The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: oor wullie on August 29, 2015, 02:43:53 pm
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OK, not quite like 1816 but nevertheless.
I have only lived in my current place for 3 years so don't have a firsthand knowledge of how the weather has been over the longer term however it appears that this has been a significantly below average spring and summer (winter had relatively few frosts and none that were properly cold).
A few examples;
Spring was very late and our grass didn't really start to grow until well into June and it still hasn't caught up with where it has been in previous years.
A big show along the road, which was scheduled for the last Saturday in September, has been cancelled already as the field they hold it in contains barley and they reckon there is now no-chance it will be combinable before October. In fact, yesterday I drove 65miles up the east coast from Inverness (through the best farmland in this part of the world, much of it near sea level) and only passed 2 fields that had been combined. Some cereal fields were still nearly as green as grass.
This year the last snow still visible on the hill behind out house (at an altitude of only 620m) didn't melt until the 2nd July.
This morning I picked some red currants but there are still quite a few that are not ripe yet. We did our elderflower cordial making at the end of July/start of August but if I wanted more I know there are still some flowers on the trees. Who knows when we will get elderberries.
I hear that up until a few weeks ago some of the farmers in the islands still had their cattle indoors and were having to feed them.
Once again today it is not going to get about about 14 degrees and the sun just a mythical thing that people talk about after they have come back from holidays.
Makes me glad that although we like to produce what food we can we are not dependent on it and if something fails we can just pop into a shop and buy food.
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Very different down here. . . . .lots and lots of day above 20 C and plenty above 25 C. Had more issue with not enough rain, and grass burning off than anything else. With this recent down pour, the grass has started to motor and i'm now once again under stocked!
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OH repairs grain dryers and he's been called up to the border area today because there is a problem and they are waiting to bring the grain in.
(should have been yesterday but suppliers didn't send the part)
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Very different down here. . . . .lots and lots of day above 20 C and plenty above 25 C. Had more issue with not enough rain, and grass burning off than anything else. With this recent down pour, the grass has started to motor and i'm now once again under stocked!
I don't know where 'down here' is but definitely not over here in South Wales ......... top temp was about 22degrees one day in July ......... August a washout!
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Here, in Shropshire, we've had some hot days but not many. We are getting rain now but more showers than downpours. My mum has just been visiting from the south-east and heard from her friend that it's been nothing but rain there, whereas we've been able to get out every day and hardly got wet.
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2012 was like that, too much rain and 2011 had been a drought. 2013 the ground was too hard, the winter was so harsh and I had to bring all my animals in and 2014 was a really good year. 2015 hasn't been too bad except for fly strike. Every year is different and am sure next year will be better.
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This is the second August that's been very wet up here (Moray).
Not as much rain as last year - the local village was flooded in 2014 when the river burst the banks. Some of our friends are still clearing up from that one.
This year has been cold too - the grass was very slow to start and we were feeding hay to our cattle up to the end of June when in previous years we'd stopped in mid May.
We managed to get a reasonable crop of hay from our lower fields - cut on 11 July & baled on 22nd. Steve spent a few days madly turning it whenever possible and our luck held long enough to make the hay.
Overall it has been a weird summer - turning the heating on in mid August was unusual, wonder what the winter will bring...
Sue
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Very different down here. . . . .lots and lots of day above 20 C and plenty above 25 C. Had more issue with not enough rain, and grass burning off than anything else. With this recent down pour, the grass has started to motor and i'm now once again under stocked!
I don't know where 'down here' is but definitely not over here in South Wales ......... top temp was about 22degrees one day in July ......... August a washout!
I live in South Wales. Maybe i've just been lucky.
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Not as wet here as it was last year :raining:, but you're right - there has just been no summer at all. Usually we have at least a couple of weeks of nice sunshine, but not this year I'm afraid :gloomy:.
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Usually we have at least a couple of weeks of nice sunshine
We had two nice weeks in April :)
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You might have done, Rosemary!! :raining:
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We had 4 dry days in April, 4 dotted around in May, June , July and August.
The wettest summer here for a long time. We were still feeding hay in May which is almost unheard of.
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We have only been here a year but all the locals have been saying this year has been the longest wettest winter they can remember and the summer not much better. :raining:
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The rain's been a bit warmer than usual this year :raining: :excited:
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We have a very normal summer so far some needed rain when needed and some dry days when needed too so far have not reach temp of 100 F just came out of a very few cool nights low temp of 61F near record for August in Alabama
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I live in the Costa East Angula , one of the driest parts of it. Spring was really late and the winter was a bit wet but by March the ground was dry and I was worried there would be no grass so I spread fertiliser on everything. It has rained practically every week, so the newly sown lawn is being mown twice a week in July and August, this week I did it two days in a row just to see how much it had grown in a day.
Harvest has been a bit behind, but the fields behind me have been ploughed, limed and sown so with the rain I expect it to start greening up next week.
I suppose what I have noticed most is the cool nights, we had one week when it was warm at night but otherwise for here its been cool, so things have not really grown as much as they could.
We have been putting up a fence and have been amazed how dry has been a foot or more down but its solid clay so the water must just run off.
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Just noticed today, that's the leaves starting to turn :-\
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cheer up guys, there is always next year and who knows it could be like 2011, when one of the hottest days was the 1st october, who knows 8)
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We had summer today ;D
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Summer here in Aberdeenshire I'm quite tanned/pink from topless roofing, being closer to the sun makes all the difference .
We've had a couple of years in the time up here where it seemed there was no summer, hay lost, constant mud, one afternoon I sat in the steading looking out at the rain hammering down in the company of the garden birds and the swallows, lots of despondent faces that day, lots of water came off the fields and the house got a bit of a flood.... and we are on a slope ! currants , We gave the birds seeds , mealworms and currants ( The blackbirds take them from the hand )
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Maybe we've been particularly lucky here in our wee corner of God's country, but it hasn't been too bad. Not hot - we've had the odd single day where it's been 20C but mostly it's been 15/16/17C, which tbh, is hot enough for me when working outside. We've not had a flood or a drought - the local tattie farmers haven't had to irrigate and have now sprayed off the haulms - and the combines are working away.
Our grass was slow in spring but it's fine now. We had two lovely weeks in April just as we were lambing then May wasn't so good - we've got one block of apple trees that set no fruit and these are the ones that flower then and therewere just no insects flying. Bees had spat oot the dummy and were sulking in teh hives.
The tomatoes are mostly green still in the polytunnel and I don't hold out much hope for the sweetcorn; on the positive side, the courgettes have done badly ;D
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Well over in this part of Aberdeenshire it has been very wet and cold >:(
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The only good things in the garden are the courgettes I grew from seed. This is the variety.....
http://www.thompson-morgan.com/vegetables/vegetable-seeds/pumpkin-squash-and-courgette-seeds/courgette-black-forest-f1-hybrid/783TM (http://www.thompson-morgan.com/vegetables/vegetable-seeds/pumpkin-squash-and-courgette-seeds/courgette-black-forest-f1-hybrid/783TM)
They have been so productive, I have 4 courgette plants and all are producing more than enough.
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The big problem naw El nine is high the autumn equinox 23and it's cold naw. You will find it will cool quicker. Sunny days cold nights. The grain protean is high if it's not dawn to 15%you can't cut at 20%naw. That's a month to sort. If duew is hard you can't start till mid day. The stock will suffer late on.. IM taking lamps to York to sell a gamble. The last sales soon dark days await. A couple of pics to Brighton the day up.
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Cornwall - there isn't much south or west of us, but we have a bit of altitude - 175m.
We've had a few days sunshine, a fair bit of rain and alot of fog at speeds up to 40mph
Been a bit rubbish this year.
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Dan took the reading off the PV cells today. Not surprisingly, July 2015 was 20% down on 2014 but, on the other hand, August 2015 was slightly above 2014.
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has been a bit of a cool and damp summer here - not nearly as wet as 2012, mind, but my main gripe is this is the last year I can apply weedkiller without a PA6 cert and even when the weather's dry, it's with the threat of scattered heavy showers, and it's a struggle to find enough dry hours forecast to get as much bracken sprayed as I want - and some of the bracken has already started to turn due to the cool nights :rant: .
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Couldn't you just plow it over the winter? Would that get rid of it or would it make it worse, or Would it do nothing at all? the only problem for me this summer is the ragwort and flystrike. I had 5 get it, but I got them before it became serious. Am still on the lookout for odd behaviour.
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OH was mending a grain dryer yesterday, they were bringing it in at over 20%, they said it was better that than it being flattened by the wind/rain.
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Couldn't you just plow it over the winter? Would that get rid of it or would it make it worse, or Would it do nothing at all? the only problem for me this summer is the ragwort and flystrike. I had 5 get it, but I got them before it became serious. Am still on the lookout for odd behaviour.
plowing before winter and leaving the roots open to the frost does work but not for me alas, as the land's too steep to plow.
not had flystrike so far (phew!), but that may be the breed of sheep.
Sycamores are turning here now :(
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I have had to have the horses in at night as its been so wet and cold. Never needed to do this in September.
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So last night the temp went down to 4 C.
We worked out that we have had only two nights this 'summer' when we could leave the polytunnel open overnight, and we have worn shorts only twice this year. I'm wearing my winter jumper, and definitely can't wear short sleeves outside in this northerly wind.
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Where I am its 14-15 c so about average. I get that in spring on a sunny day. You never know though it may be a really nice summer next year. Am just concerned that i won't get my second lot of hay in :gloomy: