It’s been quite a while since we had a proper wet day. By that, I mean enough to penetrate into the soil rather than just wet the surface. In my mind, I reckon about 10mm or a little under half an inch in a day is the amount we need. The last time that we had 10mm or more rain in one day was back on 20 February.

 

As you can see from the temperature and rainfall data above for the last four weeks we certainly haven’t had much rain. I’ve set the rainfall axis to 50mm or about 2 in which is what we might expect over a four week period.

 

April was a dry month, although to be fair that’s not all that unusual as you can see from the records below since 2010 nine out of 13 Aprils have recorded less than 25mm or about an inch of rainfall.

 

The lack of rain is now beginning to cause us a few issues at the allotment. We’ve had to start watering any crops that have just been planted. It’s not too bad at first when there are just one or two beds to water but as more and more crops get planted the task rapidly increases. It’s especially important to keep the surface of the soil damp where seeds such as carrots have been sown if they are to germinate whereas we are assuming our potatoes, planted deeper in the ground, will be okay at the moment.

 

At times it’s difficult to determine if plants are suffering from chilly nights or indeed a lack of water. These lavenders planted out a few weeks ago are an example of what I mean.

 

The other major problem is that we still have some beds that need cultivating but I think they are a little bit on the dry side. Certainly, some beds like our old strawberry bed have developed large cracks and I will have to wait for a decent downpour to soften up the soil for digging.

 

Strangely the lack of rain hasn’t stopped the grass from growing. On the path next to the bed with cracks in the soil, the grass carries on growing as though there is plenty of moisture.

 

A bit like watering it seems like a never ending job keeping the grass under a little bit of control. However with no decent rain in the forecast for the next 10 days, it looks like we’ll have to keep on watering but hopefully, the rate of growth of the grass will slow a bit.