Allotments 4 All
General => News => Topic started by: Borlotti on July 05, 2018, 00:07:53
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We have had heavy rain, in Enfield tonight. Won't have to water the allotment tomorrow. A really heavy downpour, and the flying ants were out before, I suppose they had an early warning. :happy7:
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Lucky, lucky you! :sunny: :blob7:
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Yes, lucky you- it went very dark here and it's very muggy but no sign of rain yet. The cows are sitting down, but why wouldn't they in this heat? :happy7:
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here on the sunshine coast no rain no clouds no wind its been a baker :sunny: :sunny: :sunny: :sunny:
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nothing in ely last week it had a 90% chance of rain today but thats moved to next week now. Today has however been quite overcast but still warm.
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We had 20mins of heavy raindrops here this afternoon, just enough to wet the top of the soil, and then it stopped *sigh*
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Hi Ya, no rain here and this Tuesday will make 7 weeks no rain as you can see from our grass pathway at the plot, still haven't had to cut it and just biught a new mower as well. Only used it twice. Managed to harvest some broad beans, aquadulce and epicure and new tatties, maris bard. Yum yum for dinner tonight.
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Hi Ya, Well there could be a break on the horizon as we are at yellow warning for tomorrow with thunder and heavy rain from 2pm on, I bet it will rain that heavy the ground will not soak it up and there will be floods. We can only hope.
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South London didn't get any - well there may have been a sprinkle overnight but nothing to wet the soil..
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Yellow warnings, thunderstorms, floods, they are all predicted everyday for somewhere in the UK, Even a named storm last week. Seen nothing, dry as a bone, energy sapping heat and warm breezes. I live in an area that has a rain shadow as most of the showers and storms split and go up the channel and the solent in the summer time. When the winds start coming down the country it will rain but those winds are usually winter time. It is nice to be a couple of miles from the sunshine record holders, but only if you are sitting on the beach.
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no rain not a drop since mid may then it was 2 hrs before that the only time we had rain was the end of april its a dust bowl here on the sunshine coast :sunny: :sunny: :sunny: :sunny: :sunny:
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No rain here since the end of May. We have thunderstorms forecast for tonight - fingers crossed.
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We had a few minutes. Wet the leaves but only damped the top layer of soil. Had similar last Friday. Apart from that more than six baking weeks. I have been watering more or less daily.
Blackberries seem to have their roots into the water table and are looking remarkable good. Grass is totally brown.
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Here in N E Hampshire, 3mm during June, 3.7mm July to date, nothing much in the forecast for next 14 days. Did rain here during last night, was a (small) puddle in the road, but none on plot.Most crops are doing ok, clay has some virtues....
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none still none
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Had a reasonable few hours on Friday evening, much to my relief.
Only green grass is neighbours as he puts a sprinkler on it. No comment.
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Laying in bed, heard a tip tap on the window, here it comes I thought, tip tap tip a short break, crack of thunder, tip tap, then nothing.
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Laying in bed, heard a tip tap on the window, here it comes I thought, tip tap tip a short break, crack of thunder, tip tap, then nothing.
Not your lucky day then :tongue3:
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Hi Ya, Very much the same here last night, or should I say early hours, the dog heard the thunder and jumped on the bed and the thunder rumbled on for 4 hrs, I to heard pit pat pit pat and thought at last. Well there was enough to wet the dust but not measurable in the rain gauge. Of to work I did have to find the wiper switch, I'd forgotten where it was, LOL, We are in our 62nd day of no rain. They to have forecast thunder this pm and heavy showers. Once they have gone by then back to more heat next week but the rains will set the weeds of like nobody's. oh well welcome relief, all be it short, for all
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here on the sunshine coast none just blue skies
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Nothing here either. Village 6 miles away had a short, sharp and very local shower last night :wave:
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Had about an hour on and off this morning with thunder in the distance but it dried up very quickly hot and humid now
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Went shopping this morning on my scooter and drove home through two minutes of wet mist - when I got there the patio wasn't even wet :BangHead:.
So, still no rain here in Torbay. Filled one water butt for 3rd time yesterday!
Tricia :wave:
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Had a 45min thunderstorm, gave 8mm of rain, lots of puddles on the path, but the lawn sure sucked it up.
Didn't have to water anything (except the toms in pots in the greenhouse) this evening then :D
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Nothing yet.
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We had a shower, at long last! Unfortunately clouds covered the moon completely :wave:
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Blowing winds and heavy showers, just another summers day up north I suppose.
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Hi Ya, Rain, woo eee we got rain, thunder and lightening and RAIN, 61 days with no rain and when I looked at the rain gauge this morning a quarter of an inch fell yesterday evening. Bit breezy this morning and temperature well down. Just has another quick quite heavy shower but not much, will visit lottie later after shopping with she who must be obeyed. But hay we got rain and one butt nearly full so I can treat my blueberries to some good stuff. Hope all are as pleased as me.
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Too late to do any good now.
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Too late to do any good now.
Pretty much my thoughts too!
Checked the barrel that takes the run-off from my garage and only got half a can full.
Add to that on the allotments the Badgers are so thirsty they took my Sweet corn out on either Wed/Thurs so had to erect a fence around the remainder to protect it!
Its been a trying year so far, so much so that I am seriously thinking of making 2018 my last year on the allotments.
If this year is a sample of things to come i.e. the weather and the wildlife's affect on gardening, at my age (a very fit 80 year old) I don't particularly want to learn how to cope with it.
Perhaps I will take up photography more seriously and photograph the wildlife and the weather effects instead! :sad1: :dontknow:
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Loads of dark clouds just passing us by here in Derby, until 7am we got a 10 minute burst of heavy rain. That's it it seems! Still lots of clouds streaming over us and cooler thank goodness, but I expect I'll need to water later on...
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We got the lot - I give credit to the Blood Moon and Murphy's law - I've often noticed that we always get clouds, rain or both whenever there's a significant astronomical event.
Murphy targets the maximum concentration of amateur astronomers for these events, and it's presumably round here - at the risk of insulting Brum, Glasgow and Sarf London, I think it's unlikely to be anywhere else...
It's not just astronomy either - the best way to stop any weather type is to put a lot of time, money and effort into systems that will protect you against it.
For example, if you put in big rain storage systems then that will mean a massive drought like this year that will empty them in a week or two.
Or it will do what it did after I put mine in (after 2006) and just do crap summers for 11 years so you don't need them at all.
Cheers.
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We had a couple of showers in the night and a five minutes deluge during the morning. Supposed to rain all day tomorrow. I hope no one cancels it.
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A few heavy showers here but we still need a lot more- which it looks as if we might get tomorrow. However my son and a group of friends are attempting the Three Peaks challenge (Ben Nevis, Scafell and Snowdon) in 24 hours starting at 5 p.m. this evening so I'm hoping the weather is kind to them- they hope to raise £30,000 for St Leonard's hospice in York.
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Hi ya, We are in the driest part of the country and though I admit to being a bit down this year, lost all my brassicas, bush French beans and runners not performing how they usually do I still enjoy the hobby and it's the little successes that please me like the best sweet corn so and my leek plants that I have delayed planting are the bet I've had. You can't give it up TG as you will need to set your camera where the wildlife is then show us the piccies. I musy admit I have 22 water butts on site and was getting very low and considering using the dip tanks ugh! Still I am so pleased I had the water ther and it has got me through to this point so happy. Need some good rain over the winter and hey presto we are back on it. This weather is abnormal and they compare it with 1976, I was at sea then so didn't experience it. The scare mongers will all jump the band wagon and profersise doom but hey people look to the future and smile. It could be another 42 years till we see it again. It has been a hard slog I admit and due to the heat have spent less time on the lottie than usual. I am pleased with the rain I will plant my leeks tomorrow and I am buying some brassicas, I know but needs must, and I am sowing some spring greens at home so there is stilla lot happening and my sweetcorn ears are showing so when ready to see my grandaughter eat it fresh of the plot, wee, what more can you ask, so cheer up fellow allotmenteers it's only a minor set back and we have seen worse. And we got rain yoo whoooo
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You can't give it up TG as you will need to set your camera where the wildlife is then show us the piccies.
I am not planning giving up 'gardening' only my allotments.
Although this site is named Allotments 4 All I would not have thought that it would bar 'gardeners' particularly those with 'Allotment Experience' so I envisage still being around these'boards' for a long time yet!
Some of you may have noticed I do not talk or take pictures of my allotments as much as in the past and it is simply a case of " I don't enjoy going there anymore"
I always said to myself that if going to the Allotment become a chore rather than a pleasure I would give it up, and yes I now see this event as a 'chore'
You may have also noticed in my past correspondence I mentioned that I have gave up one of my plots and I moved an 8' x 6'Grenhouse into my garden at home.
In the meantime based on what I am growing in this Greenhouse and the coldframes that are now emptied of bedding plants and the like these make good growing areas for things such as salad crops.
I am currently planning on moving some Conifers in the upcomingAutumn months out of my front garden and replacing them with shrubs from my back garden.
Once this is complete I am planning on growing some vegetables in a decorative manner rather than the row or block arrangements I use on the allotment.
So as I see it I hope to get my Mojo back, still grow and eat fresh vegetables and not consider it a chore!
So this means I can go to shows, visit the country side and take photos as well, some of which I will deposit on A4A for those people that like that sort of thing.
So far as I can recall this is my 30th year on my allotments so I think that is a good innings and I think it is time for me to pull up the stumps and move to the practice nets!
That is the plan but only time will tell if it will all transpire!
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Not as much rain as I had hoped for but did fill the water butt. About five hours of rain but most of that quite light. Only about 1/2 inch.
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rain yes rain one night and 3/4 of today was at the plots this morning around 5:30 and it had already perked up my dahlias the whole place had a freshness about it however 45mph winds battered my sweetcorn i was half way through staking them when the rain returned shall return in the morning to finish
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Tee Gee,
Whatever keeps you happy is worthwhile! Make your decisions with confidence.
And please keep sharing the benefit of your experience.
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18 hours of driving rain, now the weeds will be happy, but like I said, too late for the main summer crops. Perhaps the winter brassicas and leeks will benefit but as I am moving plots this autumn and winter the new plot holders will have a few crops to carry on with. Can't really complain I have had some success, smaller yields but no lettuce unless I was growing for seed. Start the new plot wenesday so the ground might be a bit softer for a week before the heat dries it all up again.
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Another light sprinkle in the night. We have had a total of about 1/2 inch and that seems to be it for 10 days at least. Radar map shows it is raining here now but it isn't. Haven't stopped watering. Hopefully it rained more somewhere up above Cheltenham and will flow through the limestone and arrive in the well we use.
About an inch down it is bone dry. Not sure how far down it is dry but I have lost an unwatered blackcurrant bush.
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I noticed that our gooseberry is dropping leaves and so is the apple tree. Clearly leaves at this time of year are expendable. :wave:
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Have you had any rain yet Galina?
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We have had two short deluges this morning and a few hours of light rain a couple of days ago. Ground still very hard though, but I hope after this morning that will have changed, haven't been out yet. Yesterday it was still nearly impossible to penetrate the ground with a fork to get potatoes. Cracks are still there, but narrowing.
How is it your way Pumpkinlover? :sunny:
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We had a wet weekend and a massive downpour last night. SE London is changing colour again - back to green!
OH plots has just soaked it up and I am just off to see if I can get a fork in mine..
Naturally loads of toms split over the weekend!
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I sowed some crimson clover on Saturday the rain has got it very excited it has already germinated. I hope it does not get cooked over the weekend.
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I was able to do some digging on my new plot today with the soil in perfect condition after that rain. It had soaked in at least 30cm.
Made it slightly easier to pull out all those Mares-Tail roots!!
Then just 20 minutes of blackberry picking to get 1.5kg of huge, ripe, sweet berries. That 8Kg so far this year!
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30 cm!! That's fantastic. I wish. We managed about 2.5cm and that has already evaporated with wind and sunshine. Back to dry as a bone.
We have had a total of about 1.25 cm of rain in 9 weeks.
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Looks like some got thunder storms yesterday. There was some chance for us next Saturday but that has now disappeared from the forecast.
6 20 am off again to water.
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Hi Ya, We got rain and thunder forecast for last night but the thunder didn't happen and we got a shower of rain. I use the term shower loosely as my rain gauge said 0.05" in my measurement but in converts to 1.25mm. So nothing to write home about. A colleague who lives 30 miles away got a deluge and filled his water butt up to the top. 30cm's of rain, wow, 12" of the precious stuff in my measure, I'm not sure our ground would take it as it's so dry it would just flood. Funny thing rain as someone gets gallons who is nearby and us nothing. Our time will come but I hope it's quick and not all at once.
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Hi Ya, Well the weather truly broke yesterday afternoon. I was well pleased 4 full water butts at home and looking good on the plot. I measured it at 0.75" about 17.95 mm's I think. Any way this weekend looks promising I will be able to do quite a bit about the place. That said it will more than likely rain and I won't be able to get going. Still temp's are more manageable and comfortable.
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Bound to rain today, Cowes week fireworks, the 3 Queens liners leaving port together, Red Arrows and loads of attractions down in the town. I got really soaked through this morning. Done a bit of digging in a cool sort of drizzle, then it sort of got heavier and I thought I am already damp so I will finish the row, it then got even heavier for the cycle home. No need for a bath today.
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We have just had just over five hours of rain. But I am gutted to find it is only about 1cm total. That is just enough to get the weeds excited. Hopefully it might help the raspberries.
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We have just had just over five hours of rain. But I am gutted to find it is only about 1cm total. .
Snap!
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Between early May and late July my rain guage recorded a more or less total drought. One intense storm lasting little more than an hour dropped 33mm, one damp day totalled 16mm but others were entirely dry and a very few recorded trace readings such as 2mm or 1mm.
My plots are too far from the water troughs to make watering all my crops feasible, so I watered selected bits fairly heavily and only infrequently. The results were far better than you might expect. Indeed, there were some genuinely positive things to report.
Firstly, potatoes where yields were down, fewer and smaller potatoes, but totally free of blight so overall no worse than a bad blight year. Secondly, strawberries where I had a great harvest before the drought really started to do damage. Onions too were good, bulb size again a bit below average but they ripened extremely well and I had far fewer losses from rot than usual. Courgettes squashes and cucumbers all good, though I put the work in here watering when needed. Sweet corn have been no better or worse than usual. The lack of blight has also helped my tomatoes.
There's plenty of bad news of course, I have had a disastrous year for beans despite my efforts with watering. The conditions seemed Ideal for blackfly to thrive, and my runner and French beans were literally black hardly setting a decent bean. The infestation was so heavy the few beans that did set were themselves covered with blackfly. Again a combination of drought plus pests has hit my brassicas hard and here the problem was flea beetle. Heavy attack killed many newly set small plants, and even bigger established plants have been badly weakened. Then after fruiting, my strawberry plants have died in substantial numbers. Not helped by a mole that decided to burrow tbackwards and forwards through the bed.
For me the conclusion was pretty obvious. Where the only issue was drought things were not too good but not a disaster. Where the effects of drought and heat stress was amplified by other pests plants could not cope with the combined effects and things were truly bad.
One other curiosity. I like Inca berries and usually grow three or four bushes. They have grown well this year but are perplexing because the plants have consistently produced very few flowers. Hence very few lanterns and little fruit. On one bush I tried pinching out to encourage bushing but it made no difference. Has anyone else noticed an effect like this. I had assumed they would love the heat and grow like the blazes and was looking forward to a good crop. Well they have grown well but purely vegetative growth. Any advice or similar experiences would be gratefully appreciated.
I try to see the glass as half full rather than half empty. And, of course, next season will be perfect!!
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One other curiosity. I like Inca berries and usually grow three or four bushes. They have grown well this year but are perplexing because the plants have consistently produced very few flowers. Hence very few lanterns and little fruit. On one bush I tried pinching out to encourage bushing but it made no difference. Has anyone else noticed an effect like this. I had assumed they would love the heat and grow like the blazes and was looking forward to a good crop. Well they have grown well but purely vegetative growth. Any advice or similar experiences would be gratefully appreciated.
Are your Inca physalis the perennial kind or the properly annual kind?
I'd recommend you grow both (though seeds of the true annual ones are harder to find) - their response to weather is pretty different.
This year the annual ones have done much better outside than usual and I'm looking forward to a good crop from larger than normal bushes (though I started late - the "year of no spring" meant my first batch of seedlings failed, and I'm mainly relying on transplanted volunteers).
Are your perennial ones very like the shop version? I find their intense aroma unpleasant and only grow "Aunt Mollys" which have a delicious, much cleaner taste.
The Molly that survived the winter in my (draughty) polytunnel has been providing early berries for 2 weeks now, though its size and thuggish sprawl mean that I will be putting (water-rooted) cuttings in their own outsize cloche next year so I might be able to claw back 20% more space in the tunnel by 2020.
Are your perennial ones from seed? You'd be lucky to get fruit before September.
Are they older plants but outside? Same result.
Cheers.
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Vinlander
Thank you. Have a like! I did not know there was so much to learn about Inca berries. Rest assured I'll be researching further. Up until now I have found them a fairly easy crop. Few problems and troubled by pests. I had a plant them forget them approach.
The advice is much appreciated!
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I'm curious what is the difference between Inca berries and Cape Gooseberries?
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I'm curious what is the difference between Inca berries and Cape Gooseberries?
If you read the Wiki Physalis page you will find they are all closely related.
There may be separate species in the wild but they have been cultivated in South America for so long I'd be surprised if they aren't all just a spectrum of crosses. I suspect the properly annual ones are outliers. The names are even more fluid than the genetics - and invented marketing names make it worse - it's a nightmare to work out which seeds you are buying.
Cheers.
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A months worth in a day, looks like wellies if I need to work the plots today.
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We managed a whole inch of real rain. Went to plot this morning. Top moist but a few inches done it is still dry.
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Two more weeks any only few drops. Back to dry as a bone. Friend in Cheltenham said it rained all yesterday morning but it missed us again.
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we had lots of rain friday/saturday morning which topped the water buts up enough to do the greenhouse yesterday. Its dry today and were expecting rain the rest of the week so made sure i have given everything a feed. Have started the process of closing the garden down for the winter as its getting a tad cold to be out now, and were away a good bit of october.
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Went to bed with a large ribbon of rain approaching the coast of Ireland. We managed four drips earlier in the day. Suffered a bit of insomnia so checked up on my rain, yes it was coming and we had a few minutes of light rain about 3:15 but the main show was still on its way,
Gutted. Woke to wonder where my rain was. The whole ribbon disintegrated just as it got to us. :BangHead: :BangHead: So the drought continues. The inch from two weeks ago has long since disappeared.
Really worried that if the aquifers are not replenished over the winter we will really struggle next years.
The constant watering is getting very tedious. :BangHead: :BangHead:
I think the temperatures might pick up into the low 20s next week again.