Let There Be Light

Tuesday was a mostly cloudy day with just a few brief glimpses of the sun.

In our home greenhouse our grape vine Himrod has taken over without me noticing. It’s probably contributed to our tomatoes not performing too well or at least not set too many fruits as the plants have grown well enough.

It doesn’t just take over inside the greenhouse it escapes through the windows and forces vines through the smallest gap between the greenhouse frame and glass. I decided enough was enough and got the secateurs out to it.

I didn’t want to loose any of the bunches of grapes which will be ripening over the next few weeks if we’re lucky enough to get some sunshine so a certain amount of care was required when hacking into the mass of shoots.

I finished up with a pretty large heap of vine leaves. At least the plants in the greenhouse will get a bit more light now and any sunshine we do get should find its way to our bunches of green grapes.

Lots Still to Plant Out

Monday’s weather was Sunday’s in reverse. It started off dull and cloudy with just some light rain mid morning before brightening up into a warm and sunny afternoon.

It might be the middle of August but we still seem to have a burgeoning cold frame full of plants waiting to be planted out.

We’ve a mixture of flowers and vegetables still to be planted out before winter comes. All the plants in the cold frame at the minute have been grown in New Horizon peat free multipurpose compost and have really grown exceptionally well in this compost. I have been giving the seedlings a weak liquid feed at each watering using either Miracle Gro or Maxicrop Seaweed Extract.

Our winter pansies are already coming into flower.

　

Disappointing

Firstly the weather was a disappointment today. It stated off sunny and warm giving the promise of a lovely summer’s day but it didn't materialise. Instead by mid morning it had clouded over followed by some very light rain around lunch time and continuing into the afternoon.

Our plum crop too has been disappointing this year. We’ve now harvested all our Oullins Gage plums. Certainly this tree always seems prone to a bountiful year followed by a poor year but I reckon this year’s poor crop is a little exceptional.

On the left is a picture of just a part of last year’s harvest which weighed in at 47.2Kg (104.1 lbs). On the right is this year’s harvest apart from the two plums we ate during a coffee break one afternoon when checking to see if they were ripe. They were delicious! This year’s harvest comes to just 1.9kg (4.2 lbs). None of this year’s plums got anywhere near the freezer.

Best Harvest of the Season

Despite the furore on TV it wasn't our warmest day of the year that record is still held by 28 May when the temperature reached 28.0°C. Saturday managed 25.7° equalling the warmest day this month with 14 August when we a similar temperature.

Without doubt it was our best harvesting day of the season on the plot.

Early Broad Beans

Friday was warm and breezy but without much sunshine. We had a few light showers throughout the day.

Last year we attempted to grow some peas over winter to produce an early spring crop. It didn’t work as although the peas germinated well in the autumn they didn’t survive winter. So this year we’re giving Broad Beans “Bunyards Exhibition” a try. To be honest the seeds came free with a gardening magazine so I thought I might as well give it a go.

The packet suggests sowing outdoors in October and November which sounds rather late to me as broad bean seeds always seem to take a long time to germinate. I can’t image them germinating very well sown direct in the plot in October so I’m giving them a head start in life by sowing them now in modules and leaving these in the greenhouse to germinate.

This is the only molly codling they’re going to get. Once planted out on the plot I'm leaving them to their own devices to get through winter without any protection. They can’t do any worse than the peas!

Was That a Parrot in the Plum Tree?

After Wednesday’s rain the more summery weather of late returned for Thursday to produce a warm, dry sunny day with the temperature into the mid twenties.

I went down to the plot in the evening mainly to give our greenhouse tomatoes a drink. There was no one else on the site at this time and as I got out of the car I could hear an unusual bird sound coming from somewhere in our plum tree. I approached the tree as quietly as possible with my camera at the ready.

At this distance I could just make out a brightly coloured bird chirping away in the upper branches of the tree. I didn't want to move in closer for fear of frightening it away so it was up to maximum zoom with the camera. My garden bird identification skills don’t extend to exotics so can anyone tell me what type of bird this is?

Obviously an escapee from an aviary as although the weather’s been better recently it certainly hasn't been tropical. As soon as I moved off so did the parrot. Lucky I had the camera to record this one off event. So it was on with watering the tomatoes. 

I just couldn't resist picking these Gardener’s Delight our first ripe tomatoes of the season. Sadly there’s only one other tomato showing any sign at all of turning red!

Another Rain Record for 2012

This year had now taken all the rainfall records apart from the driest month. June this year recorded the most rain in a month, July the wettest day and now Wednesday took the highest rainfall intensity record with 151.6mm/hr at 17:02.

All these records can be checked out here.

Wednesday hadn’t started off too badly with some sunshine first thing, before it clouded over mid morning followed by some light rain early in the afternoon. Then around tea time came the deluge.

Luckily for us it didn’t last for long.

On the plot Tuesday I watered in our newly planted lettuce plants and gave our recently planted winter brassicas some water. If only I’d known what was to come I needn’t have bothered - but that’s gardening for you.

August’s Hottest Day So Far

The weather over the last few days had turned a little disappointing after last weeks warm and sunny days. We've had dwindling amounts of sunshine and a dropping off of temperatures but Wednesday changed that, as after a bit of cloud first thing in the morning the cloud disappeared leaving a sunny and hot afternoon producing the hottest day of the month with the temperature reaching 25.7°C. 

We did make a plot visit in the afternoon but unusually for this year it was a little too hot for doing anything too strenuous so we settled for planting some lettuces, doing a little bit of harvesting and lifting the first of this year’s shallots.

We planted a variety of lettuces using up some off-cuts of weed suppressant membrane to once again try to cut down on the amount of weeding needed.

Over the few dry, warm and sunny days these Picasso shallots have dried off well and have been lifted to clean up and store over winter.