Forgotten What A Wet Day's Like

Not for the first time this summer we've got caught in some rain at the allotment. In fact it was the second time this week. It's a long time now since we had what I'd call a thoroughly wet day. I imagine it was sometime back in April, when it seemed the allotment would never dry out, since then we've really had nothing but showers. So far this month we've had some rain on 10 of the 23 days but on 6 of those 10 "rainy days" the amount has been less than 1.0mm or 0.04in. That doesn't have any effect on the dry ground at the allotment or in the garden.

 Rainfall Totals - Summer Months 2010 - 2018

It's easily the driest summer I've recorded although there's a week or so of August still left and rain is forecast for Sunday but we'll have to wait and see if that forecast turns out to be correct or it becomes another day with just a few showers.

Bed Prepared for Planting Over-Wintering Onion Sets

The very dry ground makes preparing beds for more crops very time consuming as the ground needs to be well watered before any attempt can be made to dig it over. The patch above has been prepared ready to plant some winter onions. The potatoes which occupied the bed over summer had been watered on a regular basis since the middle of July, more in an attempt to keep the ground moist enough to dig out the potatoes than increase the size of the crop. Our watering did at least make it easier to dig up the potatoes but the ground was still very dry. The soil got another good soaking once the potatoes were out before it was dug over once again and broken down with the cultivator ready for planting. Now all we need are the onion sets.

If you'd like a look around our plot I've included a video taken in the middle of August.

Copyright: Original post from A Gardener's Weather Diary http://ossettweather.blogspot.co.uk/ author M Garrett