Automatic Plot Watering System Takes Over

The lovely summer weather had to come to an end eventually and Saturday was the day. A bit of rain in the morning and a thunderstorm in the afternoon brought our dry spell to an end. The day's rainfall amounted to 8.4mm (0.33in), more than in the whole of June, and the wettest day since 24 April when we had 9.6mm or 0.38in. 

We were harvesting on the plot when the thunderstorm started. The morning's rain meant a day off watering so we decided on a few other jobs for the day. These came to an abrupt end as the rain began to pour down forcing us to take shelter in the shed. The earlier rain had softened the soil slightly and I dug up a few more drought hit Casablanca potatoes. I was pleasantly surprised by the crop which was much better than the first set off around six roots. 

Casablanca 

It's given me hope that some of our other potatoes that still have green tops might have some sort of a crop beneath them. When the rain eased off a little bit I made a dash for the plot greenhouse to pick our first ripe tomatoes of the season. It's unusual for our plot greenhouse to provide the first ripe fruits of the year as the plants in our home greenhouse are the first ones planted up in growbags.

Sungold

Sunday morning started off with more rain. Not the thunderstorm heavy type of rain, this is more steady rain which will be doing a good job of watering the allotment and garden much better than we can ever achieve with watering cans.

Temperature & Rainfall Records for 29 July 2018

It rained for most of the morning before stopping around lunchtime. Another 8.4mm (0.33in) bringing our monthly total up to an almost respectable 21.4mm (0.84in) and wetter than either May or and June.

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