It looks like June is going to finish up as the driest June I've recorded following on from the second driest May. The last few days have been sunny and breezy not at all what we want when the ground is already rock hard through lack of rain.
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| 10 Forecast for Ossett from http://www.wetterzentrale.de |
Next week is forecast to be very hot and sunny as we move towards the beginning of July and there's no rain in the forecast at all. That's not strictly true as 0.1mm is indicated for 29 June but I think that's only there to show where rainfall would appear if there was any. It looks like watering on the plot will be the main job of the week; with temperatures next week forecast to nudge 30°C (86°F) it's going to be hot work.
Watering the plot has become a major undertaking and is slowing progress down at getting other jobs done. We needed to get some more beds ready for planting up but the best looking of the ones remaining to be dug over looked like this.
There was no way my little tiller was going to turn over this baked hard ground so we decided to give the bed a good soaking, leave it overnight, and then see if it could be dug over. The ground is so dry that not even weeds have attempted to germinate. There were a few roots of wick grass but there was no way of digging them out so they got watered too. As if we hadn't enough watering to do we were actually watering weeds.
After a good watering the bed was covered with weed control fabric in the hope of keeping some of the moisture in overnight. The bed was uncovered the following afternoon and I set about digging over the bed.
It was hard going, but I could now get my spade into the ground, and once dug over it didn't look much use for sowing or planting crops in. It certainly wasn't going to be broken down into a decent tilth without putting up a bit of a fight. I reckoned I hadn't got much to lose by trying my tiller on it.
The tiller found it hard going too but this time it was doing the hard work instead of me and after a good number of passes up and down the bed the lumps were broken down into something resembling soil. At least we should be able to sow or plant into this bed now.
It looks like we'll have a least a couple of weeks to wait before we get any rainfall. If next week turns out to be as hot as forecast I think some parts of the plot will really start to suffer.
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Gee, that's awful news. No rain for two weeks yet. And you folks without the myriad of irrigation devices we use to maintain a vegetable garden through our always-dry summer.
ReplyDeleteAnd now a heat wave just to dry things out even more if that's possible. So you don't use watering can then Jane?
Deletewhat a shame praying that mother nature might start raining during the night hoping your crops do not suffer to much blessing to you both
ReplyDeleteAt least we can enjoy the lovely weather Linda.
DeleteRain is really needed now isn't it. Well done on knocking that plot into shape, it sounds like it was really hard work. I've been spending hours watering here. Oh for a good downpour.
ReplyDeleteIt was hard work CJ. I saw yesterday that some places haven't recorded any rain at all in June. We've spent hours watering too. Perhaps we'll get a thunderstorm or two when the heatwave finishes??
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