Friday 15 June 2012

Deep low pressures causing havoc

Since the last blog we have been hit by two deep low pressures causing havoc on our allotments. Gusty winds in excess of 60 mph have done a lot of damage on our site exposed to the South and South West. This is normally good for ripening fruit and growing bumper crops as we get the sun all day but this type of scenario is bad for us and according to the forecasters happens once in 50 years. Hmmm.
Molluscs are having a bumper feast as their numbers seem to have trebled to the norm and the wind damage is heartbreaking.

We take pride in being able to donate from now on until the end of the season, fruit, herbs and fresh vegetables to give a 'live' feel to the wonderful National Trust's Victorian kitchen in Lanhydrock house but this year it's not going to be so easy with everything well behind and damaged. The young lady who features on our website pages is a National Trust employee who collects whatever we have spare every 10 days or so and I have put a small pic here of our veg in situ.


It's midsummer's day in just over a week now and the evenings will start drawing in again. We have been robbed of the Summer this year, feel very sad especially for the tenants who work so hard to make their plots neat, tidy and productive.
On the plus side, our water barrels collecting rainwater off the shed roofs are full to overflowing!

Improvement must be round the corner, our site is too big to move there though.

Thursday 7 June 2012

Extreme weather problems

Although having had an allotment since 11 years old, I don't recall having such a poor, slow difficult start to the growing season. Seeds failed due to a very dry March, plants raised at home in the greenhouse/cold frame once transplanted were very slow to respond mainly due to cold nights (even a damaging frost Mid May, unusual here) and all in all a frustrating time on the plot. I worry about our 'newbies' who having been told how wonderful it is to grow your own on our very fertile site see their initial efforts not perform as they should. The tip that they would REALLY enjoy a picnic on their plot just isn't happening unless they take hot water bottles and weatherproofs. Even our seasoned allotmenteers are complaining about the weather wrecking the crops and are resowing and replanting new stock hoping they will behave properly this time.
Walking around the site yesterday, I was pleased to see that the recent rain had at last started to move seedlings of flowers and veg but I was apprehensive of the weather forecast for the next day which gave that Devon and Cornwall was going to bear the brunt of a deep low pressure storm which was 'unusual' for this time of year. Sure enough I woke to the sound of heavy rain and gusty Southerly winds which at the time of writing have become worse in the strength of wind. Good job my wife's hanging baskets are residing in the kitchen having been brought inside.
I am not looking forward to seeing the aftermath when I return to our allotment site as it was just starting to recover and now from looking at the damage to my own garden o/s the window, know that bean rows, Sweet Williams, Lupins,
Cosmos will all have suffered.

We are a tough lot and will rectify everything, with a smile of course.

On the positive side, we don't grow maincrop potatoes here due to constant mid season blight problems but yesterday we were visited by a chap who donated 50kg of maincrop Sarpo Mira for us to try. According to JBA potatoes, this are the best blight resistant tubers available so we will give them a try.