I soak my garden with a hosepipe every night in spite of my husband going "kerching!" behind my back as we are on a water meter (- beats paying according to rateable value down here in the souf if there's only two people left living in a house ..only £200 instead of £600!) Seriously tho' using the hosepipe doesn't make that much difference to the bill ( my garden is about 120' by 50 ' so uses quite a bit)
...........but the soil is still dry as a bone. I live in a valley in what must be the only hill in essex & my garden is glacial clay over gravel which means clay that drains far too well & does all the cracking on the surface.
Ros
The good news and the bad news about my project
I tend to concentrate on only watering the potager and newly planted stuff. The rest has to take it's chances. Hopefully today we'll get bucket loads !!..It's been raining a bit so far,hot and muggy.
Hope we don't get too big a storms as I'm a wee bit frightened of them when I'm on my own.first thing I do is disconnect the modem, as it got blown last big storm, cost me £90.00 odd to repair it, and much brain power trying to follow the instructions.
Your soil doesn't sound too brilliant,does it need a lot of working to make it grow stuff?
Not really. When I plant anything I dig a big hole, mix the soil with some multipurpose compost mixed with bonemeal & plant in that. Seems to work. Every so often I chuck some Growmore around but flower beds get rose fertiliser. Also four times a year my flowering shrubs/trees also get sulphate of potash as there's little if any in the soil & if I don't apply it I really get very few if any flowers. Odd as this is an apple growing area! The soil is slightly acid & very rich in nitrogen - if it's green it grows like a rocket - no slow growing goes on here :) My garden was ancient meadow land used for grazing sheep since the Domesday book - probably accounts for the nitrogen!!!! :)))
wow, thats inresting, how did you find that out?
i live in a road called Roman Rd, and have often wondered if it was... a roman rd that is.I'm always finding odd shaped stones buried,and often fantasise about them being from past times.(I'm a wannabe archaelogist) I'd have loved to do that Big Dig thing with the Time Team, if I'd known, and could have persueded the other half that he really would like to dig a big hole in his lawn!!...
you are good feeding your plants regularly, I don't always remember..in fact hardly ever, apart from when this guy comes around with heat treated manure, which you pay very expensive for, but manage to con hubby onto buying some.
I splash some bonemeal around in spring, especially the clematis and roses,but most things have to make do, grow them mean , keep them keen.
How did I find out about the meadow? ...'cos I bought it!...was a difficult time with the tenant not willing to sell although he had multitudinous other acres.
Re soil info ..I'm a member of the RHS so get online support..worth it. Also I'm not a million miles away from Hyde Hall so get free entry courtesy of membership but Wisley is my favourite...worth the drive...the plant centre there is absolutely the best...my credit cards get lots of exercise there :)))
Re your Roman Road..a couple of miles away from me the local council allowed a housing estate to continue to be built on roman remains that the builder unearthed. They moved some of the stuff to a museum but not good enough I reckon. Sad!!!
.When I've watched some of the time-teams ,there's been people who had to stop building because something was found on their site,guess that doesn't always happen!funny how money talk,once something is destroyed there's no bringing it back.
So true sueone, both in terms of human and natural history!
Got thunderstorm here this morning and rain. But it's still hot and sticky.
I've taken photos all around the region. Bishop Auckland, Darlington, Raby Castle, Redcar, Saltburn, Marke, Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees. I'll be able to use images from all of these areas on my CD-ROM (I'll simply pick the best). The photographs I took on Sunday were in Sandsend and not part of the region so I can't use them - but it was an extremely hot day and I wanted the cool breeze of the coast. I hope to put some of these images up at Dave's Garden in a few days time - so you'll be able to see some of them!
No thunderstorms here yet but a little rain over night. What my garden really needs is a two day deluge!
One of the things I loved after moving down here from "up north" was the lack of rain & wind....but I wasn't a gardener then :)
A little rain in the night here too - and some spots today. But now the wind is getting up
Yes, the rain wasn't enough to do any good at all Rosalia yet.....
lol
Let me know northener when you post them, my friends come from Redcar, and go back quite often to visit family.
no thunder, a little rain, and hellofa lot of wind!!..had to keep on picking up pots that went flying.Just been to investigate garden, most of my hanging baskets have been battered, so I'll go round with the secateurs tomorrow to cut off the debris.
Have to stake some stuff too that got flattened, I never remember to do it before the winds, only when they're lying on the ground do I think of it.
managed to find a bit of space to put in a couple more plants.What was the side passage to our dining window,it's gravelled,and has a narrow bed to one side, so I've just planted into the gravel.hubby hopefully won't notice until it's time to work on the roof, too late by then!!..
I need to get some time back out in the garden too. Raining here today, got the washing machine on, just changed my bedlinen.
I have a few photos of Redcar, though I intend going back if I've time during the school-holidays or one weekend. I want some photos of holiday-makers enjoying the sands! Got one of the donkeys though!!!
hope they were smiling!!..We no longer have donkeys on our sands, i'll miss seeing them all walking through the streets on their way to the beach in the mornings.
As a child I can remember having a go in the goat cart,which used to be pulled along the sea-front.
Hmm, the donkeys were a bit grumpy. They weren't too keen on people going too close to their hind-quarters. I quite fancied a ride on one but changed my mind. I've never been in a goat-cart - it sounds very pleasant!
from what I can remember it was a bit smelly, the goat that is not the cart!!:-)