I need rain!

[Millymollymandy]

It's been great having a few dry weeks to get everything done and prepared in the veg patch, but now I'm getting worried!

February was a very dry month here with only about 40mm of rain which is about half what it should be, at least! This month we've had only about 30mm and there' s not much more than a bit of drizzle (maybe) forecast.

That means April has got to absolutely bucket down to make up for the shortfall, and who wants that in April (mind you I'll be in England for half the month )

I'm just worrying about my pond, because if the stream stops flowing into it before the end of May we are in for a serious problem. On top of that I've fertilised all the flower beds and I need rain to settle it in, and the ducks keep snuffling in it and I'm sure they're consuming tons of fertiliser - it's organic but I'm sure it can't be good for them! Making drills in the veg patch all the dry soil on the top just keeps falling in the drills - I'm used to that in summer but in March!!!

I've already decided to get the seep hose out this year to save my back and sanity but that does cost $$$ in water.

Can I have someone's nice water retaining clay soil please?

[Odsox]

Yeah, me too (sort of)
We keep missing all the rain that other parts have had just lately, although we did have some on Wednesday night. My spring water supply was beginning to slow down and all those willow cuttings I put in last week could do with a soaking and they are beyond the reach of my longest hose pipe.
My rain gauge tells me we have had 39mm since the 1st of March which is nice for knocking the garden into shape, but that is only half the story as we have had quite a lot of drying winds as well.
Ah well, we must have something to complain about I suppose.

We are also going to the UK, but in May, and I have seep hoses and timer controlled sprinklers to do the business while I'm away. It's worked well so far and takes some of the worry out of being away.

[invisiblepiper]

Oh please - take ours!!!!!
You sending over from Ireland there Odsox?
MMM - hope you get some rain - but I am very envious of your weather right now - yesterday we had - in no particular order - rain, hail, snow, sun and gale force winds.

[Millymollymandy]

Oh no, yesterday was horrible - cold, drizzly and windy. It's just that we only got 1mm of rain, the first in over 2 weeks! We didn't get your hail or snow or even sun though.

I'm planting very little before going away (hence choosing that time of year) so I'll have time to sow everything when I come back. The spuds, onions, parsnips, broad beans and spinach beet will have to fend for themselves. I doubt the soil will dry out that much before beginning of May that they'll suffer. I'm going to be mega busy when I come back though!

[Odsox]

Writing in this thread did the trick ... it rained today.
But when I looked at the rain gauge readout, I realised that I made an error in the earlier reading. I missed the decimal point and as the metric system is still largely meaningless to me I believed what I thought I saw .... give me furlongs and bushels anyday.
So correction, up to this morning we have had 3.9mm (not 39mm) this month and today's rainfall brings the total to 7.7mm.

[Millymollymandy]

Blimey that's seriously dry! Are you in freaky non emerald bit of Ireland Odsox?

I always look at mine after it has rained, tip the water out and write it on my calendar. Then I tot it up at the end of the month. And then at the end of the year - sad person that I am.

No actually it is really useful if you have dry soil to know just how much rain came down because I know from experience now that 10mm of rain = one pathetic inch of penetration into dry bare soil and even less on grass. So I know that I have to keep on watering things and really the dribs and drabs of rain that we get in summer are only any good for filling up water butts, they don't actually make a blind bit of difference to the parched garden!

[Odsox]

Blimey that's seriously dry! Are you in freaky non emerald bit of Ireland Odsox?

Yes, sort of.
I'm on a narrow peninsula, no more than a mile wide and about 20 miles long. We have a totally different climate to the folks just up the road ... many times it's a beautiful sunny day here but totally cloudy just inland. Especially in summer as the land mass is too small to generate cumulus clouds.
On the negative side we get more wind and sea fog.

[Flo]

It's surprisingly dry over here in North East of UK. We've has squalls of nasty stuff which has not lasted sometimes but February and March have almost been drought months like high summer except that it's been decidedly colder. Steady, gentle spring rain - the sort that soaks the ground properly - for half a day once a week would be nice for the next few weeks along with mild growing weather.

[Odsox]

Just reset my rain gauge for the end of the month ... total for March was 18.9 mm with most of that last Sunday.
It will be interesting to see what April showers we have as April can also be a dry month here.

[Millymollymandy]

We had 39.5mm which was mostly at the beginning of the month. Just weeded a flower bed and there was about 3" of dry soil on the top so I've had to water it! Still there is some rain forecast......

[Millymollymandy]

We finally got enough rain at the beginning of April that my woodland floor and grass finally started to grow as it had been so dry nothing much was happening.

However this morning we've had thunderstorms and constant rain (tho' sun shining now!) and at least 15mm, so I can go on hols happy that my veggie seedlings etc will be nice and moist!

[Cheezy]

Watcha 3M, I'm in the same situation. All last week they forecast for the "East of England" lots and lots of rain, but of course they mean London!. Not the North East, we had a cracking week, but no rain.

Now we're in the dreaded period when the land warms up but the sea is still cold, so for the N.E it's sea fret time. While the rest of the UK is basking in 21'C today we're misty, grey and 8'C at lunchtime, it's freezing!.

And I still need RAIN!!!, I'd rather have that than this grey dreek cold.

It was exactly the same last year, and we went from this drought/ dreek straight into the wettest summer on record. BAH I hope it's not going to repeat that.

Any how good to hear you've had some rain!!

[the.fee.fairy]

We had a bit of rain a little while ago...and thunder and lightning!

M3, clay's really not that exciting...apprently, its really fertile, but its the getting through it that's the problem. Its so heavy to move, and seems to be impossible to get anything else into...

[Millymollymandy]

Fee I don't think I'd really want clay soil as it would really kill my back - I want that perfect loam that is probably a myth that doesn't actually exist anywhere! There are some benefits to sandy soil such as being able to dig it in winter after a week of pouring rain. Anyway no matter how dry it can get there are still trees and grass here so they manage to survive and adapt and I think it's just me who worries - nature just gets on with it!

Hi Cheezy! Hope you get some rain soon and then have a lovely hot dry(ish) summer.

[frozenthunderbolt]

we in NZ are about due a winter and could defnitly use some winter rains, or even some autumn ones! That said *GLOBAL WARMING* (facetious buzzword mini-rant) our wrights early is leafing out (a good 1/3 of the tree) and flowering again . . .