Better but Still Needs to Improve

Sunday’s weather did improve on Saturday’s and we even had a little bit of sunshine late in the afternoon.

The morning was dull again but by about lunchtime it was starting to dry up a little. Then the showery rain started and lasted on and off through the afternoon until it brightened up for a short while then more rain arrived late into the evening.

In the morning I’d investigated the data stored by my weather station to see if it could give me some figures to rank really dull days in order. I already have a little extra program to calculate how many hours of sunshine are recorded each day. However, we have plenty of days when this value is zero as we obviously have plenty of days without sunshine.

My weather station also calculates the total amount of solar energy falling on a horizontal surface which is called Global solar exposure.

Global solar exposure is the total amount of solar energy falling on a horizontal surface. The daily global solar exposure is the total solar energy for a day. Typical values for daily global solar exposure range from 1 to 35 MJ/m2 (megajoules per square metre). The values are usually highest in clear sun conditions during the summer, and lowest during winter or very cloudy days.

Reference Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology

I'm presuming the minimum value of 1 MJ/m2 is during daylight hours as this value is obviously 0 MJ/m2 during the hours of darkness. So using this value I've plotted the figures out for all the days in October that my weather station has been operating. The best thing is not to worry about the units just consider that a value of 0 means it’s dark and a value of 35 represents a brilliantly sunny day in Australia. 

Using this as a guide then Saturday was the dullest October day I’ve recorded with a “Martyn’s Dullness Rating” of 0.4. At the top of the rating is 01 October 2011 with a value of 10.2 which coincided with 5.7hrs of sunshine and a temperature of 28.5°C.

I also did a quick check on the sort of maximum values I would record in summer so I checked out the figures for July 2013. The highest value was 22.7 on 09-July-2013 with 9.4 hours of sunshine. Out of interest the lowest value was 04-July-2013 at 4.6 on a day when no sunshine was recorded.

So far Saturday is the dullest day I have on record but I suspect once I've calculated the values for the winter months with their shorter daylight hours I will come up with a smaller value.

I’d now like the weather to improve so that we can continue tidying up in the garden and down on the plot. 

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

Drab Doesn't Describe It

Saturday was dull, very dull, it hardly got light all day. We didn't even get a bit of a let up with any brighter spells as the sky gave the appearance that it was about to tip it down with rain at any minute. Strangely enough we had very little rain. It drizzled all morning with a few heavier burst in the afternoon but the whole lot only came to 1.0mm by the end of the day.

As you can see from Saturday’s sunshine charts it hardly managed to add any yellow onto the chart at all. I should be able to report that it was the dullest October day I’ve recorded in the four years my weather station has been recording data but I can't at the moment.

The forecast for the next few days doesn't look like very good gardening weather so I might investigate how I can work out the sunniest and dullest days we've had for each month. I reckon that Saturday will almost certainly turn out to be one of our dullest October days in the last four years.

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

Apple Harvest Completed

Thursday and Friday’s weather was pretty naff with a gale force cold north easterly wind and a few blustery showers interspersed with a few sunny spells on Thursday. The only real difference on Friday was the wind lost some of its strength and we didn't see any sunshine. The temperature managed only 11°C on Thursday and 13°C on Friday. Autumn has arrived.

Temperatures have dropped sharply through the week and the wind direction has moved from a mild westerly to cold north easterly.

At least we managed to get all our apples picked but some are still in boxes awaiting a suitable storage location.

Despite the very late spring this year when the apples were around three weeks later than normal coming into flower we've had a heavier crop than 2012. Our younger apple trees on the plot, planted in 2008, have probably produced their best crops so far. The older trees as is normal have had their good and bad years.

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

A Feel of Autumn

The well forecast change to more autumnal weather turned out to be correct as Wednesday was a much cooler breezier day than we’ve been used to and we had a few light squally showers around lunchtime. The temperature only managed 14.2°C rather than the high teens we've been having recently but unfortunately that’s about what we should expect for early October. We've just been spoilt by the excellent weather of the last week or so.

Yesterday if you read Sue’s post Happiness is you saw the pictures now view the video of those little piglets we watched on our break in Somerset.

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

The Season’s Final Bumper Harvest

Tuesday was another lovely mild sunny day. It became breezy and cloudy late afternoon a sign perhaps of the change in the weather to come.

We decided to visit the plot to do a little bit more tidying up and as the forecast is for much colder and windier weather for the rest of the week we decided to harvest our squashes and the last of our Golden Delicious apples.

You might spot that there are a few oddments in the boxes which are obviously nothing like a Golden Delicious apple. As we inherited these cordon apples trees many years ago now we've had to do our best to identify the apples they produce. Our best guess so far is that these other apples may be Laxton’s Superb but whatever variety the tree never produces a very heavy crop. Perhaps it doesn’t like my pruning method. Our Golden Delicious crop weighed in at an impressive 13.25kg giving us a bit of a problem of deciding on the best storage method to use.

Last year we didn't have any winter squashes as we didn't manage to get a single seed to germinate. This year we had no germination problems and our young squash plants, six each of three different varieties, were planted out on 18 June through weed control fabric. Since then they've been left to their own devices with very little attention. No weeding between the plants has been needed and the plants more than filled their allotted space making a break for freedom across the service road running around the allotment site. 

Crown Prince has without doubt been the star performer producing 12 squashes weighing in at 41.8kg, with our Vegetable Spaghetti producing 11 squashes weighing 22.2kg. Lagging behind is Futsu Black a variety we're trying for the first time this year which produced 7 fruits weighing in at 11.6kg.

It was a case of loading up the car carefully so that we could get our harvest and gardening equipment back home. 

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

A Short Break in Somerset

We had a little break away in Somerset from Thursday to Sunday. Luckily for us the weather was very good for most of the time. It poured down for most of the journey down to Taunton on Thursday morning and continued for most the afternoon but it did eventually stop. Friday, Saturday and Sunday just got better with more sunshine and warmer each day.

On Friday we had a trip on the West Somerset Railway as they were holding their autumn Cambrian Railways Gala.

On our journey from Bishops Lydeard to Minehead two preserved steam locomotives 7822 Foxcote Manor and 7812 Erlestoke Manor hauled the train through the Quantock Hills to the seaside resort of Minehead.

On Saturday we visited Dunster Castle a National Trust property. The garden has a sub tropical feel to it and was still very lush even in early October. The castle sits on the top of a wooded hill and allows impressive panoramic views over the surrounding countryside.

On Sunday morning we visited Barrington Court a beautiful old manor house and another property looked after by the National Trust. It has its own orchards and working kitchen garden which supplies the restaurant with fruit and vegetables. 

The flower gardens were designed in consultation with Gertrude Jekyll and had a special autumnal look to them in the bright morning sunshine still with a heavy dew on the grass late into the morning. 

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

Freezing

Fortunately it wasn't the weather that was freezing it was the job of getting our tomatoes, pears and apples sorted and frozen. The weather was dull and mild all day. The sun didn't manage to make an appearance.

After what seems to be a long dry spell we are expecting some rain over the next couple of days before the weather improves for the weekend. It will be most welcome especially down on the plot where I've put autumn digging on hold as the soil is very dry and doesn't break up when turned over but just remains in large clods which dry even harder finishing up like pieces of brick.

Hopefully we'll get a decent amount of rainfall and then I’ll be able to continue digging over the last few beds before any really bad winter weather sets in.

The first of our winter onions has germinated sending up a new green shoot. It’s a Sensyu Yellow and was only planted on 21 September. We now need a few of its friend to get the hint and make some roots ready for winter.

Our cyclamen on the plot are now forming large clumps and are producing some exceptionally pretty displays at the moment. They seem to readily spread in the flower beds on the plot where the ground isn't continually dug over. They also enjoy growing in the grass beneath the fruit trees and although they occasionally get an accidental strimming they soon come back ready for more. 

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

Dry for Gardeners

Weather wise there’s not been much change over the last few days as in general morning cloud has broken up to give a sunny afternoon.

It’s been a dry month though with only 32.4mm of rainfall against an expected 58.3mm just over half what we'd get in an average September. Following on from a slightly drier than normal August it’s meant watering newly planted onion sets together with wallflowers, sweet Williams, dog daisies and sweet rocket. 

We’re pleased with our wallflowers which are looking good even though the ground is dry. We are hoping for a good display next spring.

Temperature wise the month will turn out to be a bit below average at 13.6°C against a long term average of 14.4°C. We certainly haven’t had any really cold nights and we're still managing to harvest crops on the plot.

Last year by the middle of August we’d picked the last of our sweet peas but this year they’re still producing some nice cut flowers. How much of that is down to the weather conditions and how much is due to the fact they've been grown through weed control fabric this year I wouldn't like to say. Although it’s been dry they haven't been treated to a drink for many weeks now. 

Lets hope this October turns out better than last year’s which was on the cold side and finished up the coldest since 1992.

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