Topic: Anyone else suffering from a drought ?

[powerspade]

Is`nt it strange how peoples opinion about weather changes when they begin to grow veggies.
School broke up two weeks ago it has rained every day bar two since,
loving

[Ragdoll Lady]

I wish we had some decent rain you know a whole day of it. We had about 15 minutes of like a tropical storm yesterday  and a couple of ten minute episodes at night but thats nothing. Have loads of green tomateos on the vines and flowers but nothing wants to ripen. Lots of growth on the aubergines but no flowers yet. Hardly any runners........getting desperate :(

[cornykev]

Back to the Sunny  8) weather today, a bit of cloud but really warmed up this afternoon, I've just been sitting in the garden in my shorts.  :P       ;D ;D ;D

[1066]

I am in the Manchester area and we have not really had a dry day since the day they announced the hose pipe ban. 

Sounds like the water board know a thing or two about comedy timing  ::)  ::)  ::)

[Digeroo]

Went to Swindon yesterday and got caught in am amazing storm.  For about 20 minutes the skies opened until the water was washing up the curbs onto the footpaths.  A bit of rain back at the lottie but not much in comparison unfortunately.  Tomorrows two spots on the weather forecast has as usualy been downgraded to one spot and by tomorrow will possibly produce nothing at all again.

Perhaps what we need is a hosepipe ban it seemed to be very effective at producing rain.  Have they removed it yet?

[Robert_Brenchley]

The stream's running sluggishly after yesterday's rain, but it won't last long unless we get more.

[Digeroo]

There is some funny wet stuff coming out of the sky.  Looked again at the weather forecast nothing there about it.

All the water butts are now full for first time in two months.  Though I rather resent the fact that the rain water is now going down the drain while a few metres away it is still bone dry two inches below the surface.

Water is flowing steadily down the road drain and I wish I had some method of putting it on the garden, its off to Thames Water who will charge me to get it back.

[GrannieAnnie]

Well, that was nice  ;D  about a centimeter from the look of pots.

But, Friday's heavy rain now demoted to a light shower......... :(

Been waiting for a proper downpour to mulch, but it just never came.

What would you do?  I very much dislike having bare, exposed earth.

I would water well by hand and mulch over that. The mulch will help the evaporation and cool the earth.

Trouble is, in beds where I've pulled up crops and not watered for a few weeks, watering only penetrates the top inch no matter how much you put on.  I would have to dig holes and water to get any in, but I don't think it's good to dig earth when it's as dry as this.

Maybe I'll stab it with a fork - if possible (concrete!) - and try pouring some in.

I find this a conundrum, same as last year...

Working in organic matter over the winter has helped the soil immensely during drought. That and mulch. It used to get great cracks in drought and hard as rock just as you've described. But if you haven't had a drop since June probably any soil would crack.
I hope next year is a whole different story for you. Very discouraging putting so much work and dreams into it then watch it die in drought.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Not any more. It chucked it down last night.

[cornykev]

We had a good few downpours today, we need a bit more yet though.    ;D ;D ;D

[taurus]

rained today. to little to late.  ground still like concrete.  lots more compost to dig in over the winter to break up the Swindon concrete ( clay   ::)

[PaulaB]

WE are getting a little water but I am taking several 35 litre water bottles to the site every day to keep thing watered.

[GrannieAnnie]

Maybe the thing to do since it is late for crops is plant a green manure crop to improve the soil for next year.

[earlypea]

Working in organic matter over the winter has helped the soil immensely during drought. That and mulch. It used to get great cracks in drought and hard as rock just as you've described. But if you haven't had a drop since June probably any soil would crack.
I hope next year is a whole different story for you. Very discouraging putting so much work and dreams into it then watch it die in drought.

Thanks GrannieAnne for the suggestions - I do wonder how people in seriously dry summer environments cope.  Our problem is we're not used to it and normally it is reckoned that rainfall in the UK is roughly equal to evaporation so no action necessary.

In fact, spring was unusually dry too so it's not just been a summer thing.

So, in my first year I went with the 'no-dig' way (but I don't want to raise any heckles, because it seems very divisive) and although I add at least 2 inches a year, probably twice a year in fact, most beds - that doesn't work well for me when it's dry.

But you would not believe the amounts of matter I acquired from a variety of sources and dug in last year and this spring to prepare for this year - those beds are good, but there's no way I could ever cover the entire plot.  Altogether I used 1.5 cubed metres of the allotment manure, the same of racing horse field manure (dug and bagged myself), a pallet of reclaimed peat and several bags of sheeps wool compost to finish it off!!!  Plus, I nearly forgot; beds without manure mulched with 2 bales of hay and it's all gone somewhere down there.

Hopefully after doing that for a couple of years it would take less, but I don't know - I hadn't realised until my second year of growing quite how intensive these vegetables' needs are.

I'm building a wormery now to add to the other sources.........

Almost forgot  :D  it started raining heavily almost exactly on cue yesterday morning (5 mins early) and then lightly ALL DAY!!!!  So lovely.

[GrannieAnnie]

Working in organic matter over the winter has helped the soil immensely during drought. That and mulch. It used to get great cracks in drought and hard as rock just as you've described. But if you haven't had a drop since June probably any soil would crack.
I hope next year is a whole different story for you. Very discouraging putting so much work and dreams into it then watch it die in drought.

Thanks GrannieAnne for the suggestions - I do wonder how people in seriously dry summer environments cope.  Our problem is we're not used to it and normally it is reckoned that rainfall in the UK is roughly equal to evaporation so no action necessary.

In fact, spring was unusually dry too so it's not just been a summer thing.

So, in my first year I went with the 'no-dig' way (but I don't want to raise any heckles, because it seems very divisive) and although I add at least 2 inches a year, probably twice a year in fact, most beds - that doesn't work well for me when it's dry.

But you would not believe the amounts of matter I acquired from a variety of sources and dug in last year and this spring to prepare for this year - those beds are good, but there's no way I could ever cover the entire plot.  Altogether I used 1.5 cubed metres of the allotment manure, the same of racing horse field manure (dug and bagged myself), a pallet of reclaimed peat and several bags of sheeps wool compost to finish it off!!!  Plus, I nearly forgot; beds without manure mulched with 2 bales of hay and it's all gone somewhere down there.

Hopefully after doing that for a couple of years it would take less, but I don't know - I hadn't realised until my second year of growing quite how intensive these vegetables' needs are.

I'm building a wormery now to add to the other sources.........

Almost forgot  :D  it started raining heavily almost exactly on cue yesterday morning (5 mins early) and then lightly ALL DAY!!!!  So lovely.

Oh my :-[ I really was singing to the choir, wasn't I?  You've done a ton of work and must have muscles on your muscles. I hope next year's rain will prove all your hauling wasn't in vain.

[earlypea]

Oh my :-[ I really was singing to the choir, wasn't I?  You've done a ton of work and must have muscles on your muscles. I hope next year's rain will prove all your hauling wasn't in vain.

Yes, I'm bursting out of my shirts - it's the weight-lifting not the digging that gets me.  It's not the type of exercise I'd ever choose to do being somewhat small.

BTW, I didn't take offense, I asked for suggestions and it interests me what people in hotter climates do.

In fact it's been a fabulous year as a result of all of that, stunning.  I'm just focusing here on two duff beds intended for late brassicas.  I weazled them in elsewhere and they're fine.  But next year, lesson learnt - not to leave beds without plants or mulch mid-summer  :)

[earlypea]

Drought - what drought - now we're drowning?  That's the UK for you, what fun  8)

[1066]

we've had some rain over the last few days, but an inch down and its dry as dry can be - dug the rest of the Mayan spuds today, managed to be able to get the fork in, so that's an improvement  :D