Runner beans - Painted Lady

Planting continued on the plot. All our plants are planted into holes that have been filled with water as the ground is very dry. These potatoes are starting to flower and I reckon the plants are struggling to find water and this may be resulting in them flowering prematurely as I expect the plants to be much more developed before they flower.

Potatoes - Maris Bard

Our bullfinch made a return to the bird table today to pick over the remains of sunflower seed left by the goldfinches. The light was fading a little, well that's my excuse this time for not getting a better picture.

Bullfinch on our bird table

Highest temperature of the year

Friday saw the highest temperature of the year just topping yesterday's figure to reach 25.1°C. I deliberately haven't termed it warmest day as Thursday's average temperature was slightly higher.

Cloudless sky

As it was such a pleasant day we did some gardening at home. During one of our many breaks for drinks we spotted a bullfinch visiting our bird table. This is the first bullfinch we've seen in our garden but it was only a fleeting visit and neither of us had a camera at the ready. It was a male and a very striking visitor. This is one photographed at RSPB Low Moor earlier in the year.

Male bullfinch

I also potted up some tomatoes and peppers in our "air pot" experiment. I saw these pots on BBC's Beechgrove Garden the other week and decided to give them a try following there successful trial in the programme last year. 

10 litre air pot

Click here for the link to the programme fact sheet describing how these air pots work to produce healthier and stronger plants.

It certainly was a scorcher!

Thursday was the warmest day of the year so far although I also recorded 24.7°C on the 23rd April this year. Thursday qualifies for the warmest day of the year as the average temperature over the whole day was 18.9°C compared with 15.8°C in April.

A scorcher on the plot

At least with the weather in this mood it was obvious that plants needed watering. I moved our early potatoes growing in bags out of the plot greenhouse to make way for our final tomato plants.

Maris Bard and Winston Potatoes

Here comes summer

Wednesday saw the start of June and the first day of summer meteorologically speaking. It turned out to be a good start with plenty of sunshine, mild but a bit breezy at times.

On the plot our Crimson Flowered broad beans are just starting to flower. The flowers are appearing on rather dwarf plants which I assume is due to lack of rainfall. Perhaps a good watering will help them along.

Crimson Flowered broad beans

We also have some interesting flowers (weeds) in our grass paths around our beds down on the plot.

Pretty grass path flower

It's flowering along with some buttercups on a very short stem just like the buttercups. It will be interesting to see if can cope with the close cropping it's going to get in the next few days when the path is mowed.

Back to sunny and breezy

On Tuesday it back to sunny breezy weather. Yesterday's rain hadn't penetrated far into the soil and the surface was dry once again. With no more rain on the horizon we decided to start transplanting our brassicas and courgettes into their final positions on the plot from our packed cold frame and greenhouse.

Late summer and winter brassicas planted out

The soil is extremely dry and each young brassica planting hole was filled with water before planting. These plants wouldn't have survived many more days in their restricted containers so we felt there best chance was to be planted out.

Courgettes Jemmer,  All Green Bush and Zucchini

These 3 courgettes were also planted out using much the same technique as the brassicas. Besides water each planting hole was enriched with some home made compost.