Allotments 4 All

Thank god 4 that rain yesterday!!  I finally managed to dig over & weed some of my beds 2day & i got my cabbages out of the nursery bed & in2 the ground!!! The poor buggers looked rather limp an  hour later tho!!  Please send more rain (but not to much!)!!!

To all you drought stricken lotties,

A few years ago I bought some of those water retention crystals, they hold 100 times their size in water. I emptied all my pots at the end of the season on a part of my garden that needed a bit of fibre. The gel is still there after 2 years.
I was lucky enough the find end of season reductions at Hitchens store, I have used this in planting holes this year, but it is very expensive. I was talking to a seasoned gardener a few weeks ago and he said wallpaper paste works in a similar way and he uses it  instead of crystals. I am going to try this in a couple of pots to see if it works. After all it is only starch and if anyone out there knows if it is detrimental to plants I would love to hear from you. It is so cheap that it could be used on allotments. I live near Manchester and I too would like to see a good thunderstorm.

Regards Queenbee.

Just make sure your paste don't have any fungicide in it..some of those do have it against moulds....
Your plant will be truly glued to the spot... ;D

We've had a bit of rain over the weekend and are expecting lots more tomorrow (Hartlepool)- am thinking that Wednesday morning might be a good time to do some weeding!

Well that was more promised rain that did not happen just a heavy drizzle for a couple of hours, water butt still not full and soil only damp for about an inch.  I do not think that the griound underneath the logan berrues is even wet.  First time ever I will have to water them, they are covered in fruit and I dod not think they will swell.

No where near enough.  Just beeb playing the radar sequence and somehow it dvides right about us.  We are a little to the south of the middle of the triangle of the M4, M5  and M40


http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/radar/index.html

at last !!!! been raining quite heavy here all morning

Don't worry folks! Plenty of showers forecast next week with sunny spells too 8)

...which can only mean one thing .............BLIGHT!!! :-\

not here lol been chucking it down the last 3 days :) love it :)

No drought anymore...we've got river flowing on street.. ::)gutters cant take the rain...oh...why it cannot come down steady...instead pouring down by the bucket..no..lorry load.. ::)

Things are still very very dry here.  It poured yesterday for all of five minutes it was not even enough to come down from the roof into the water butt.  The moss soaked it all up.

We are getting very desparate.  It is as dry as a bone as far down as I can dig.   Watering is becoming a very tedious chore.  Rain due today so keeping every thing crossed.  There is a big blue patch coming our way on the Met Office Radar map but have a nasty idea it will fizzle out again before it gets here. 

Just going out to do a little rain dance.

Despite heavy rain yesterday the ground was still dry this morning. Just had another downpour but it only lasted about 5 minutes.

definately not anymore.. ;D..we had so much rain that manhole covers were popping up from the preasure... :o..all buckets are full and everything is truly sodden now...potatoes are just coming to flower.. ;)I'm going to get best ever crop out of them... ;D
..and there is more to come...I'll have to go and fill all watering cans to give waterbutts some more room.. ::)

The ground looked slightly damp today, but no more than that.

We are getting a good top up now... should bring the spuds and the blight on a treat....  :-X

There is at last a slow trickle going into the water butt.  I am just so worried that we will not have enough rain to really wet the ground. 

Quote from: saddad on June 07, 2010, 22:08:38
We are getting a good top up now... should bring the spuds and the blight on a treat....  :-X

ssshhhhhhhhhhhh  ;)

lots of lovely rain her on the coast - the ground is nice and damp  :D

We have finally had some real rain, light all night and then a bit stronger early this morning.  but I have found that about three inches down things are still totally dry.  I have finally managed to fill up the water butts at home but down at the allotment the rain will do nothing to keep the well running since it will all  be soaked up by the soil. 

It seemed rather sad to have to let the water run back into the pipe once the butts were full though I did managed to spread quite a few can loads around the garden.

You're not alone! Earth is huge to count those currently experiencing a drought. My personal experience should tell you that here in Brisbane, my herb garden seems like a dessert after a 3 consecutive days of rain.  Now, I'm trying to cultivate and dig some herbs.

Welcome to the site Craftsmaster.  I guess that when we talk about drought we know nothing compared to you.  We have only had three showers since April but for much of the time it was damp below the surface, but suddenly with a bout of hot weather things dried up very quickly.  I think that the weeds sucked it dry. ;D

I have a lot of mulching going on and that keep things moist for longer.   

Being the UK now it has started raining it will probably forget to stop.