MONTH
|
John Alston
|
Peter Semmence
|
Peter George
|
Met. Office Av.
|
|
Alby Norfolk
|
Howe Norfolk
|
Pakenham Suffolk
|
East Anglia
|
May
|
10.0mm
|
22.5mm
|
14.5mm
|
16.0mm
|
June
|
62.0mm
|
63.5mm
|
58.5mm
|
65.5mm
|
July
|
50.5mm
|
81.5mm
|
52.5mm
|
56.7mm
|
August
|
70.5mm
|
60.5mm
|
66.0mm
|
56.8mm
|
Period Total
|
193.0mm
|
228.0mm
|
191.5mm
|
195.0mm
|
YEAR TOTAL
|
308.5mm
|
359.0mm
|
327.0mm
|
309.4mm
|
The rainfall in this four month period shows little variation across the three sites apart from the odd localised heavy shower and matches well with the Met Office averages for East Anglia.
More interesting to us farmers and gardeners are the sunshine averages for East Anglia;
May - 242.9 hrs, 123% of average. June – 216.3 hrs, 115% of average.
July – 164.8 hrs, 83% of average. August – 161.9, 82% of average.
How our Plants Fared
Geoff Wilson, over in Lowestoft told me how well his hanging baskets had done, particularly at this, the end, of the summer season. Although I don’t have hanging baskets I do have a brick trough in front of my front door porch and the geraniums in it with the summer bedding is looking very luxurious.
Pam Ratcliffe, Editor of the National publication – ‘The Hardy Plant’ expressed an interest in this part of our newsletter. She went on to put together an article entitled ‘Some Lessons Learned‘ which compares how plants did in our region, compared to those growing in Devon and those in the North – See page 48 of The Hardy Plant, volume 32, number 2.