It’s 53.6C!

This week: Workshopping again; Making space; Analysis paralysis;

This is the 26th week of the year, so we are halfway through 2025.

This week has been hot I have just been down into the polytunnel to water again because it is 53.6° C inside. When I checked , it is only 42°C in Death Valley, so no wonder everything is parched.

I have the doors open wide and the shade netting on, but still the building heats up.

My weather station is recording a high temperature of 34.9° C in the shade today and it has been around that temperature every day this week.

Looking back through my records, this is not unusual for the last week of June. I will not know what the average has been until next week, however I suspect it will be towards the top of the records.

I am irrigating night and morning and this is just to keep plants and shrubs alive. Where ever I look, shrubs are suffering heat stress.

In the citrus orchard, despite the individual trees getting 15 minutes a day of precicely targeted drip irrigation, several are looking really sick and have dropped this year’s fruits. This tree is a Mandarin.

I used more than 1,500 litres of water last week on irrigation.

Across the Western and central Mediterranean basin, there is a “Heat dome”. This is a meteorological condition where high barometric pressure is stationary and stable, causing hot air underneath to be trapped under the dome.

As the mid summer sun heats the land underneath, so the temperature increases and when the high pressure is stationary then the heat under the dome becomes self reinforcing.

Our hotterst weeks are usually the end of July and the first week of August.

Weather forecasting service’s medium range forecasts are suggesting these conditions will last until mid August. Not a nice thought!

Workshopping again

I finished labelling up the storage boxes in my workshop this week. However even after tidying everything up, I still had some odds and ends which I needed to put away.

There were things which I needed in one place, like woodworking bits, but which I didn’t have a “home” for.

When I planned the shelving for the workshop, I included an expansion plan which includes shelving above the windows. So this week I implemented part of the plan.

After careful measuring – measure three times and cut once – I found a board that was 2cm longer than I needed. It was not a long job to cut a sliver off the board and then do a trial fit.

I needed to cut a rebait for the upright support, then I fixed and screwed it down.

On Saturday morning I was at my local discount store at 07:30 to buy some more plastic storage boxes to go on the shelf.

Then once I was home, I did some more sorting, to make access to tools and equipment easier. A place for everything and everything in its place comes to mind!

What I am working towards is having a very neat and tidy workspace, before I start the next project…

Making space

I have been clearing an area just outside the polytunnel, ready to transplant some bananas into.

I have mentioned before about my “Dwarf Cavendish” being anything but ‘dwarf’ in size and I need to move the small ones outside, where they can grow big without a problem.

Bananas are herbs, not trees, growing, flowering once and then dying with new “pups” sprouting from the underground corm. They easily reach 3.5metres tall.

I planted them in the polytunnel because it provides winter protection. Dol is in an architypical “Mediterranean climate”, with cool wet winters and hot dry summers, but our geography also means we get cold winter Bura winds.

These can be extremely cold, so next to a south facing wall and sheltered by my old plums, I hope this chosen location will be warm enough in winter for them.

I’m not worried about summer heat, it is the occasional winter cold which could damage them.

As you can see from the photograph, the soil is dust dry, so because bananas need a lot of water, I know summer irrigation will be essential.

This next week I will be adding compost and some good soil, together with plenty of water, before I do any transplanting.

Hopefully, with the right conditions, I will actually be able to get some home grown bananas from my plants…

Analysis paralysis

All the time I question what I am currently doing in my gardens and orchards.

I like to plan, so this week I was sorting out some seeds, ready for starting them in the middle of July.

In the winter I like Broccoli. Truth to tell, I can eat Brocolli at any time of the year, however I want to plant more of my own this year.

From planting the seeds to harvest, is between 90 and 100 days, so to have some vegetables ready from the end of October, I need to plant them in the middle of July.

They will go into seed trays first, then be potted on before being planted outside.

I also found some Brussel Sprouts seeds too. This is another leafy green vegetable that I enjoy, so I put them to one side as well.

When I look back at the weather pattern for the past ten years I have lived in my Dol house, the only discernible pattern I see is that summers are getting hotter and are lasting longer.

Rainfall is different every year because the old established patterns have gone with the climate breakdown.

I am trying to practice sound ecological principles. However with the changing climate and a complete lack of information about weather, all I can do is plan ahead, and hope the plan comes together.

I was looking at my small kitchen garden where I was growing bean, broccoli and onions last winter.

Everything has died back now and when I was contemplating raking all the dead leaves away, I realised I would be much better chopping them up and digging them in.

This area has some of the better soil on my land, having said that it is still note very good!

I think I just added another job to my list for next week…. NCG