April - originally the second month of the year (Aprilis) in the old Roman calendar (after March), its origins are a bit hazy. Possibly named after Aphrodite though the more widely accepted origin is from the Latin word aperire meaning 'to open' signifying the start of Spring when flower buds burst open.
A couple of photos from the daily garden pictures this month: the first (Photo 1) on the 6th with its fine display of tulips, and the second on the 26th (Photo 2) where the wisteria and acer take centre stage.
Photo 1: Rear Garden (6th April 2024)
Photo 2: Rear Garden (26th April 2024)
The daily garden photos are presented in Video 1:
Video 1: Daily Photos of the Rear Garden (April 2024)
The Met Office's summary for April 2024 was unsettled, wet and dull. While generally true for Hereford, the details are more nuanced. The table below summarises the weather statistics for a city-based garden in Hereford (i.e. my Davis Weather Station). Overall, not too bad and a reasonable one for gardening and vegetable sowing and planting where the absence of April frosts (unlike 2020 - 2023) helped greatly.
Daily maximum and minimum temperatures are plotted in Figure 1 (click on the figure to see a larger version). The month started reasonably warm but cooled off towards the end and meant I had to bring some of the vegetable plants in(doors) from the polytunnel because of the cooler nights.
Figure 1: Min/Max Daily Temperatures (April 2024)
In Figure 2, rainfall and solar radiation (proxy for sunshine hours) are plotted. Most of the rain fell during the first part of the month - a sort of extension to wet March. The final two thirds of the month were moderately sunny and dry though not especially warm (Figure 1).
Figure 2: Rainfall & Sunshine (April 2024)
How does April 2024 compare with the same month in 2020 to 2023? See Figure 3 and Figure 4. April 2020 was a warm month and all subsequent Aprils have been noticeably cooler (Figure 3). As gardeners, we are grateful for the absence of late frosts in April (Figure 3, orange bar).
Figure 3: Temperature Data for April (2020 - 2024)
Rainfall was as expected (i.e. normal) though mainly in the first 10 days of the month (Figures 2 & 4). April 2024 was short on sunshine hours and days with no precipitation (Figure 4). The month of April seems to be getting a bit windier (stormy?).
Figure 4: Rain, Wind & Sun Trends for April (2020 - 2024)
The next three figures are taken from the Met Office's report for April 2024. Compared with the long-term average (1991 - 2020), Herefordshire (circled) suffered from too little sunshine, about the right amount of rain and temperatures not out of the ordinary for this decade. This pretty much sums up the weather data recorded by my Davis Weather Station and located in my back garden!
Figure 5: UK Mean Monthly Temperature Anomalies for April 2024
Figure 6: UK Monthly Rainfall for April 2024
Figure 7: UK Monthly Sunshine Hours (April 2024)
Jobs in the Garden
Disinfect plant pots, seed trays, Quadgrow planters, etc with Citrox P
Pot up cucumbers, tomatoes, chilli peppers, courgettes & aubergines in 9 cm pots and harden off in the polytunnel (April 7th)
Sow celery and celeriac in seed trays (April 11th)
Sow French Beans (Cobra) in Root Trainers, a few at a time for succession sowing (April 11th)
March - derived from Martius (named after Mars, the Roman God of War) and was the first month of the earliest Roman calendar.
I have been somewhat lax in doing my monthly updates. My only new year resolution is to try and catch up. This is largely for my benefit so I can maintain a long term phenological record. The monthly reports may be somewhat briefer than usual.
The month was dull and wet with middling temperatures. It was nice to see the cherry blossom though (Photo 1).
Photo 1: March 20th 2024
The usual video showing the daily photos of the rear garden ...
Video 1: Daily Garden Photos (March 2024)
Weather data recorded by my garden Davis Weather Station are summarised in the table below:
Daily minimum/maximum temperatures are reproduced in Figure 1. Daytime temperatures held up well but the nights were cold overnight for the first 7 days of the month.
Figure 1: Minimum & Maximum Daily Temperatures (March 2024)
Significant rain at the start, middle and end of the month (Figure 2):
Figure 2: Daily Rainfall & Sunshine (March 2024)
I now have 5 years of weather data from my Davis Weather Station and it is possible to discern some trends in the weather. Of course, it will need much longer records (10-20 years) to positively identify climate changes. While the mean daily temperatures have been constant over the last 5 years (Figure 3), this may be hiding a trend towards lower daytime maxima and higher night-time minima.
Figure 3: Temperature Data for March (2020 to 2024)
The trends in rainfall and sunshine seem clearer though the timescale is too short to be certain (Figure 4). In this location, the month of March is getting wetter and duller (less sunshine).
The three figures below are taken from the Met Office's Monthly Report for March 2024. Herefordshire, where we live, is marked on the maps. March 2024 was just a little bit warmer in Herefordshire than the 1991-2020 average (Figure 5) but, as Figure 3 showed, this March's mean monthly temperature was not especially warm for Hereford and was, in fact, typical of the current decade (2020s).
Figure 5: UK Mean Monthly Temperature for March 2024
The UK map (Figure 6) for rainfall shows significantly higher than normal precipitation for parts of England, including Herefordshire. Thus confirming the local data recorded by the Davis Weather Station (Figure 4).
Figure 6: UK Monthly Rainfall (March 2024)
With much higher rainfall comes lower sunshine hours (Figure 4 & Figure 7).
Figure 7: UK Monthly Sunshine Hours (March 2024)
Jobs in the Garden
Hand weed and shallow dig (six inches) the potato and onion beds incorporating sieved home-made compost/soil improver
On March 9th, plant out red & white onion sets plus garlic started off in the greenhouse
On March 14th, plant out the chitted seed potatoes (Foremost & Nadine)
Start off tomatoes, sweet peppers, aubergines, chillies and cucumbers ready for planting out in the polytunnel in April/May. Cucumbers germinated.
Plum and pear trees start to flower. The plum flowers were the first ones for these trees planted about 5 years ago. Unfortunately, the fruits did not set.
Photo 2: Plum flowers (March 25th)
Photo 3: Concorde Pear Flowers (March 25th)
General tidying up and all-year-round composting
Empty Hotbin that had been running continuously for 874 days (2½ years)
First asparagus spear appeared on March 25th
Photo 4: First Asparagus Spear Appears (March 25th)
We had a decent amount (for Hereford) of snow last night and it was predicted. The next three photos were taken at midnight (4th January 2025) without flash, with flash and using night mode on my Pixel 7 Pro.
Photo 1: Rear Garden w/o Flash
Photo 2: Rear Garden with Flash
Photo 3: Rear Garden (Night Mode)
Interestingly, the file size for the flash photo was about 30% bigger.
The following day I was unable to go river testing as the under wheel conditions were not good for cycling. Fortunately, my two fellow testers who live within walking distance were able to cover my site today. Temperatures are forecast to rise (9 ℃) during the day so the snow is not expected to last long. However, we will be returning to overnight freezing temperatures over the next week or so which could lead to icy road conditions if the snow does not disappear completely.
Figure 1:BBC Weather Forecast for Hereford (5th to 13th January 2025)
This morning I added a couple of hot water bottles to my HotBin as it is struggling to maintain temperature (currently around 30 - 35 ℃). I expect to have to do this daily for the foreseeable future until I can get the HotBin operating above 50 ℃.
The wellie footprints are mine, the bird footprints almost certainly that of a wood pigeon looking for fallen seed fallen from the bird feeder.
We celebrated from the warmth of our Hereford home with a glass of non-alcoholic ginger wine. We did stay up to watch the fireworks and light show from London, though. Impressive as always ...
I always think London does this sort of celebration rather well ...
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