A Gardener's Weather Diary

Tuesday, 14 April 2020

Lockdown Day 20 - Continuing Dry But Much Colder

After some lovely warm sunny days it’s suddenly turned much colder. The overnight temperature fell to -1.3°C (29.7°F) in the early hours of Tuesday morning. It’s just as well I haven’t got any tender plants growing in the greenhouse.

Temperature Record 12-14 April 2020

We haven’t visited the allotment for several days now. The weather has continued dry with no rain to speak of since the middle of March. The onion and shallot sets planted a week or so ago probably need a drink but I don’t particularly like watering if there’s a chance of overnight frosts. The forecast is for a couple of cold nights before the temperature warms up a little bit.

I’ll have to start thinking about sowing some tomato seeds along with a few other vegetable seeds which require sowing now we’re into the middle of April.

Opinion at the moment is that the lockdown will continue for another three weeks at least. That means we’ll be keeping visits to the allotment to an absolute minimum.

Monday, 13 April 2020

Lockdown Day 19 - Broad Bean Problems

A few weeks ago I sowed a couple of modules of broad beans called De Monica. It’s a variety we haven’t tried before as an early variety. I know I could have sown them in autumn to overwinter but I’ve never had much luck doing that.

Broad beans De Monica sown 22-March-2020

By the looks of it my early spring sowing hasn’t been very successful either. Both trays were sown on exactly the same day with compost from the same bag. As you can see germination has been excellent in one tray and almost a total failure in the other one. I’ll leave them another week to see if any more germination takes place but I think I’ll sow another couple of trays to see if they perform any better.

Sunday, 12 April 2020

Lockdown Day 18 - Watercress Takeover

The weather over the Easter period has so far been exceptionally nice which is unusual for a Bank Holiday. You might think there’s a lockdown going on and that we’re all supposed to stay at home rather than making the most of the brilliant weather. Anyhow, Saturday became the warmest day of the year as the thermometer reached 22.7°C (72.9°F) which is very pleasant for the middle of April.

Temperature Records 06-12 April 2020

In our pond the Marsh Marigold has come into flower. I didn’t think it was going to manage to overcome the watercress which is taking over the pond.

Last spring I cleared out nearly all the watercress and the little bit I left in appeared to die off. Clearly it didn’t and it has returned with a vengeance. It’s days are numbered though as I intend to remove most of it again.

Saturday, 11 April 2020

Lockdown Day 17 - Garden Progress

The change in the weather has been exceptional as the dry spell continues into the Easter weekend. Good Friday was another day when the temperature made it into the low twenties Celsius. We are keeping trips to the plot to a minimum in light of the lockdown. It’s normally a very busy time there but this year all that has changed. Life as we knew it has changed in a way we could never have imagined, even a few weeks ago, and it’s not going to return to anything like normal very quickly. I imagine the current three week lockdown will be extended.

However, the lack of activity at the allotment has meant more progress in the garden.

I was originally intending to sort out the border I am renovating at home once the bulk of the work at the allotment was completed. The lockdown made me change my plans and as I’d already got the replacement fencing I decided to get that erected before getting as much as is practical done at the allotment in the current circumstances. Having erected the fence I managed to dig over the soil to prepare it for planting.

I’ve now got one small section of border to sort out to join up last summer’s renovation with this spring’s. I’m not intending to replace the fencing but if I do a bit more cutting back I should be able to dig over a patch of ground to join up both sections of renovation.

All we need to do then is decide exactly what to grow in this cleared patch this year.

Thursday, 9 April 2020

Lockdown Day 15 - Warm Weather Continues

Wednesday was another lovely sunny and warm day. The afternoon temperature reached 22.1°C (71.8°F) making it our warmest day of the year.

Temperature Record for 08 April 2020

We’ve slowly been renovating one of our garden borders. It had gradually been over run by a variety of bushes. These had avoided serious pruning for a few years and the result was that they had taken over the border completely.

A Section of the Border Before Renovation Started

It was early last summer when I began cutting back all the shrubbery. It was amazing how much garden it revealed. Part of the bed was cleared last summer and after digging it over it was planted up with variety of perennial plants and spring bulbs.

One part still has a lot of work to do to make it acceptable.

This part needed the old timber paling fence replacing. I’d got all the materials I needed before the lockdown started. I thought it was about time I made a start. There was still some more shrubbery to cut back before I could get the old fence pulled down. The truth is that it was the shrubbery that was holding the fence up as the posts had rotted at ground level many years ago.

The new fence panels are now erected. The ground needs digging over before we can do any planting. This year because of the lockdown we are contemplating growing some vegetables in this little area as trips to the plot are being kept to an absolute minimum.

Wednesday, 8 April 2020

Just Managed A New Warmest Day.

Tuesday became our warmest day of the year as the temperature made it to 19.7°C (67.5°F) beating the previous high of 19.5° (67.1°F) set on the 24 March.

Temperature and Rainfall Records 09 March to 08 April 2020

Through winter it seemed like it never stopped raining. From the middle of last September through to the middle of March we struggled to get a couple of dry days in a row. That pattern changed in the middle of last month and since then we’ve had no rain at all. The tap has been turned off.

The mild days have been accompanied by some nice sunshine and it’s brought out our cherry blossom.

Cherry- Summer Sun

Of course the clear skies overnight have brought some chilly temperatures with 0.6C° (33.1°F) early on Tuesday morning. It’s a reminder that despite the lovely pleasant days it’s far too early to risk any tender plants outside.

Tuesday, 7 April 2020

Lockdown Day 14 Web Sites Killed Off

Two thirds of the way through the lockdown and thanks to Adobe we can no longer update our web sites. We used Adobe Muse software to create and edit our websites. Some time ago Adobe said they were no longer developing Muse but users could continue to use the software. Then a few days ago, without any prior warning, they demanded that to continue to use Muse we had to subscribe to their full package of software at £40 per month. That seemed over the top to us for what is now unsupported software. Obviously, we are now looking around to find some software to replace Muse. The favourite looks as though it will be Wordpress. Of course, there will be a bit of a learning curve as we slowly move to the replacement software.

We had a trip to the allotment on Monday afternoon as our daily exercise.

We certainly maintained our social distancing at the plot as despite the rather nice weather there weren't too many other plotters at the allotment.

I'd normally add what we sowed and harvested to our web sites but that's now not possible. Sue planted more onion and shallot sets as well as picking some broccoli.

Last year we planted some parsnip seeds in one of our old recycling crates. To be honest it wasn't very successful and we decided that we'd clear away the old parsnips and reuse the recycling crate. The plan was to bring it home to look after during the lockdown as we are never sure whether or not we will be able to continue with trips to the allotment. Last year's parsnips were beginning to regrow but as I dug them out some did have some tiny roots.

It's difficult enough at the moment to order food and in the spirit of not wanting to waste food I decided to take the largest of the roots home and see how they tasted. As it turns out they tasted really good but there wasn't an awful lot to them but they went okay with some of the broccoli.

Thursday, 2 April 2020

Lockdown Day 10 - March's Weather Summary

Covid-19 Pandemic to one side, I thought I'd post a summary covering our weather for March 2020. The first thing to say is that it eventually turned out to be much drier than February. However, as February was the wettest month of the last 10 or so years that isn't saying a great deal. March started off a bit like the previous several months with low pressure systems coming in off the Atlantic Ocean bringing gale force winds and heavy rain.

Temperature & Rainfall Records for March 2020

The middle of March saw a distinct change in the weather as high pressure began to dominate bringing us a much drier second half of the month.

March Rainfall Records 2010-2020

By the time the end of the month arrived, we'd only had 30.0mm of rainfall, all of it falling in the first half of the month. That's below average for March, with only 2012 and 2011 having less rainfall over the last 11 years, but I for one aren't complaining as it has helped dry out the allotment.

The last week of March was been on the cool side and strangely we've had colder days in March than we had through the winter months. March has the coldest days of 'winter' and the warmest day of the year on 24 March when the thermometer hit a very pleasant 19.5°C. It wasn't a particularly long spell of fine weather and it also coincided with the start of the lockdown due to Covid-19. In the end the final average for the month turned out to be just that about average.

March Temperature Records 2010-2020

We've had more frost in March than January and February combined, although I think that is due to those two months being exceptionally mild rather than any unusually cold March nights.