Allotments 4 All

I keep a careful record of weather conditions in my garden, and as I am only 500 yards from my allotment assume that the rainfall is the same.

Rain has fallen on 29 of the last 30 days , the 26th June being the last dry day.

My raised beds have meant that my crops have not suffered as much as my neighbours but blight and splits affecting the potatoes has reduced the yield by half.

All other crops have survived but dispite the good start are slow to mature due to lack of sunshine, celeriac being an exception.

Wind damage has also been a problem with leaves ripped off courgettes and runner beans, and sweet corn at 45 degrees to the vertical.

While there has been mention of higher prices in the shops for vegetables, I think that the full effect has not been appreciated. I was born in Hull and spent my early years summer holidays on a farm that I remember flooding in about 1955, presumably it is again under water.

So allotmenteers, do not despair, you will be the envy of your friends when the prices bite. If you have lost crops or have spare ground, there is still time to plant cabbage, French beans, carrots and salad crops etc.

http://www.allaboutliverpool.com/allaboutallotments1_homepage

P.S. I am now in my apartment in the South of France sitting on my sunny balcony, temp 22 degrees at 7:40 am, having arrived yesterday with a case full of runner beans, courgettes, peas etc.

Keep your fingers crossed that it does not rain this sunday, St Swithins day. Or we will have another 40 days of it.

I didn't realise that some places still were under constant rain; it's been nice here in Durham for a few days and I assumed that everyone was the same (I don't watch weather reports).

I bet you're glad to have got away to France though just for some respite!

When on earth is St. Swithens day!!??

Well, we seem to be out of the arc in Hull, my gardening journal confirmed we had had 40 days of  staright rain up till the day before yesterday and none since.

I dae not even cotemplate St Swithans Day.


XXX Jeannine

St Swithin's Day if it doth rain
We'll all get water on the brain
St Swithin's Day if it be dry
A hosepipe ban will soon be nigh

::)

Yes, but when is it??  ???

July 15th

Have a look on

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/stswithun.html

for a light-hearted explanation.

By the way 'forty days'  I understand, is an old biblical term that means 'a long time' and not forty days literally.

For the first time since this weather started my soil had nearly dried out enough to cultivate. So yesterday I spent a couple of hours handweeding and hoeing as best I could, starting to tidy up. At the end of that session I thoght " another three or four hours and I shall be back to normal".
It is now raining in torrents again today, my land will be unworkable and parts of it will be flooded again :'(.

Just got wet through feeding chucks rabbits etc .So it aint summer here yet .. :)

According to both Metcheck and the BBC it's sunny here at the moment, with very little cloud and no prospect of rain until the evening.

Actually, it's raining again - which is why I'm sitting here typing this instead of weeding the garden, which is what I was intending to do!

You can almost guarantee rain for next week - I'm off work!  Lance

Courgettes 3.98 a kilo in Sainsburys (about 1.90 a pound?) Talk about extracting the michael - mine are producing like crazy. Light rain forecast for Derby today, currently hammering down, which is why I'm stuck in sat here instead of making money hedgecutting  ::)

Bloke at work forcast 24 sunny  8) er in doors forcast rain  :'( what happened slight drizzle very cloudy, windy with a little sun now   8).    ;D ;D ;D

Hi everyone, not been on for a long time and need to catch up a bit and so does my lottie!

I have 2 spare patches, each about 15' x 8' still under their winter covers, and want to put something in for the coming winter.  Any ideas?  :-* 

Also, I noticed the Doc says at the beginning that we can still start French beans.  I don't know about everyone else but I've had a disasterous show from mine so far.  They seemed to 'stop' last month and are stuck in some kind of limbo!  Not dead but no new growth. :-\

If I start some new ones, should I get them going in the greeenhouse or straight out in the soil?

Donna

Would you believe it is really chucking it down in Hull again, aren't we done yet!!!

French bean, beetroot, spring cabbage, turnips and salads all have a fighting chance.
If your local garden centre has a few other brassicas left, ie Broccoli, cauliflower, purple sprouting brocolli, calabrese etc thet will all grow and produce. Salad stuff, including radishes, lettuce, pak choi, carrots have all got time.

Get digging.

http://www.allaboutliverpool.com/allaboutallotments1_Myths.html (New page today)

continuous rain all day in Chester. The BBC weather forecast for tomorrow has mysteriously changed from a round yellow thing to a cloud

think i'll leave it til next year to take up naturism. If I got me bits out now i'd probably get botrytis

Picturing you frolicing in the nuddy in and out of the beans and it is torrential outside my window.

last year I offered to do a naked Red Indian Rain Dance round the sweetcorn to make it rain, only I couldn't  decide where to stick the feathers

Everyone is taking the Mickey, not just Sainsbury's.

Today in Nice the price of courgettes was up to 4.5 Euros a Kg (£3.20).The ones below were the cheapest, in the local market, and as you can see looked a bit shabby. Last year at this time they were 1.99 Euros/Kg.

(Apart from weather details I keep prices on a spreadsheet, how Nerdish can you get?).

They are a local variety called Longue de Nice which I have growing at home in Liverpool.

All the prices are high in Nice so I presume that is a Europewide phenomenon.



To see the Liverpool Longue de Nice see:-

http://www.allaboutliverpool.com/allaboutallotments_Vegetables_courgettes.html