Teasing Us!

Thursday continued the spell of dull and cloudy weather but Good Friday was the best day of the year so far. The temperature reached 15.3°C in the afternoon. With plenty of sunshine and a gentle breeze it was very pleasant. However, the forecast for the weekend is for unsettled weather with outbreaks of rain which means Good Friday’s weather was only a teaser to let us know how nice it can be in March.

Temperature and Sunshine Records 23-25 March 2016

The good weather on Friday allowed us to make a start on tidying up the plot and get some ground ready for planting our first crops in the next few weeks.

The first task was to get all our grass paths strimmed. At least with that done the plot looks a bit more cared for. I didn’t get all the bed edges trimmed as I forgot to take the edging tool down to the plot. These two beds might need digging over before planting. The top bed will be planted up with our early brassicas which, at the moment, are growing on in modules in the home greenhouse. The bed in the foreground is for our early potatoes.

I also managed to finish cutting down of our large conifer tree.

It’s made a large amount of debris though but much of it will be reused on the plot. It made three large trunks which are a bit like mini telegraph poles with kinks in them. Lots of the smaller side branches will make pea sticks leaving just green leaves to be left to rot down and use as a mulch on the blueberries.

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

Desirable One Bedroom Properties to Let

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were dull and cloudy continuing the current spell of dry weather. The temperature reached about expected for mid to late March but without the sunshine it didn’t feel very spring like.

At least on Tuesday I got our bird boxes cleaned out and ready for any new occupants this year.

Last year we had a pretty poor occupancy rate for our nest boxes. In total we have 2 sparrow terraces, like the one above, with apartments for 3 pairs of birds in each terrace. Then we have 2 single nest boxes with cameras. One is set up as a robin or possible blackbird box as it has the front removed.

This is our main box with a wired camera but so far over the couple of years we’ve had it it’s had no takers. Last year a couple of great tits deserted the box after a few weeks of spending nights roosting inside.

This was the only nest I found which was either made by a blue tit or great tit which had been built in the far end terrace of one of our sparrow boxes.

Of course, the birds don’t always make use of the properties we make available for them. Last year we had a robin which nested somewhere to the back of our garage possibly making a nest in a camellia bush. A blackbird made a nest up in the courtyard garden in the ivy which grows on the fence.

I’m not sure whether I should have removed this old nest or not. I’ve left it in place incase someone fancies a renovation job. It would be good to get one of our camera boxes occupied this year.

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

Up and Running

The weather continues to be a bit hit and miss as far as sunshine goes. Saturday remained dull and cloudy all day whereas on Sunday we had a decent amount of sunshine.

I harvested a few salad leaves (mizuna) for our Sunday lunchtime sandwich. These were sown at the beginning of October last year and have made it through winter to produce a few early leaves for picking now.

I’m not sure of the other leaves mixed in with the mizuna.

As I was picking the leaves I noticed that the first few seeds sown last week were just popping through. Guess what- it's mizuna. These are our first seeds to germinate this spring.

At least we seem to be making a start to the new season.

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

Brilliant Then Naff

Thursday was a lovely March day with lots of sunshine, a gentle breeze, and feeling pleasantly mild as the temperature reached 12.9°C (55.2°F). Friday, on the other hand, was dull and cold with the temperature only managing 7.4°C (45.3°F). 

Temperature and Sunshine Records for 17 March to 19 March 2016

As Thursday was such a nice day we set about rearranging our cold frames in the courtyard garden. It didn’t prove to be as tricky as I thought it might be and the frames weren’t too heavy for the two of us to manoeuvre into their new positions. 

It’s certainly given us a little bit more space between the cold frames which we intend to use for pots of herbs. As it was such a lovely afternoon I couldn’t resist any longer and sowed some radishes, spring onions and salad leaves in our newly positioned raised beds.

Friday wasn’t the sort of day to encourage us out into the garden. However, as our early brassica collection of plants arrived, in the lunchtime post, from Marshalls Seeds I thought I’d better get them out of their packaging straight away.

We’ve ordered this collection for a couple of years now and I’ve never really been impressed by the quality of the plants when they arrive. But I’ve found with a bit of tlc the plants pick up to produce excellent plants for transplanting into the allotment in a few weeks time. They will almost certainly produce our first real crop of the new season.

Last Year’s Cauliflower Plants Mayflower on Arrival and after Some tlc.

So this year’s plants are now transplanted into modules and will be left in the greenhouse for a week or so before being moved to the cold frame to be hardened off ready for planting in the plot towards the end of April.

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

The Equilux

I must admit I didn’t know there was such a thing but by all accounts today is the equilux. It means the hours of darkness and daylight are equal on that day.

The last couple of days haven’t been too bad. Nice in the sunshine, if it’s out, and sheltered from the breeze but rather cool otherwise. With high pressure dominating the weather continues to be rain free.

This is my chart of March temperatures over the last few years. Whilst this year is a bit on the cool side it’s nothing like that ridiculously cold March of 2013 when we had snow and bitterly cold days.

23 March 2013

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

Some Weather Stuff for a Change

Monday turned out to be another lovely March day with dawn to dusk sunshine. The forecast is for the weather to continue much the same all the way through to the beginning of next week, but with varying amounts of cloud.

Although it’s been sunny and felt very spring like in the sunshine, the actual temperature hasn’t been all that high. The warmest day of the month so far was Saturday 12 March when it reached 13.3°C (55.9°F). Strangely the record for the mildest day of the year so far, is held by 24 January 2016 with 14.7°C (58.5°F).

March so far has been fairly cool as recent previous March records show with only 2013 having a lower average temperature. Hopefully a decent end to the month will see the average temperature rise up a little towards the monthly average.

It’s also worth noting that the averages temperatures for December and January were higher than that for March to date and there’s very little difference between February and March. Seems like a mild winter followed by a cold start to spring.

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

Heavy Lifting Day

Sunday was a rather nice March day. Whilst it wasn’t particularly warm, with little or no breeze and some sunshine it felt very pleasant.

Sunday’s jobs were to get some onion sets and shallots into modules to get them off to a good start. Once these are growing well they will be transplanted into the plot. There is no way we could prepare some ground for them on the allotment. It just far too wet and soggy. So they have the luxury of a few weeks in the greenhouse and coldframe before moving down to the plot.

In spring 2014, we added a couple of coldframes and a raised bed in an unused area behind our home greenhouse. This area had become a dumping ground and we thought we could make much better use of it. Unfortunately, we didn’t get either the raised bed nor coldframes in the positions we really wanted them in. It was all a bit rushed so that we could make use of them.

Now was a good time to do some moving.

I started by emptying out lots of the soil into plastic bags. Once I’d removed a bit more than half the soil I optimistically decided to see if the raised bed would move. It wouldn’t so I decided the only option was to empty out all the remaining soil. Once this was done it was possible to gradually move the bed into our preferred position by using a pick axe under one edge. After lots of pushing and shoving we eventually moved it into its new location. 

The bed was filled back up with soil and is now ready for its first sowings of the year.

All that remains now is for our two coldframes to be repositioned before we need to start hardening off our plants.

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

A Day Out and a Bit of Pruning

We had a day out in Lancashire on Friday visiting the East Lancashire Railway’s spring steam gala. It was misty and murky travelling over the Pennines but the mist disappeared and the sun came out making it feel like spring had actually arrived. 

Saturday morning wasn’t too bad either and we decided on an afternoon at the allotment. I’ve been planning for some time now to cut down a conifer tree that has been growing on the plot for almost as long as we’ve had an allotment. 

You can just see it to the right of this photo taken a couple of years ago. There’s nothing wrong with the tree except that it shades three beds and it’s starting to affect how our crops grow in these beds. Sad as it is I decided it was time to fell it. It didn’t take me as long as I expected. It had produced three main trunks from the base rather than one really thick one.

All I’ve got to do now is tidy up the mess. I think that’s going to take me much longer than it did to cut down the tree. I’ll have to remove the side branches from the main trunks before I even consider trying to move the tree trunks due to the weight of them.

I was pleased that I managed to get the trunks to fall in the right directions and avoid demolishing either our shed or our kiwi fedge. 

I did have time to dig up a few parsnips as well and the ground was very wet. Trying to dig it in its current state will do more harm than good so it will be left for a couple of weeks until it dries out a bit. We’ve plenty of other tidying up jobs to be getting on with!

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