Week 26 - Overview

Some of the plants are doing well, and others are struggling. After the drought of March and April, the garden is now saturated! There was no rain today, but in the past 7 days, we have had over 52mm of rain - as much as we would normally expect in the whole month - including a downpour of over 24mm last Tuesday when we aborted the class!

This map of Ireland from the Met Éireann web site shows the amount of rainfall for the past week as a percentage of what we would normally expect (the garden is located in Dublin at the middle of the east coast - close to the 416% figure). It has been a very rainy period with only 1/3 of the sunshine that we would normally expect.

This diagram show how much rainfall would be needed to provide the soil with as much water as it could hold (without draining excess away). With a figure of 2mm, any more rain will start to saturate the soil, affecting plant growth. Luckily there is better weather on the way - though not great for this time of year.

May Weather

The weather was warm and sunny, for the most part, but more unsettled than April and generally drier that usual - continuing the dry conditions that have been affecting the growing conditions since the middle of March.

Only 35mm of rain fell this month (Dublin Airport conditions 16km away), but we would normally expect to get in the region of 55mm. The mean temperature for the month was only slightly above normal at 10.8 degrees C. The mean soil temperature was about 1 degree higher at 13.8C and the total amount of solar radiation for the month (intensity of energy from the sun including overcast days) was about 15% higher than normal (53850 Joules/sqcm). All of these conditions affect the growth rate of the plants, and the limiting factor was the lack of water.

In the temperature charts above (extracted from the Met Éireann summary) the maximum temperature for Dublin area (blue line) ranged in the mid teens for most of the month, but the low temperature dropped significantly at the end of the month, creating frost conditions on the night of May 29! This was a very late frost, but fortunately the garden was unaffected, most likely due to the 'heat island' effect of the urban environment. Although the frost didn't cause any damage, these low temperatures could have set back the growth of many of the plants.

The top graphs shows that the Dublin area did not get a substantial rainfall for the whole month, with the most rain falling on the 26th and 27th. The bottom graph shows a couple of spells of strong sunshine!

April Weather

April was unusually dry and settled, weather that we would normally get in May and June! Met Éireann called it the "Warmest and sunniest April on record; dry for most of the month!"

Less than 15mm or rain fell during the entire month, almost 1/4 of what we would expect. The mean temperature was 10.6 degrees C, 2.7 degrees above average and the mean soil temperature was 12 degrees C, 2.8 degrees above normal. The total amount of solar radiation for the month (intensity of energy from the sun including overcast days) was a full 33% higher than normal (49240 Joules/sqcm) which is almost as much sun as we would expect in June!
These conditions were great for the mood of Dubliners, but not great for the garden as we didn't have enough water (and had not yet set up a hose to water the garden from the tap) and germination and growth of many seedlings was slow or non-existent.

The weather was generally warm but we did have frost conditions in the Dublin area on the 4th to the 7th and again on the 26th. Although frost tender potatoes had been planted in the last week of March, they had not sprouted enough to show any damage early in the month and the frost on the 26th did not seem to hit the garden. Although the cool conditions probably delayed some of the growth and germination early in the month, adding to the lack of water.

These two graphs show the exceptionally dry and sunny conditions throughout most of April. We did not receive any rain at all until the 22nd and the 24th was the first time in more that a month that we got more than a drizzle!

March Weather

The weather for March was mild and sunny but with a lot of frosty nights, and very little rain towards the end of the month.

Only 39mm of rain fell this month (Dublin Airport conditions 16km away), we would normally expect to get in the region of 53.5mm, but most of it in the first three weeks. The mean air and soil temperatures for the month were about normal at 6.4 degrees C and 6.2 degrees C respectively. The total amount of solar radiation for the month (intensity of energy from the sun including overcast days) was slightly higher than normal (26680 Joules/sqcm). These average monthly conditions hide fact that the first half of the month was wetter and cloudier and the last 12 days were drier and sunnier than normal.

In the temperature charts above (extracted from the Met Éireann summary) the maximum temperature for Dublin area (blue line) dropped considerably from the 18th to the 21st when all of the precipitation was snow or hail, and there was ground frosts at night throughout the month.

These charts show how little rain came in the latter part of the month and that we only had 4 days where there was more than a light drizzle of rain (blue bars), not enough to really soak into the ground.

February Weather

The weather at the beginning of February was cold, dry and sunny with the remainder of the month being warm with reasonable amounts of rain and sunshine.

77.8mm of rain fell during the month (Dublin Airport conditions 16km away) 50% more than we would normally expect. The mean air temperature of 5.9 degrees C for the month was almost 1 degree higher than normal, as was the mean soil temperature at 5.2 degrees C. The total amount of solar radiation for the month (intensity of energy from the sun including overcast days) was slightly higher than normal (12672 Joules/sqcm). The wind was very light this month, and there was a fair amount of snow and hail through most of the month.

In the temperature charts above (extracted from the Met Éireann summary) the cold first week and warmer conditions for the rest of the month can be seen. The soil warmed considerably, creating better sowing conditions in beginning of March

Most of the excess precipitation for the month occurred on one day - 20mm on the 8th in the form of snow - following more than two weeks of very dry and sunny conditions.

January Weather

Although the garden has not been started yet - starting a garden here had not even been considered - the weather will affect the early part of the growing season. January was mild and wet to start, but became dry and cold for the last 10 days of the month.