Agree withRow. We should all be concerned about the lack of rain. With farmers resorting to water cannons already, and the prospect of a very reduced harvest, we can look forward to higher food and production costs. It is said that watering veg deeply but less frequently is more eco friendly, and my veg patch is the same as everyone elses at the moment, battered and looking sorry for itself.
I am very fortunate as my husband made me some 4 ft square wooden cloches covered with polythene which fit on to my 4 ft raised beds. They are ideal as I use them for warming up the soil and they have been useful for protecting the courgettes against the recent winds. As plants grow, I raise the cloches on bricks and secure them with bricks at two of the corners to prevent them taking off in the wind!
As for watering, well we have been watering every night during the dry weather. It is much easier having the raised beds. On Thursday we had our first potatoes, grown in a bag, and also mange touts peas which I have grown for the first time.
Hooray, it is another rainy Sunday in Bristol and I popped in a lot of runner bean and dwarf bean seeds yesterday so should be all right for beans in the autumn. my neighbour did as I bid yesterday and denuded my rhubarb(they love their crumble) as the rain had been forecast and I wanted the new shoots to have a good soaking. Incidentally, I put my success with rhubarb , even in a drought,down to the fact that I throw all my spent teabags on to it.
Hooray!, steady light rain in Mid Sussex, the first for a long time. We have had only 2mm since late March. All around us have had some, but this is the first for us, no watering today. Have been planting vegetables in the allotment this morning, and cleaning the pond pumps and filters this afternoon, I am soaked right through, but who cares, so is the garden. Love the smell of rain on dry earth. The past couple of months have played havoc with the plants, very hot dry days, cold nights and that wind, causing losses in the courgettes, cucumbers, and squashes.Its all good now though!, well that is if we don't get flooding.
A nice day of rain in Kent yesterday, it filled up the water butt. I also have a vegetable patch in the garden, dry and dusty until it started raining Sunday.
Have managed to keep the watering going thanks to a spring fed pond and what seems like miles of hose pipe...we did suffer from the vicious east winds here in midwales but today............we went shopping and came back to a Hail storm !! the lawn and beds were cover in 3 to 4" of hale stones. Have just had a walk round the garden and the are still patches and some pots still covered - the temp dropped down to 5' Oh well back to work sorting out the poor old battered plants ---but they got a drink - even if it was a chilly one
There's much I could say about pests and polytunnels but what I'd really like to know is where you got your New Hampshire Red chickens from please?? (I heard you say you had some on a GQT programme.)
As my mother used to say "It never rains but it pours"! it has been tipping it down all morning and I've resorted to having a big baking session as it is even too much for me to don my raincoat and go out and weed!
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It is said that watering veg deeply but less frequently is more eco friendly, and my veg patch is the same as everyone elses at the moment, battered and looking sorry for itself.
As plants grow, I raise the cloches on bricks and secure them with bricks at two of the corners to prevent them taking off in the wind!
As for watering, well we have been watering every night during the dry weather. It is much easier having the raised beds. On Thursday we had our first potatoes, grown in a bag, and also mange touts peas which I have grown for the first time.
Have been planting vegetables in the allotment this morning, and cleaning the pond pumps and filters this afternoon, I am soaked right through, but who cares, so is the garden. Love the smell of rain on dry earth. The past couple of months have played havoc with the plants, very hot dry days, cold nights and that wind, causing losses in the courgettes, cucumbers, and squashes.Its all good now though!, well that is if we don't
get flooding.
the lawn and beds were cover in 3 to 4" of hale stones. Have just had a walk round the garden and the are still patches and some pots still covered - the temp dropped down to 5' Oh well back to work sorting out the poor old battered plants ---but they got a drink - even if it was a chilly one