Allotments 4 All

Anyone else suffering with really dry soil - already?

My soil is heavy clay and I've been mulching it in autumn and spring, as well as digging in more compost between plantings.

But it's so dry. We've had hardly any rain for ages (I probably should be careful what I wish for though shoudln't I?!) The top inch or two of soil is bone dry. under that it's not exactly soggy!

I want to mulch again before the plants cover the soil. But it's just too dry. I don't want to water it from the tap.

Oh and my waterbutts are only half full.

No advice needed really! Just wanted to have a slightly tongue-in-check whinge!

I am really enjoying the sunshine though!

Yep, these plots are 6 foot of soil sitting on a limestone escarpment, they drain superfast and then dry rock hard in summer.

There already getting hard, theres been so little rain in the last 3 months

I am taking advantage of the dry spell to get my vegetable garden rotavated, including the area which I am not using this year. I shall rotavate the spare ground whenever I see weeds start showing through. This should get rid of all the weeds during the Summer. My land is a mixture of Boulder clay, Oxford clay and Kimmeridge clay (my old governor used to say that there's nothing worse).

I think it might be a good idea to alternate the veg. plot with the fallow plot.

Ive got heavy clay on my plot too & yep its bone dry already :-\
Im going to build more raised beds this year & fill them with good quality compost because my raised beds are doing so much better & dont seem to dry out as quickly, they are soooooooo much easier to work too.

Quote from: Larkshall on April 08, 2011, 21:32:09
I am taking advantage of the dry spell to get my vegetable garden rotavated,

Ground is getting too hard here, best times to rotavate here are when the ground is soft and wet and has been for a week or more. After a couple of months of no rain, even my 6.5 HP Merry Tiller starts to struggle.

The bit I've just  dug is pretty dry, the bit I dug a while ago and stuck 6" of manure on as I went that got rotavated in a few weeks ago is still moist just under the surface.,... so pooh and lots of it is the recipe for our soil..... If this week goes as planned, a trailer or two of manure will be going up there this weekend to finish the job....

chrisc

Yup the top inch or two are bone dry, and cracking where there isn't any mulch. What happened to April showers  :-X

No april showers here and no march ones either.  My water butt in the front garden is more of less empty.    Having to water the seed beds like crazy.  Still moist down under.  Some light showers forecast Wed and Thurs but I will not hold my breathe.

When it is dry our soil sets like concrete, trying to add lots of biomass and mulching as much as possible. 

too dry, couldn't even dig today as it was like concrete

Have faith!! The rain is coming, watch the next few days!!

there's no better job in the world than hoeing damp earth down to a fine tilth.

Quotehoeing damp earth down to a fine tilth.  

GWE  (green with envy)

no, my plot is as dry as a wotsits wotsit. I'm waiting for lincsyokel2's rain.....

Only since I have had an allotment do i look forward to rain!!!!  Friends think i am mad!

it's raining!

Another nice sunny day here.  Showers forecast for around 1pm but nothing on the radar.

Yup raining here too in Preston

Quote from: Bugloss2009 on April 10, 2011, 22:38:51
no, my plot is as dry as a wotsits wotsit. I'm waiting for lincsyokel2's rain.....

its coming, i promise, def by thursday.

well the sky has clouded over and it's gone rather gloomy here, so I'm sure rain is immenent. I'm so confident of the fact that I'm not going to water this evening.

It is very odd actually wanting it to rain, especially during the school holidays! But that's what happens when you're a gardener!  :D

We had a 5 minute shower yesterday,  :(  I put the football on and saw it was chucking it down in Liverpool.       :-\