A Gardener's Weather Diary

Thursday, 28 May 2015

Wettest Month This Year

Wednesday was a dull, cool day with a little light rain around teatime. Although we didn’t have a great deal of rain, a few more showers early on Thursday morning have brought May’s total up to 62.2mm (2.45”) making it the wettest month of 2015.

There doesn’t seem to be much of an improvement in the forecast for the remainder of the month so May looks like finishing up a bit wetter, cooler and windier than we might expect. Let’s hope that June brings an improvement.

Wednesday, 27 May 2015

Starting Again

We had a decent amount of sunshine on Tuesday but it didn’t do a great deal for the temperature which managed 17.4°C (63.3°F).

We sowed our carrot seeds on 21 April and by the middle of May germination had been good and our seedlings were doing well.

Rather dangerously we thought that everything was fine but then a few days ago we noticed that all our lovely carrot seedlings had disappeared between visits.

Nothing remained apart from a couple of seedlings and even these had been nibbled showing the tell-tale damaged caused by slugs. There was no other option but to re-sow another batch of carrots.

This time the ground has been treated with Nemaslug in an attempt to control this pest.

Slug nematodes are microscopic transparent worms which feed and multiply inside the slug, not visible with a hand lens. Just dilute with water and water on.

An infected slug stops feeding within 3 to 5 days and then displays a typical swelling of the mantle. The nematodes multiply inside the slug and when it starts to decompose, a new generation of nematodes emerges.

http://www.gardening-naturally.com/

I’m hoping that by the time our new seedlings emerge the nematodes will be doing their job and reducing the slug population.

Tuesday, 26 May 2015

Making Space

Disappointingly Saturday afternoon’s fine weather didn’t last for the holiday weekend which turned out to be a cloudy cool affair. On both days we had a little bit of sunshine late into the afternoon. Sunday felt especially chilly and it wasn’t until around 18:00 that the temperature suddenly rose to 16.3°C (61.3°F) and it became the warmest it had been over the two days.

Temperature and Sunshine Saturday 23 - Monday 25 May 2015

On Monday I decided it was time to make some space in the home greenhouse for our main crop tomato plants. These have been growing quickly now and need to be moved into some grow bags before they become pot bound.

This meant that lots of things had to be planted out in the garden or moved into one of our two cold frames. These are now full to bursting.

With just a little bit more sorting out I’ll have space for three growbags of tomatoes in the greenhouse. Somehow I want to incorporate some mini cucumbers in this space too. I’ve still to decide which varieties of tomatoes to plant in our home greenhouse and which will grown in our plot greenhouse.

All I need to do now is find some suitable growbags. I might try a different “variety” this year after problems with my plants for the last couple of years.

Sunday, 24 May 2015

A Matinee Performance

After a fairly cloudy start on Saturday morning most of the clouds dispersed for the afternoon giving us a lovely warm sunny afternoon with just a gentle breeze. The temperature reached 20.3°C (68.5°F) in the afternoon only the second time this month we’ve reached the dizzy heights of 20°C or more. Surprising our warmest day of the year is still the 10 April with 21.3°C (70.3°F)some 43 days ago.

On the plot things are at last starting to grow away a little bit. I think we might have a few plums although most seem to be at the top of the tree.

A zoom lens helps to see our plumlets but it won’t be much help when it comes to picking them. Our greengages have also set a small amount of fruitlets at a much more reachable height than the plums.

Our main flower border on the plot which is in desperate need of some attention due to the amount of couch grass growing in it still manages to produce some lovely flowers. You just don’t have to look at the grass amongst them.

It will be a challenge to sort out this bed without loosing some of the mature plants growing in it.

Saturday, 23 May 2015

Calm Down!

Thursday and Friday weren’t anything special weather wise for late May. Thursday was sunnier but Friday was milder reaching around average temperature.

If you’ve read many of my posts over the last six months you’ll no doubt have noted that many of my weather summaries include descriptions of windy weather including gale force, strong breeze, gusty winds and so on. So here’s a couple of charts showing how windy it’s been over the last six months.

This shows each month side by side so it’s easy to see which have been the windiest Decembers for example. It turns out that December 2014 was the windiest December I’ve recorded and it’s the same story for January, March and May this year. February and April haven't been a great deal better as they’ve turned out to be the second windiest on a month by month comparison.

The second chart shows the wind speeds in chronological order from January 2011 and it’s easy to spot the windiest times of the year. It also shows how we’ve had consistently windy weather for the last six months. Unless we’re in for something very unusual the months of June through to October aren’t particularly windy months. Let’s hope this year doesn’t turn out to be the exception.

Thursday, 21 May 2015

Tomato Trials

Wednesday was another day of blustery winds and although it was warmer than Tuesday the temperature remained lower than normal.

I’ve now got two tomato trials on the go. The first started some time ago which was to try to get some early tomatoes by growing on some plants on a sunny window ledge indoors compared to growing the same varieties in the greenhouse. The time has arrived for all the plants to grow on together in the greenhouse. Hopefully any cold and frosty nights are behind us now.

I’m guessing you won’t have any problems deciding which plant of Baby Boomer was grown in the greenhouse and which wasn’t. Indoors the plants has reached a rather leggy height of 550mm (22”) whilst the greenhouse tomato has produced a much more stocky plant about half the height. But the purpose isn't to produce the best plant but some early tomatoes.

The greenhouse plant is starting to produce some flowers but the indoor plant already has a small tomato set from the first truss of flowers.

I’m now going to try to concentrate all the efforts of this plant into producing fruit and leave only a couple of flower trusses as well as keeping all the side shoots removed. For comparison purposes I’ll do the same with the plant grown in the greenhouse.

The second tomato trial has only really just started. I’ve been given a seedling of a new tomato from Suttons Seeds called Crimson Crush. Its main claim to fame is that it’s completely blight resistant as well as producing slightly larger than average tomatoes which taste good too.

I have to admit that at the moment it doesn’t look the same as a normal tomato plant. The leaves look like you’d expect but it doesn’t yet seem to be growing a main stem. We shall see how it grows on. To give it a test it will be planted outside on the plot next to a few other varieties to check its blight resistance should the dreaded disease attack this year. It normally does and it the reason we’ve stopped trying to grow tomatoes outside on the plot. Will this variety prove to be a solution to our problem?

Wednesday, 20 May 2015

At Least April’s Arrived!

Tuesday was much more like April than mid to late May. It was cold and breezy with showers interspersed with some sunny spells.

In that heavy shower around 11:00 in the morning the temperature fell to 7.6°C (45.7°F)

Once again the day’s high temperature was disappointing reaching only 13.4°C or 56.1°F. I decided to look back over the last five years of records to see if it was particularly unusual to have a cold spell at this time of year. It turns out it’s not even our coldest May 19th as in 2012 the high temperature was a very cold 8.7°C (47.7°F) making Tuesday pretty balmy in comparison.

Lets hope it starts to get a little bit milder soon.

Tuesday, 19 May 2015

Getting There

There wasn't much improvement in the weather on Monday. It was a showery and blustery day with temperatures below average for mid May with a high of only 13.2°C (55.8°F).

A little bit more progress was made in the Cold Frame Courtyard. The weed control fabric was fixed to the bottom of the fence and the decking boards were fixed in place.