January, February, March and April are history and it has been a slow start to the gardening season. January and April were cold while February and March were cool. If you are planting seeds indoors or in a propagator then the weather in the first 2 months of the year is not too critical. However, you soon run out of space to grow on the tomatoes, cukes, squashes, chillies, peas and beans, etc if it is too cold even for polytunnel. Onions were planted in mid-March and main-crop potatoes at the beginning of April - they both got off to a slow start but did not seem to suffer too much.
On the first day of May, it is apple blossom time and the sun is shining.
It is now May 17th; the sun is still shining and Mary is enjoying the Paradise Garden. The apple blossom has gone but there is plenty of fruit on the trees. The wisteria and mountain ash (rowanberry) are now in flower.
The red berries that follow the flowers on the mountain ash will provide plenty of food in the autumn for the blackbirds and starlings. The pigeons also seem to like this fruit but they are too heavy for most of the branches - it is amusing to see them try, however.
Our red Acer is also looking good - it provides plenty of colour and only needs the occasional trim to keep its shape. I think we put it a root bag to resrict its growth. The spade handle was painted narrowboat-style by Mary.
It is now the end of May and there is a bit of a lull in the flowers as we await the summer season. Although not easy to see from this vantage point, the medlar (left foreground) is flowering and will provide enough fruit for a few medlar pies.
A summary of weather data from our Davis Weather Station is presented in the table below along with the comparative data from May 2020 (in red). May (2021) followed the same script as the first 4 months of the year being cold and wet with conditions far from ideal for gardening. A permanent low pressure system seemed to hang over the UK all month bringing in the cold and wet from the North Atlantic.
Whereas in 2020 I was able to plant out tender vegetables (e.g. sweetcorn, peas, beans, courgettes, squashes) in late April, this year I had to replant towards the end of May because the cold just did for the young plants. Similarly, in the polytunnel early cukes and tomatoes plants failed and new sowings were made. Such is the life of a gardener - you try to get a head start but nature doesn't follow our rules.
May 2021 (2020) |
Weather Parameter | Value | Dates |
Average Monthly Temperature | 11 oC (15 oC) |
|
Maximum Monthly Temperature | 24 oC (27 oC) | 31st |
Minimum Monthly Temperature | 0 oC (0 oC) | 1st, 2nd |
Number of Air Frost Days | 0 (1) |
|
Number of Hot Days (> 25 oC) | 0 (12) |
|
Monthly Precipitation | 94.6 mm (4.6 mm) |
|
Greatest 24 h Precipitation | 15.8 mm (2.8 mm) | 12th - 13th |
Number of Dry Days | 12 (27) |
|
Monthly Sunshine Hours (estimated) | 186 (240) |
|
Average Wind Speed | 4 km/h (4 km/h) |
|
Highest Wind Speed | 43 km/h (45 km/h) | 3rd, 4th |
Maximum Barometric Pressure (Sea Level) | 1037.7 hPa (1049.6 hPa) | 30th |
Minimum Barometric Pressure (Sea Level) | 994.4 hPa (985.0 hPa) | 21st |
Average Barometric Pressure (Sea Level) | 1009.6 hPa (1022.1 hPa) |
|
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