Weather

[Elaine]

Oh please can the rain stop now??? We have so much to do, yet after this weeks rain, it's too wet. My fruit cage is in desperate need of weeding......

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Elaine, the only good thing is, at this time of the year the ground will soon dry, so hopefully you will soon be able to get at it.

Nice to see you.

[peter]

Took the dogs out today to avoid getting tempted onto the allotment, ground will be nice tomorrow, provided there isn't any more rain.

[robo]

We have had that much rain I am tempted to get my toolbox out and start laying a keel for a new arck

[Elaine]

Thank you dear OH.
We went to our allotment today and it wasn't too bad so we got quite a lot done. Still didn't attempt to weed the fruit cage as I don't want to compact the soil...and the worst bit is right where I cannot get a plank in to stand on.
All being well, we will go again tomorrow, fingers crossed it doesn't rain over night.....

[Santa_stunt_double]

Got a lot of comments yesterday - buying a couple of water butts in a thunderstorm - most useful time to buy, I'd say.

Just a little annoyed that all the different makes of similar size are such differing heights - so having to replan all the downpipes and order of butts so the water can flow downhill, filling three butts. So what was supposed to be a simple replacement involved emptying 300 litres of water to be able to move the first in line. Fortunately, I had six 25 litre containers, so not all wasted.

It does emphasize that I'll never again buy a butt where the tap isn't on a reinforced or indented section - the old ones were plain butts with taps cut into the side - two of four have split at the tap due to flexing when the tap is operated.

[retropants]

Raaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiinnn!

[alan refail]

Sorry about all your English rain. We have had very little here in wet Wales. And it's a cracking sunny day today - almost to hot to work

[Geoff]

Even England has some of that though it's turning muggy and midgy now.

[retropants]

It was scorching yesterday, the day I chose to put out my 24 tomato plants into the greenhouse beds. I was melting! Today, in the downpour I have managed to replace 2 panes of glass on the pepper/Aubergine greenhouse and throw some netting over the strawberries, which are very fat and just starting to turn pink. I have also sowed a row of calendula for my soap making and for the bees. I just hope the slugs and snails don't eat them before they have a chance of growing.

[oldherbaceous]

Had three hours working very early this morning in the dry, but it hasn't stopped raining since. The next couple of days look pretty bad for us here, to. But as that old Milton Bryan saying goes, "We'll always get some sort of weather".

[Monika]

Not raining here today, in fact, it's been lovely - sunny and almost no wind. Planted all my winter brassicas, sowed more lettuce, radish, spring onions, beetroot and also planted the first dwarf beans under a netting cloche.

The runner beans in their roottrainers are straining to be planted but I think that would be tempting providence, considering we can still get night frosts until early June!

[Clive.]

I have been on car parking duty in the Front Park...we had derogation to use it today, useful to rest our regular car park that was a little damp on Saturday after 1.5" rain.!!. It's recovered well today.

I did get some Wallflowers pulled up before going to work this morning and a little fertiliser sprinkled at the Shallots alongside.
Unhooked some Park electric fence on arrival at work ready for the car parking exercise and did get the second row of Radeo Peas sticked and some Courgettes planted before I had to put on my high vis vest.

...All the time expecting the wet weather to soon appear from the South....but it hasn't...yet. Tomorrow.??

A visitor arriving from Bedfordshire did tell me that it was pouring down that way on.

The sky was high enough to see a pair of P51 Mustang and a Harvard..
..but the Spitfire I have often mentioned on here has been sold, I understand, to a new owner on the South coast..

I think I will have a few minutes hoeing now to open up the ground again in the back garden here.

Clive.

[Ricard with an H]

Even yesterday when the forecast showed wall-to-wall sunshine we had a little rain, the grass hasn't been cut for a week which is a long time the way our grasses grow.

It all looked so scruffy so yesterday afternoon I cut wet grass though I didn't pick-up. I have a side-eject Klippo that can throw wet grass either about a foot to one side or if I lift the shute it can scatter the cuttings for two metres or more.

I don't like to pick-up, it's more work, the cuttings do a nice job keeping the grasses green and the amount of cuttings my grasses produce means laying them out to dry and turning them before adding to any composting. I've tried everything else but it still goes slimy if it's enclosed.

Digging in dried grasses turns sticky clay into something quite useable but it's all extra work so in a wet summer grass cuttings get to be a real problem. The paddock grass grows so fast there are always lines of dead cuttings that end up as slimy clumps in a wet summer or even just a short wet period during summer and that is quite usual.

I had often thought about buying an old and worn chain harrow to drag around the paddock after cutting but I just cannot locate one and chain harrows are not used these days even though I did see one being used about ten years ago and they can be bought new for £150. I'm thinking more along the lines of a very old worn one where the tines are almost gone and for about £25.

I suppose chain harrows might be used on smaller small-holding but I have yet to see one being used recently.

[Geoff]

I should have read this earlier - the farmer across the valley has finished chain harrowing, I'll get the camera out if he does another field. I pick up all my grass and don't feed it, some I compost but some I just dump in a big pile and use to mulch some bushes and my little Christmas tree plantation.