Once again it has been an interesting period of weather with some wide monthly variations from the five recordings. Heavy summer showers are very hit or miss. Taking East Anglia as a whole the weather has been pretty good with sunshine hours above average in all four months especially in June and July and with higher than average temperatures apart from in August. The greater than average rainfall, over the period, was probably much needed.

Peter George

How Plants Fared During This Period

Of the vegetable crops, this season was a bad one for garlic and shallots, both ending up with rust which stunted their growth producing a very poor crop which didn't store well either. Tomatoes were blighted by powdery mildew on their leaves and they too cropped exceedingly poorly.

Here in Beccles, despite me pruning the parts I could reach and spraying with a systemic fungicide, the mature phillyrea still developed brown spores on the underside of its leaves which results in brown cracks on the leaves which then fall copiously in summer. The crab apple also had powdery mildew on its leaves and seems in a poor way despite previous efforts to stop the blight and canker. On the other hand the chard has grown into monster specimens, its ruby stems, gold stems and white stems supporting crinkled, dark-green leaves like dinghy sails. Miscanthus, both 'Cosmopolitan' and 'Giraffe' are competing to be the tallest – Giraffe having its best year so far.

Andre Lawes