Local Conditions - Weather & Climate etc ...

I put this post together because I was beginning to describe the local weather conditions etc within another post I'm preparing about the new fruit trees we've just bought, but such information is also very relevant to growing anything at all here and so I've made it a standalone reference.

Location

Our home is located in England at around latitude 55N longitude 2W, to the nearest whole numbers only.  This is vague enough to cover a huge area of the north-east ...  

As best as I can determine from online resources, our property elevation is 111 metres (365 feet) above sea level, which is somewhat higher than I'd previously thought.

The nearest comprehensive weather station to our home that has data stretching back several years, is located around 11 miles to the south of us and some 61 m below our elevation.   It's also more urban than where we are, so perhaps not an ideal basis for direct comparison but unfortunately it's the best data we have.

Fruits in the Garden - Part 1

We're intending to significantly increase the quantity and variety of the edible perennials in the garden, mainly in the form of additional fruit bushes and trees, but all the new plants we've bought recently will be described in Part 2.

In this Part 1, we're summarising the edible perennials we already have growing in the garden.

Growing in the ground

Rhubarb (unknown variety) -  we've three crowns planted next to the raised bed area, and these produce a lot of stems throughout the year.   Very undemanding to grow, it needs next to no attention at all.

Chives - not a fruit of course, but then strictly speaking neither is rhubarb ...  There's a patch of chives in the raised bed area.  Being an allium, it's evergreen, can look a little straggly in winter, but it comes back strongly again every spring.   If left to flower it becomes a magnet for the bees.  With nothing to do except harvest the leaves as required, it's the very easiest edible perennial you can grow.

Investment Review - December 2020

Another year over, and here's the final quarterly investment review of 2020.   Let's start with the combined portfolio summary sheet, updated at the early market close on 31 December :-