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Like all these things, it depends very much on local conditions. I can't say I've ever gardened anywhere where water loss through drainage was an issue.

Gritty stony soil over close to the surface in places porous bedrock, and on the slope of a hill. However down the bottom of our hill across the road in our flat orchard (which is at the bottom of a mini valley) there is some clay in the soil and that is a totally different kettle of fish! Long after our sparse weedy grass has gone brown it remains lush and green there for ages.

gregorach wrote:I can't say I've ever gardened anywhere where water loss through drainage was an issue

I've got one of those gardens that the celebrity gardeners bang on about, "free draining but water retentive". I thought that it was a contradiction, but not so.
My soil is very free draining which means that we can have continuous heavy rain for several days, but the day after it stops you can walk on it, dig it, cultivate it, sow seeds in a fine tilth even. Just as well as the amount of rain we get it would be a bog otherwise.
Having said that, it never entirely dries out due mainly to the peat content, but it IS usually only a week or so before it rains again, so that part is never really tested to extreme.

Millymollymandy wrote:It can't retain water if the water has long disappeared. It's rather a myth, yes it helps the surface moisture to not evaporate, but here the water drains out from below - so think of putting mulch on top of bathwater then taking the plug out. It doesn't help, believe me!

Manure is a terrible mulch. Last year I used loads of it (was too lazy to dig it in) and it just dried up into hard crusty lumps. The lumps take a lot of water to become soft again, water which could have been going to the plat roots instead. I imagine if the lumps were under the soil, they wouldn't bake in the sun and dry out completely, and would probably act as water reserviors instead.

Better get digging then :-(

I have that kind of soil Odsox. Sadly we don't get your amount of rainfall! But on the plus side at least nothing rots in winter as waterlogged doesn't exist here (and by here, I don't mean Brittany, I mean my garden/immediate area ).

And Bonnie - yes, if it is dug in, it really helps retain moisture so I go for half rotted compost as much as possible in the veg patch as that makes a big difference. Well rotted doesn't do half the job.

What do the locals do MMM? I'm guessing they've cracked it somehow.

Ha ha they moan and complain about how dry it is, and veggie wise they are French therefore they only grow a very narrow range of veg, then moan and complain about how dry it is. Usually my neighbour who is interested in pretty things lets everything I give her die because she forgets to water them. Most shrubs and things on banks here are grown through green geotextile which looks hideous.

If you mulch, put in drainpipes to the roots of your plants so you're not watering the mulch.

My water company is one of the 8 that announced there'll be hose-pipe bans next month. Now, do I quickly fill up the water butts and the pond before the ban comes in or should I be a good girl and just hope it rains in the near future?

Zoe

Same here. The ban starts on the 5th April. I must admit the same dilemma did cross my mind.

Then it occured to me how dumb they are giving everybody notice like this. I can almost hear the hoses running already!

It's a Dad's Army 'Don't Panic!' planning strategy

Thomzo wrote:My water company is one of the 8 that announced there'll be hose-pipe bans next month. Now, do I quickly fill up the water butts and the pond before the ban comes in or should I be a good girl and just hope it rains in the near future?

Zoe

Fill them all up and if you want to be really naughty, buy a great big tanker lorry and fill that up too

From what they were saying on the news, no enforcement will be taken, it's a wake up call to people to not go wasting water. Drip hoses are still allowed.