Kitchen Garden Forum

Just managed to finish clearing the driveway this morning before the hail and heavy rain arrived. It is a gravel driveway, and people like to store their empty wrappers there, amongst the dead leaves under the hedge.

Quite a pleasant day today. Sunny most of the time

I had a few Charlotte seed potatoes left, so I planted them in tubs.

Made up 3 tubs with a mixture of topsoil and FYM, and a wigwam of canes, for the sweet peas.

Sat on the bench with the dog in the sun for a while

Busy day all round really

Dismantled the brassica cage, cleared the debris.
Cleared the last potato row and dug over roughly.
Ready to use the Merry Tiller on the cage area to hack in and the potato area to break the spade lumps up s bit. Then my new Apache RTT3 on all dug areas bar a strip on one plot. The Apache can o Virginia ground, but only in small horizontal slices, any deeper and it launches off the rotors, so tomorrow I see how it cope with Merry Tiller ground. The MT just doesn't do a tilth.

Thought things were growing slowly in the greenhouse this year, it is heated. Then doing my numbers for the month end I found my solar panel generation for April was only 85% of last year's figure, guess that could be a clue.

I'm glad you're enjoying your weather station too Geoff. I'm finding the info fascinating and it should be very useful .

I don't think the station is as accurate/reliable as I would like for rainfall. I'm beginning to wonder if I should have paid over double for a better one then I could have added extra sensors like soil temperature.

It's why I haven't gone for a weather station yet Geoff, I'm never happy if I buy what I consider in hind site to be a compromise.

Ideally my weather station would be attached to the mast and electrics of our WiFi relay at the top of hill alongside the NATS beacon, in that way I would get more accurate wind strength and direction together with a view over the Preselli hills. Everything would have to work from 24 volts and very vulnerable to weather.

The fun fund is low, so low I even bought a domestic electric machine for ripping the moss out of the grasses and general scarifying etc, I'll probably regret buying it.

Originally I bought a very cheap one from a company that I was looking at for a vertical axis wind turbine and followed their instructions to mount it quite high as predictably we were trying to collect good wind data. They analysed the data and decided a turbine was not economical, there are two conventional ones not far above me so I am not sure about their conclusion. That never gave sensible rain data but I put it down to price and design. When this station got smashed by Desmond last year I bought the new one and tried it out at a couple of feet off the ground and it seemed OK then I got a 3 metre galvanised pole and mounted it at about 4 metres as I already had a short piece of tube. The rainfall data went very erratic which I assumed was caused by the vibration / slight sway. I have now lowered it to about 2½ metres clamped firmly to the side of the fruit cage with the last support at about 2 metres but I am still not convinced about the rain data when it is windy, as it usually is!

Your wind direction indicator is regularly going through 45 degrees and has gone through 180 degrees, presumably its this particular direction. My anemometer is fairly steady in this direction which is SSW. You are showing SW, SSW, S and have shown NW..

I may get some help from the WiFi provider if my proposed station offers a security option for the equipment they have installed that could get stolen, the wind turbine and solar collector alone would cost well,over £1000. Then there are batteries.

Other than our mist that is coming off the sea our weathers/wind are very similar.

Caught up!

Both plots now thoroughly rotovated, Merry Tiller followed by Apache. Interesting how different times for the first MT'ing have resulted in different colours due to varIations in water content.

Just arrived home after a five day absence, worried that my veg seedlings might not have survived withiut watering. Luckily they had but only 4 of my 26 climbing French beans had germinated and the rest had rotted in their loo rolls Giving them just the right amount of moisture is something I always find diffixult. I will have to resow and this time try the damp tissue paper route. Second sowing od Gardeners Delight tomatoes from same packet (2014) has also failed so reckon seeds must have been faulty in some way.

My tumbling tomatoes have developed faster than anticipated and are now showing their first flowers. Far too early to plant outdoors so will have to repot into bigger pots until the weather warms up.

My back room is still full of stuff, & that's not including the new mittens!

Usually by now I have moved most of the stuff to the unheated greenhouse, but temperature is fluctuating too much for that! Had no choice with some of the tomatoes as they were way too huge to keep potting on so had to go into their final destination. They look quite perky actually, but decision was fleece over them at night and as in big pot of soil unlikely to freeze if a bit damp from watering.

Fortunately looks like spring has finally read her e-mails though & warmer weather ahead! Harvested that asparagus spear yesterday with only about 1/2 dozen others - 2 weeks+ to reach a decent size when normally 1 or 2 days & ready to go! Said fluctuating temperature - twas a right tasty spear though, even if not particularly filling!

Westi