May 2013
Feel free to browse through my photos below. You can click on any image thumbnail to expand it.
Wednesday 1st
2 to 18 to 6°C 11.32kWh 2.3kW max. A pleasant Spring day with broken thin cloud and long sunny intervals. Planted out the onions which have been growing in trays in the polytunnel up till now. This gets them started earlier and even more importantly, makes it less likely we will have to spend time every day pushing them back into the soil after the thrushes and blackbirds have lifted them up!!
Thursday 2nd
1 to 17 to 8°C. 13.77kWh 2.3kW max. Clear blue sky and sunshine all day with a few wisps of cloud and only a slight breeze. Planted out the Karmazyn broad beans and sowed the parsnips in the bed I prepared last week. The rest of the afternoon was spent moving more hardy plants out of the polytunnel
Friday 3rd
5 to 20 to 11°C. 10.34kWh 2.3kW max. Thin cloud with a stronger breeze but still feeling warm for the time of year. Started to pot on the begonia tubers we overwintered in the conservatory. Some of these are more than 5 years old and the tubers nearly fill the top of a 3L pot.
Saturday 4th
5 to 20 to 9°C. 8.7kWh 2.1kW max. Thin cloud with a few short showers in the morning. Cleared in the afternoon. Potted up the rest of the squashes and the cucumbers then started pricking out the brassicas (sprouts, kale, broccoli, cabbage and calabrese).
Sunday 5th
6 to 19 to 9°C. 5.63kWh 1.4kW max. Mainly overcast with a warm southerly breeze and a few sunny intervals in the afternoon. Cleared in the evening. Made a start on trying to dig out the dandelions, creeping buttercup, cleavers, nettles, docks, rye grass and cow parsley in the wild garden. I suppose if it really was wild I would let them grow but the trouble is that they would completely smother everything else. The mats of wild flowers I sowed in trays are now big enough to put down there.
Monday 6th
4 to 22 to 11°C. 11.71kWh 2.3kW max. Thin broken cloud with a warm southerly breeze. The warmest day this year so far. Moved the trays of wild flowers out of the polytunnel so they can harden off before moving them down into the wild garden once I have cleared an area for them. Continued to prick out the brassicas into trays, also the basil.
Tuesday 7th
5 to 25 to 13°C. 12.68kWh 2.2kW max. Sunny all day with only a light breeze. Went up to 41°C in the polytunnel by late afternoon which was unfortunate because most of the work is in there at the moment. Felt like a sauna when you were in there and coming out the air felt quite cold even though it was in the mid 20s.
Wednesday 8th
9 to 19 to 9°C. 4.26kWh 1.6kW max. A very different day to yesterday; overcast with a few short brighter spells in the morning. A gadget I ordered last week arrived today. It is designed to divert the excess electricity generated by the solar panels into the immersion heater rather than feeding it into the grid. Took a little longer to fit than I expected so by the time it was working in the afternoon there wasn't much electricity being generated by the cloudy skies. Yesterday there would have been the equivalent of leaving the 3KW heater on for more than 3 hours; plenty for washing the clothes and dishes, maybe even a bath.
Thursday 9th
5 to 16 to 9°C. 7.12kWh 1.8Kw max. Rained a little overnight. Cloudy and windy with a few sunny intervals in the morning but overcast with some short heavy showers later in the day. The temperature in the polytunnel in the afternoon was only 14, only around a 3rd that of two days ago.
Friday 10th
8 to 18 to 8°C. 6.74kWh 1.6kW max. Similar weather to yesterday but feeling a little warmer in the afternoon. Despite the overcast skies there is quite a lot of electricity being diverted into the hot water system.
Saturday 11th
4 to 15 to 5°C. 6.47kWh 1.8kW max. Bright start but soon clouded over with heavy showers and and cold wind in the afternoon.
Sunday 12th
4 to 12 to 10°C. 4.03kWh 1.4kW max. Another bright start after a clear cold night but again clouded over with rain by late morning and continued with showery rain and leaden skies for the rest of the day. Managed to sow the main crop peas Onward and Alderman before the rain came. We have lost a hen. Only three appeared from the hut this morning when I let them out. Pat isn't sure whether they were all there last night when she shut them in. There is a very small gap in the netting with a few feathers nearby. Something must have grabbed it before they went in last night. The gap is too small for a fox; there has been talk of wild mink taking hens so maybe this is what happened? We have tried to make the netting even more secure. It is a shame this has happened again. These were very good hens, laying 4 eggs almost every day for the last three weeks. I suppose we shall have to manage with 3 a day now.
Monday 13th
7 to 16 to 3°C. 11.5kWh 2.3kW max. Sunny intervals with short heavy showers and still that cold north westerly breeze making it feel colder than the thermometer suggests. Easier to work in the polytunnel though very noisy with the continuously flapping cover. The solar electricity diverter warmed up the hot water tank really well; enough for me to have a bath. Usually we only have hot water in the winter when the log stove is lit.
Tuesday 14th
3 to 14 to 6°C. 8.63kWh 2.1kW max. Bright clear sunny start but with a few short heavy showers but by mid-afternoon these turned into continuous heavy rain which was still falling late into the evening. I expect all our rain stores to be full again by the morning.
Wednesday 15th
5 to 13 to 3°C. 6.18kWh 1.5kW max. Rained heavily all night, finally stopping just before noon. The ditches full to overflowing and many fields are flooded nearly as badly as they were earlier in the year. It might have been dry for several weeks recently but the underlying soil is still waterlogged. Looks like we might need to restrict the amount of waste water going into the septic tank again. Finally finished moving the potatoes into larger polypots and planted the last of the begonia corms into pots.
Thursday 16th
3 to 17 to 7°C. 9.83kWh 2.3kW max. Cold sunny start but soon warmed up with some long sunny spells and broken fluffy clouds. Very little breeze meant it felt quite warm. Dug plenty of compost into the brassica beds which I will leave to settle for a few days before starting to plant them.
Friday 17th
6 to 16 to 6°C. 5.34kWh 2.2kW max. Overcast with a few sunnier periods. Spent most of the afternoon joining the last 2 water butts into the storage system. Rain is forecast so we might as well make sure we can collect as much as possible in case there is a long dry period in June; surely we are due for a proper summer this year?
Saturday 18th
7 to 16 to 9°C. 8.37kWh 1.9kW max. Broken fluffy clouds with long sunny spells. Feeling quite warm out of the breeze. Went back to digging weeds out of large areas of the garden; Pat in the vegetable garden under the Bramley tree and me in the wild garden to clear some space for the mats of wild flowers which are now starting to flower. This rain has made them grow but has also made them easier to dig up.
Sunday 19th
5 to 19 to 8°C. 10.63kWh 2.3kW max. Thin cloud with strong sun in the afternoon. Planted out the first of the brassica seedlings big enough to move: Minicole cabbags, Calabrese Aquiles and Borecole Darkibor. The trays containing the Golden Acre cabbage, which I had left draining in a tray on the floor of the polytunnel have been nibbled by rabbits; at least half of them had been neatly bitten off at the top of the stalk. Fortunately I had kept the remaining seedlings in the their seed tray and was able to replace them. I have never known rabbits go inside the polytunnel before. We have at least three young ones in the garden; maybe more but that is the most I have seen together. So I need to keep a barrier across the door from now on. I am getting rather fed-up with rabbits in the last couple of years. We are needing to surround more and more of the garden with netting to keep them out.
Monday 20th
6 to 17 to 12°C. 5.27kWh 600W max. Overcast and humid. Back to weeding but started to feel unwell with usual asthma a aching so didn't do much.
Tuesday 21st
6 to 14 to 6°C. 3.18kW 500W max. Overcast with some very light drizzle at times. Finally cleared early in the evening. We have lost another two hens leaving us with only one left. There are feathers everywhere and some look like they have been plucked not torn out. They have been taken away but there are no signs outside the run so we can only conclude that it was a bird of prey which has done this. The only big birds are buzzards and possibly the female goshawk but I am surprised either would be strong enough to fly off with a fully grown chicken?? So we have reduced the size of the run and covered it with netting. If the remaining one is still around in few days we will try and get some more but keep them more protected, possibly fully closed into a wire mesh cage which we can periodically move around the garden. Not really what you can call free-range but what other choice is there?
Wednesday 22nd
6 to 14 to 8°C. 7.13kWh 1.7kW max. Broken cloud with sunny intervals but not feeling very warm in the strong NW wind. Moved compost onto more of the brassica beds in preparation for planting out more of the seedlings.
Thursday 23rd
4 to 10 to 5°C. 7.43kWh 2.1kW max. Sunny intervals, especially around lunchtime but with many short heavy showers and a cold northerly wind. Even so managed to dig some more compost into the brassica beds and generally tidying up in preparation for moving the chrysanthemums and potatoes out of the polytunnel once it warms up.
Friday 24th
6 to 9 to 5°C. 4.96kWh 1.5kW max. A very windy day with a few sunny intervals between black clouds and heavy showers. More like April than May. Cleared late in the evening to a still moonlit night. The wind brought down another tree in the hedge behind the polytunnel but fortunately it missed damaging it. So spent most of the afternoon dodging the showers and cutting it up.
Saturday 25th
4 to 17 to 6°C. 14.54kWh 2.3kW max. A much better day with sunshine and clear skies apart from 2 hours in the afternoon. Spent most of the day moving plants out of the polytunnel.
Sunday 26th
3 to 20 to 7°C. 14.37kWh 2.3kW max. Another almost entirely sunny day. Spent most of the morning fixing the gutter along the east side of the house. It was damaged by the heavy snow we had last winter and this is the first day when it wasn't cold, raining or windy since then. I needed to glue the metal fixings back into the wall and this required it to be dry, above 10°C and no wind so the gutter wouldn't blow about before the adhesive cured. In the afternoon I started to move the potato polybags out of the polytunnel; I should finish that tomorrow and then can start planting the tomatoes, squashes and peppers.
Monday 27th
3 to 20 to 9°C. 8.79lWh 2.3kW max. Bright sunny start but soon started to cloud over with light rain in the afternoon and a few short heavier showers. Cleared again late in the evening but more rain is forecast for tomorrow. Typical Bank Holiday weather! Managed to move the rest of the potatoes out of the polytunnel before it rained and then dug over the empty beds in the afternoon in preparation for planting out the tomatoes, squashes etc. Sarah has come for her annual rest from her three boys for the next few days. Hopefully the weather will improve again after tomorrow.
Tuesday 28th
8 to 12 to 10°C. 2.99kWh 900W max. Light rain all night and most of the morning with much heavier rain in the afternoon and early evening then back to occasional light rain. Couldn't work outside but plenty to do in the polytunnel planting the tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, cucumbers, courgettes and squashes. All the rainwater storage (around 4500L) is now full to overflowing.
Wednesday 29th
8 to 16 to 12°C. 4.00kWh 800W max. A slightly better day. Still overcast and very humid but the rain held off till late in the afternoon and even then was not very heavy. Took the opportunity to move quite a lot of the water from the storage into the poytunnel before it rained again; some of the ground was quite dry. Planted out the rest of the squashes and then watered them in again. In the afternoon moved all 76 trays of wild flowers down to nearer the wild garden so we could move the summer bedding into the cold frames and finally clear the polytunnel apart from the pots of begonias. Finally planted out the early broccoli and Brussels sprouts into the beds inside the fruit cage before it rained.
Thursday 30th
11 to 16 to 11°C. 5.14kWh 1.6kW max. A better day though rather overcast with some very light drizzle at times. Cleared later in the day so we went for a walk with Sarah round the back lanes in the evening.
Friday 31st
8 to 20 to 9°C. 13.91kWh 2.1kW max. May with a total of 253kWh was the best month for generating electricity in the last 12 months the second best being July with 238kWh but both of these were beaten by May last year with 269kWh. Long sunny intervals, feeling warm if you stay out of the strong northerly breeze. Next job is rather boring but essential; removing the large weeds from large areas of the garden, particularly nettles, docks, cow parsley, creeping buttercup and cleavers. They have grown very large with all the wet periods earlier in the year but at least this makes the ground softer and they can be easily pulled up with only little loosening with a fork.
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