Topic: Dry down below

[Digeroo]

I dug up some spuds yesterday and found that underneath things were still very dry indeed.   So though it has rained recently and the top six inches are really nice and damp I am off to water the rest of my spuds this morning. 

[GeeGee]

Crumbs! That's bad. Don't know about you but we've had torrential down pours followed by bursts of sun followed by more down pours here for a couple of weeks now. Been thinking that it will do the ground wonders and I might be able to actually get to dig down to the two spades' depth I want to. But after your report I'm beginning to doubt my optimism.

[Weed-Digga]

I thought this was the opening line to a conversation between Cissie Braithwaite and Ada Shufflebotham!!

Weed-Digga

[Digeroo]

After sixteen weeks with hardly any rain and now a couple of days of rain since that and a few showers things are still very dry here.   Certainly nothing I would call torrential.  One day they had 33mm at Wisley but we got less that 2.  And Sunday last week 12th we got about 20mm.   Yesterday the showers passed us by and we only had a sprinkling.
There is currenly a large shower approaching Bristol but I will not hold my breathe for us to get much of that.  I will go out in a while and plant out some brassicas that should stop it in its tracks.

[taurus]

The rain snuck round  and dropped on Swindon yet again  ;D ;D Please tell me some of it fell on your patch Digeroo.  All joking aside the cracks are still showing on my clay ridden plot.  So we need every drop that the weather man promises.
Now,now, no need to laugh that much.

[Digeroo]

A bit of drizzle herre. 

[SMP1704]

Pmsl @ weed digga ;D

seriously though we have had torrents here since the start of June. Just had another 4 hour downpour. Dug up first Charlottes yesterday and soil is moist all the way down.

[GeeGee]

Digeroo you poor thing.  :(

I shall drive my car down to your area and start to wash it immediately. That is sure to make the heavens open and pour non stop!  ;D

Seriously though I do hope you get some much needed rain soon.

[goodlife]

Digeroo..same here..any rain we've had..which is little...has hardly done a thing.
I'm not even tempting to lift any potatoes yet. Finally we are having those 'April' showers so after this week this should start improving..
What ever I've planted I've been having to puddle the planting hole first and water again after back filling..slow job.. ::)
But as the weather forecast is so good for the gardeners..I tempted my faith and did lot of sowing yesterday..soil should be nice and moist for all those new kale plants in few weeks time... ;) ;D

[Robert_Brenchley]

We had persistent rain last night. The soil looked mildly damp this morning, but it wouldn't take long to dry out again.

[pigeonseed]

We've had a lot of rain almost every day for a few weeks now. But although things are soggy on the surface, whenever I dig to plant, it's dry underneath. Maybe it's always that way, maybe it's that the clay is rather compacted and dense still on my plot, and the water is just running off it down the steep hill we're on.

I hope that in future years, as there's more organic matter worked into it, it won't do that as much.

The surface damp has still been excellent for germinating and growing salads though and establishing transplanted plants.

[claybasket]

i live in essex we cant remember what rain looks like ,the soil is as drie as Gands flipflop,we have to put 50 plus cans off water on our two alotments, we put straw down to hold in the moisture.