The Greenhouse: part 2

When my handyman, don Alexis, built the greenhouse I knew it needed a long counter to put the plants on, but I didn't have the funds at the time to have him complete the job. There were some small shelves built into the wall, so I decided to make do with them.

Now that I've learned a lot more about growing plants in a greenhouse, and I have the funds, I had don Alexis build the counter. He did a nice job. It's made of steel tubing to which he welded heavy-duty wire. It's painted with rust-proof paint and is strong enough to hold a lot of weight.

I've started some tomato plants now, and plan to continue to fill up the long, 35-foot counter with plants.

Happy gardening!

2011 Weather in Review

Windbreaks constructed in December to protect the vegetable garden

RAINFALL
I am continually amazed by the amount of rainfall we receive here. The total for the year was 129.9 inches. The average annual rainfall recorded at a weather station only about three miles away is 90 inches. So we got 40 inches above the normal. WOW!

We are not experiencing either an El Niño nor a La Niña, so the rainfall and temperatures should be about average. The two factors that could conceivably account for the high rainfall are either yearly variability or very localized weather conditions. It could be a combination of both factors, but I'm guessing it's more the effects of the localized weather. Time will tell.

Monthly rainfall (in inches)
  January           6.8
  February         6.1
  March            3.7
  April              4.5
  May             18.1
  June             10.9
  July              15.5
  August           6.0
  September   11.1
  October       33.3
  November     7.7
  December      6.2

   TOTAL      129.9

The distribution of rainfall by month for 2011 seems about right. The dry season (or summer, as it is called here) usually begins in December and lasts through April. The rainy season (or winter, as it is called here) usually begins in May and lasts through November. The only month that did not fit this pattern this year was August.

TEMPERATURES
It felt warmer this year, and the data bears this out. Comparing the last five months of 2010 (when I began keeping data) with the last five of 2011, every month was warmer in 2011, one month even seven degrees warmer, farenheit.

Temperatures by month
                  Ave. high  Ave. low
  January          77.6      60.5
  February       76.6      58.1
  March           78.2      58.1
  April             78.7      60.3
  May              78.0      62.1
  June              78.0      63.1
  July               78.3      63.5
  August          80.0      64.3
  September    79.6      63.8
  October        75.4      63.1
  November     77.2      61.3
  December     74.4      59.7

WIND, HUMIDITY, AND BAROMETRIC PRESSURE
I do not yet have the instruments to measure humidity or barometric pressure. During the dry season, the trade winds are blowing over the top of the Cordillera Central. We are located just a few miles from the top of this mountain range, on the leeward side. These cross-mountain winds keep the temperatures moderate, and the humidity down for much of the year.

For wind velocity, I have a hand-held anemometer. As this is the first really windy place I have lived, I've been interesting in measuring the maximum wind velocity. The windy season corresponds roughly with the dry season, and the trade winds are the dominating force. The winds generally begin in November, a month before the dry season begins, and blow until March, ending a month before the wet season begins, in May.
The maximum recorded wind gust was 34 miles per hour, which occurred in February.

Happy gardening!

December Weather Report -- sunny, windy, and cool

December was sunny, windy, and cool. The trade winds blew almost constantly from the east-northeast, the maximum gust reaching 25 miles per hour. I don't keep statistics on sunshine, but it was the sunniest month I can remember since arriving here in July 2009. Despite the sunshine, spray-rain lashed us frequently, creating rainbows in the west in the mornings and in the east during the afternoons.

Rainfall came to 6.2 inches. We had 19 days with no measurable rainfall. The sun and high winds dessicated the soil rapidly and I had to water the vegetable garden many times. I put up a windbreak on the east side of the vegetable garden at the beginning of the month and added a second one in the middle of the garden on Christmas eve. A two-year-old cypress tree snapped off in the wind and I had to stake several small trees.

A blue-gray tanager that crashed into one of our windows. After nursing it back to health, we released it.

The average high was 74.4 degrees, the lowest this year, and down 2.2 degrees from November. The average low was 59.7, a little cooler than normal here.

Happy gardening!