Speed gardening

Just having  a thunderstorm with hail the size of petit pois. Spent the day speed gardening in between showers. Sun out, cut back the geraniums, rain. Sun out, cut back the poppies, rain. Sun out, plant the rest of the annuals, rain. Sun out, pick the Tayberries. What I'm finding surprising is the lawn is still firm underfoot, and when I dug out the soil to do the planting it wasn't mud, it was just damp soil. I also have 2 water barrels joined together and fed from the down pipe. I'd emptied one and half during the dry period. I was expecting the 2nd one to be overflowing by now, it's not even half full. Just goes to show we are really are in the wettest of droughts

I read that there are 4 water authorities that still consider some areas to be in drought crisis . What a joke ! The rain here in West Lancs yeserday was almost biblical and there was me out in it watering everything in the rainshadow - my lawn resembles a swamp today and the weather's great for cutting the grass - however...........

We still have a hosepipe ban here in Surrey

Gardening at the moment is a bit like doing the hokey cokey  - in,out, in,out shake it all about

Pam x

I know what you mean about diving out between the rain - it's the same here, and I still have several that need planting out.

The one good thing is that they don't need watering once they are out!

Makes my life difficult, trying to get jobs done for the customers!

I feel your pain Joe. I used to garden for a living. As soon as the rain stops, they all want to know why you aren't in their garden! Not getting paid isn't great either....

It was an advantage for me as I sprinkled rose food around all of the roses & then let the rain water it in for me!

I'd normally do that second feed at the end of May/June after the first flush of flowers, but they've only just finished, in fact some are still in mid flush, so I figured feeding should be late too. 

I was potting things on inbetween showers too, so spent half the day in & half out in short bursts of energy!

The moment they put a hosepipe ban here in Lincolnshire it started to rain and it has never stopped. We have sandy soil but at the moment it is impossible to get out to do anything, as it is sopping . I have a beautiful Sanders White rambler covering a pergola. It has just started to flower and this morning when I ventured out all the flowers are turning brown. We have sown veg seeds four times and the results are pathetic.

We have a conifer hedge that divides our courtyard garden that desperately needs cutting, but it is too wet to use the hedge cutter. Today we were promised scattered shows, instead we had a torrential thunderstorm. We haven't had a day without rain for about 5 weeks, but at least we aren't flooded.,

I feel for the people who garden for a living, it must be a nightmare.

Well that's the moaning over for now, the sun has come out at last and I am going to try and pick my blackcurrants, that is one thing that has cropped wonderfully.

Tomorrow might be different,---- was that a pig I saw going past the window!.

I'm hoping for a sunny day tomorrow to pick the blackcurrants. Mine too have cropped abundantly and much bigger than they've been previously.

There again there's always that pig