August 2020

Saturday 1st

 14 to 20 to 14°C. 6.58kWh. A very different day to the last day of July. Much cooler and cloudy with a few spots of rain.

Continued moving the chrysanthemum pots into the newly dug bed.

Sunday 2nd

12 to 20 to 14°C. 8.68kWh 1.6kW max. A better day but still quite cool for August.

Monday 3rd

 10 to 16 to 12°C. 7.98kWh 1.7kW max. Mainly cloudy with a cold westerly wind and some light drizzle.

Looks like we are going to have a large blackberry crop to put in the freezer to go with the enormous Bramley apple crop so we will have plenty of blackberry and apple pies this autumn and winter. I have also discovered they go well with yoghurt, nearly as good as stewed rhubarb does.

Tuesday 4th

8 to 18 to 16°C. 3.84kWh 500W max. Another cloudy day with some short light showers. The wind has moved to the south so it feels warmer.

Continued potting on the chrysanthemum cuttings. Some might be big enough to flower this year, though I will restrict the number of blooms or sprays to only 1 or 2.

Wednesday 5th

 16 to 22 to 18°C. 5.13kWh 1.8kW max. Mainly cloudy with a short sunnier period around midday. The wind has dropped and moved south so feeling warmer.

Started reorganising the dahlias.

Thursday 6th

17 to 26 to 20°C. 6.68kWh 1.6kW max. Another warm mainly cloudy day. Very pleasant with only a light breeze and no hot sunshine.

Friday 7th

17 to 29 to 18°C 9.94kWh 1.9kW max. 42°C in the polytunnel. A hot sunny day but with some thin cloud managed to work mainly in the shade.

The polyanthus, primrose and viola mini-plugs arrived in the afternoon. I have left them to soak overnight.

Saturday 8th

 16 to 25 to 18°C. 5.85kWh 800W max. Cloudy warm and very humid with some short sunnier spells.

Not feeling well with asthma, down to 25% lung function most of the time despite taking many doses of salbutamol inhalation. Cause unknown but maybe it is just this very oppressive weather. However I did manage to move the miniplugs into 12 cell trays.

Sunday 9th

15 to 23 to 16°C. 4.78kWh 800W max. Another very warm cloudy and humid day.

Still suffering from asthma but it seems to be improving this evening.

Monday 10th

 14 to 26 to 18°C 7.89kWh 1.8kW max. A very warm humid day with sunny periods but also some dark clouds. Caught the edge of a thunderstorm (2mm rain) in the late afternoon.

Feeling better. Managed to pick 3 crates of the larger Bramley apples before it rained.

The borehole pump failed just after the thunderstorm but the two were not connected. Looks like an electrical fault. Hopefully we can get someone to fix it tomorrow. If we are careful (no baths or showers, no clothes washing, flushing the toilet with washing up water or rain water) there is around 4 days worth of water in the loft tanks.

Tuesday 11th

17 to 29 to 20°C. 9.12kWh 1.9kW max. A very hot sunny day becoming more humid by evening. Continous lightning and thunder around 10:30pm followed by heavy rain.

Picked some of the larger Laxton's apples and also more little green plums from various places round the garden and hedges.

Rang the local water engineer. They might ring back tomorrow.

Wednesday 12th

 19 to 29 to 19°C. 10.77kWh 1.8kW max. 8mm of rain overnight from the thunderstorm continuing past midnight. Then a very hot and sunny day till late in the afternoon when it started to thunder again. By 9pm it was raining with continous lightning and thunder still around at 11pm as I am writing this. So far a total of 18mm rain has fallen and it hasn't caused the temperature to drop.

The water engineer came at 9am and soon determined it was just an electrical fault with the borehole pump. The capacitor which kick-starts the pump when it starts up had failed so he replaced it. He also tested its efficiency and it is still running just as well as 2004 when it was installed, which just shows that when it is necessary to build machinery that lasts it is possible to do so. I often suspect that a lot of modern products have a built in shorter life that they used to have.

Picked some more Bramley apples before it rained again.

Thursday 13th

 19 to 23 to 19°C. 9.32kWh 1.7kW max. A total of 21mm rain overnight buy clear and sunny by the morning. Thin cloud for most of the day, not feeling as humid with only  a few spots of rain.

Friday 14th

 17 to 25 to 19°C. 4.65kWh 600W max. Mainly cloudy and less humid so with no hot sun a very pleasant day.

Despite the netting a Cabbage White butterfly hasgot inside and laid eggs on the late cabbages. I think we have found and squashed all the caterpillars but we will need to keep a watch to see if there are any more. Only one heart has been badly eaten.

Saturday 15th

14 to 22 to 17°C. 8.49kWh 1.4kW max. Thin cloud with hazy sunshine and a light westerly breeze.

Dug up all the maincrop potatoes apart from the Sarpo Axona which has not yet died back. A good yield of at least 10 to 1 despite the late frost and very dry April and May weather.

Sunday 16th

 16 to 20 to 16°C. 2.69kWh 600W max. Caught the edge of a thunderstorm early in the morning with 3mm rain. Stayed dull and damp for most of the day before heavy rain in the evening totalling 11mm.

Picked the Mirabelle plums while it was dry in the afternoon. Another very heavy crop picked before most were ripe. There was a lot of yeast growth on many of the riper plums because of the damp weather so they will be safer ripening off the tree but will need constant sorting to keep them sound.

Monday 17th

15 to 20 to 16°C. 3.81kWh 300W max. Another dull damp day though the light rain and drizsle only amounted to 3mm. All the water butts and tanks are full so I gave the polytunnel a good watering.

Tuesday 18th

 14 to 22 to 16°C. 7.66kWh 2kW max. 6mm of rain overnight clearing to a sunny morning but overcast again by the afternoon.

Strong winds are forecast for later in the week so I have reinforced the windbreak protecting the chrysanthemums. Pat picked an enormous cabbage. Yoo much for us so the hens got half; they really do like cabbage.

Wednesday 19th

14 to 22 to 18°C. 2.37kWh 300W max. Started raining in the night and continued all day though mainly light rain or drizzle to a total of 7mm. A dry spell after dinner gave us a chance for a bicycle ride before it starting drizzling again.

Thursday 20th

 16 to 22 to 16°C. 11.24kWh 2kW max. Very sunny in the morning with some cloud in the afternoon. The blustery wind caused it to feel cooler than the thermometer suggested.

Did some weeding down the side of the drive. This wet weather has caused the weeds to grow taller than the flowers I planted or swamp them in the case of chickweed and convolvulus.

Friday 21st

14 to 17 to 14°C. 2.85kWh 500W max. Very windy with some short heavy showers to a total of 7mm. The windbreak appears to be protecting the chrysanthemums quite well.

Saturday 22nd

 12 to 19 to 15°C. 7.19kWh 1.9kW max. A better day with sunny periods and a few short showers. The wind has also dropped.

The anthirrhinum plug plants arrived. Moved them into 12 cell trays.

Sunday 23rd

12 to 18 to 14°C. 2.38kWh 1.4kW max. Mainly cloudy with a few short showers and very little wind.

Monday 24th

 12 to 19 to 14°C. 9.15kWh 1.9kW max. Sunny morning becoming cloudy and breezy in the afternoon.

The last of the plug plants came; the mystery gift. Turned out to be more primroses but I do need a lot to replace those all down the drive. The originals have died and been replaced with reseeded plants which are not as strong or varied in colour. Moved them into small pots along with some of the polyanthus which I planted in cell trays two weeks ago and are now large enough to repot.

Tuesday 25th

14 to 19 to 14°C. 3.74kWh 1.5kW max. Rained most of the night turning to drizzle by the morning, 24mm in total. Came brighter for a while but very windy and the wind became even stronger and very gusty in the afternoon blowing twigs and small branches off the trees but no major damage.

Continued repotting the polyanthus.

Wednesday 26th

 12 to 18 to 13°C. 4.09kWh 600W max. Cloudy with 1mm drizzly rain. The wind has dropped.

Continued potting on the winter bedding, finishing the polyanthus and starting the violas. Two of the viola plantlets already have a flower open on them.

Thursday 27th

12 to 14 to 12°C. 1.52kWh 150W max. A cloudy day with 3mm of light and drizzle. Not the weather you expect for late August. This is the 5th month this year with more than 100mm rainfall.

Friday 28th

 12 to 15 to 10°C. 3.17kWh. Another damp day (3mm light rain and drizzle) with a cold northerly wind.

Saturday 29th

9 to 14 to 10°C. 9.9kWh 1.7kW max. Sunny morning, clouding over in the afternoon. Felt warmer if you could find shelter from the wind.

Started cutting back the herbaceous borders; most of the plants are dying back thinking it is autumn.

Sunday 30th

 7 to 14 to 9°C. 8.55kWh 1.8kW max. Sunny but with a cold northerly breeze. It may be even colder tomorrow making it the coldest Bank Holiday on record. Last year was the hottest!

Finished cutting back the herbaceous borders.

Monday 31st

 5 to 17 to 12°C. 8.48kWh 1.7kW max. Quite cold overnight but soon warmed up. Quite a pleasant day if you were sheltered from the northerly wind which I was when cutting back the north hedge.