June began in benign mode, with a gloriously sunny day on the second, which saw temperatures nearly reaching 20 degrees C. But not quite!

For all sorts of reasons, not least of which has been the very warm and wet start to the year (even if it’s been gloomy), both our upper and lower hay meadows looked as glorious as they ever have, on June 2nd, with almost hip high sweet vernal grass flower stems, more orchid blooms appearing than ever before, and seas of meadow buttercups.

We realised too that almost all our Asters seem to have died out on the terrace garden this spring. Again this might be the persistent gloomy and grey weather, or possibly from slug predation, which certainly savaged the daffodil blooms this year in a way we’ve never noticed before. Or possibly even from me spreading chopped leaves over the entire area in the autumn – as away of replacing some organic matter removed from the annual cut back and removal. I’ll never know, but we shan’t replace them, opting for other good doers. 

Early June saw the first roses begin to open, and the Clematis montana beginning to fade, as much of the garden moved into its quieter June period.

A glimpse of a dryish weather window saw me cutting the first small areas of meadow for hay. Choosing those sections with minimal flowers, this was on the afternoon of June 5th. No rain was forecast, temperatures were barely 12 degrees C. Rain fell overnight, followed by heavy dews, grey skies and more drizzle. The saving grace was moderate Northerly winds. But after many manual turnings, and with heavier rain forecast on the 4th day (which didn’t arrive!) we opted to bring it all into the hay barns, and Fiona did sterling work turning it inside for 3 or 4 days to dry it sufficiently to be able to stack it. You can see below how little, albeit high quality, hay results from such toil!

After the drama of the swarms in May, all six colonies seem to have got back up to speed, and I was fortunate to spot a recently emerged swarm from the PV hive, just after lunch on June 12th. With no vacant ‘hives’ I called up a friend who arrived with her husband around 8.30 pm, and we managed to scrape and shake the bees off the fence post and netting into a nucleus box she’d brought, and they were on their way home within an hour.

A real thrill has been watching Fiona finish off her series of pastel pictures, worked up from photos I’ve taken through the years. They now hang on the kitchen wall, one for every month of the year. They are absolutely brilliant, and remind us on grey or gloomy days, that the weather will change, sooner or later, and what we have to look forward to, whatever the season, in this special place.

By the middle of the month we were at last seeing a little more sunshine and day time temperatures were improving – to nearer mid-teens! Heck, they should be – we’re nearly at the longest day.

And in the meadows whilst the meadow buttercups were still flowering, whenever the sun appeared there were hosts of Cat’s Ear flowers, Hypochaeris radicata, particularly dense in the lower meadow, where this year we’ve also counted over 25 orchids – up from about 7 last year.

The video below shows just how much the meadows change over 2 weeks, from the earlier video on June 1st.

 

On the 17th, with another window of opportunity opening, albeit without warm temperatures, we cut some more hay in the lower meadows where a lack of hemi-parasitic flowers was allowing coarser grasses to produce ever lusher growth.

The sheep were shorn the same day, always a relief as a way of minimising the risks of fly strike – this year happening a good fortnight later than in 2023.

The following day, it was so cool with a brisk Northerly wind and grey skies all day (not what was forecast), so we needed to wear pullovers whilst we did the critical first, and physically hardest, shaking out by hand. Eventually after 4 days we managed to get the hay dry enough to store in the shed, although again, we opted to spread it loose and wait a couple of days before stacking it. Still only a fraction of what we need to get us through a harsh winter, and still no hints of a sustained high pressure spell of weather.

In spite of lush meadow and some perennials growth this year, vegetable growth has been dire, and I’ve pretty much given up – just some lettuce and leeks. The tomatoes have been the slowest ever, and others locally have bemoaning poor germination and spindly plants. Even our apples have had a very poor fruit set, in spite of a lack of frosts.

Still, the rambling roses have been better and bigger than ever, as have several hardy geraniums.

It was good to find many small salmonids have returned to the several pools we now have along our section of stream. Considerably aided by the large woody debris, fallen trees which I’ve placed in recent years.

As well as the salmonids, we were thrilled to find 3 butterfly orchids in the upper hay meadow. We had a singleton for 2 years, but none last year, fearing that badger turf ripping might have destroyed it.

We’re also making more of an effort to build up various forms of Iris around the upper pond, with me finally planting out some of the dozen or so seedlings which I’ve managed to germinate from save seed over the last 2 years. Hopefully, they’ll extend the season of interest beyond the short wow period when the large clumps of Iris laevigata ‘Snowdrift’, which Fiona salvaged from a friend’s garden a few years ago.

The month finished with another cool grey day, with light rain having fallen onto another small, optimistic section of cut hay after returning from 3 nights away, when we missed the warmest days of the year here. The glorious morning below soon deteriorated into cloudier skies.

It looks like this cut hay might end up being the first batch we have to ditch after all our years of haymaking.

Rainfall for the month was quite low at 66.98mm, with much of it falling in just 3 days from the 14th to the 16th and there were 14 dry days. But light levels and daytime temperatures were generally poor, and the PV figure of 443.7 KWH was modest, given the number of dry days. The Met Office report for June 2024 confirms the cooler temperatures and fairly low rainfall levels. The inverter record illustrates how there were almost no periods in the month when we enjoyed 3 bight sunny days in a row (25 KWH plus) – our accepted minimum for successful hay making, when one has the weight of crop that we have this year.

 

2013: 73.5 mm, 17 dry days PV N/A

2014: 41.55 mm, 19 dry days, 542.15 KWH

2015: 74.9 mm, 20 dry days, 520.24 KWH

2016: 115.7 mm, 10 dry days, 413.44 KWH (No hay cut all month)

2017: 187.2mm, 12 dry days, 371.8 KWH

2018: 24 mm, 19 dry days, 550 KWH

2019: 158.8 mm, 10 dry days, 5 dry days, 402.2 KWH

2020: 174.5 mm, 5 dry days, 415 KWH

2021: 33.1 mm, 17 dry days, 477.4 KWH

2022: 124.3 mm, 12 dry days, 470.6 KWH

2023: 68.9 mm, 15 dry days, 561.9 KWH

2024: 66.9 mm, 14 dry days, 443.7 KWH