Kitchen Garden Forum

Light rain all day pretty much, water butts topped up and the garden is looking better for it.

Just a tad jealous tiger! No fibbing - very, very jealous!

Getting dark early, first frost is probably only a month away!!

tigerburnie wrote:Getting dark early, first frost is probably only a month away!!

tigerburnie. Hope is not the same for rain.

Hosepipe bans:

Can anybody tell me please whether it,s legal in a hosepipe ban to use a length of hosepipe to fill a watering can? I,m searching around for information but it,s difficult to find any answers which have legal weight.

If we take the hosepipe to the vegetable patch, use it to fill a watering can and then water the vegs using the can is that legal as the hosepipe is merely substituting the same function as an outdoor tap ?

Some of us are getting too elderly or disabled to lug heavy watering cans around the length of our gardens to keep our vegetables alive in a drought.

I have read something saying you can use a hose to fill a watering can, but not sure where I read it, I think it was the Microsoft news home page on my computer, might be worth checking locally though.

Not sure Primrose but if/when you get a ban the local council should define the parameters of hose usage as there are some exceptions already from the neighbouring counties down here who have the ban. Some say you can use a hose for veg, but not for lawns or flowers, others is a total ban!

I personally would say all councils should have an exclusion for the disabled & elderly to define hose to water, but no sprinklers. Both hose & sprinklers use a lot of water but the hose can be used wisely & directly not just laid down with the user going in for a cuppa!

Distinct lack of butterflies this year, exception being cabbage white.

So I thought I would fill trailer up with horse manure and leave it on the plot for putting in compost bays later,
Good idea? yes until I had to take it off the car as trailer does not have a jockey wheel fortunately a search in boot found a car jack that worked.

Good thinking Colin….there is normally a way around most problems, some are just a bit harder to find, sometimes…

Only seen the odd cabbage white, but still tenaciously trying to get through the netting. The pretty ones are a rare event. I have built a swimming pool for the toad in the tunnel as he/she really reacts to a watering & I've accidentally moved it into there by disturbing it.

I guess frogs and toads are really suffering in this drought too. I suspect there are few damp shady places left for them and the insects they rely on for food will be scarcer too.
I think we're all beginning to get a serious hint now of how climate change is going to affect us all going forward and when you take it down to the lowest levels it's very worrying.
We've had a number of quite serious field fires in our local area and the speed at which they can spread is terrifying. When you consider that even a careless dropped cigarette end on a dried up verge in front of a house can set a roaring blaze off, it makes you realise how vulnerable we all are.

We had few butterflies two weeks ago, now we are mobbed with them, Peacock, Red Admiral, Small Tortoiseshell and Small Whites, no sign of any Painted Ladies yet, only ever seen one Comma up here. The fields and woods are full of them too, Common Blue, Ringlet, Meadow Brown just to name a few.
In our garden the other day.
Butterfly bush by tigerburnie, on Flickr

Just been cutting back a huge Ivy on someones house, for them! The wall is South facing and the heat that was radiating from it was quite incredible…..you can see why the Victorians used to grow so much fruit on them!

Blimey I just did a quick check of tomorrows weather & it is showing a 20% chance of light showers from 09.00 to 12.00. Won't do a thing for the garden . If I'm lucky enough to see a share of the 20%, I will happy to work in the drizzle. I hasten to add that this is only showing on the BBC weather not the apple phone weather, also not on the local news weather either.