So its official. In 2020, we're experiencing the sunniest April on record.
Looking at the bigger picture that's probably perfect timing. With Britain in lock-down from Covid-19 virus, the pavements and roads have been full of people daily exercising in this pleasant sunshine.
But I'm also a gardener and to be honest I'm getting a but fed up of dry Aprils because this year isn't the first time I've drained my water butts just to try and get seeds germinating. In fact I can't remember a recent spring season with that perfect growing combination of spring sunshine punctuated by short sharp and heavy April showers.
You may recall from my previous blog that my plot is on reclaimed land and as such comes with no 'services' such as a stand pipe for water or supplies of soil improver such as manure. So anything we need, we have to supply or collect ourselves...including water. That is precisely why, one of the first things we built on our plot was a shed. Yes, there is a whole post to be devoted to the joys of the allotment shed, but first and foremost you need a rain collection system...and a shed roof with gutter and down-pipe diverting rain water to a water butt is an essential element of allotment plot infrastructure.
Ta-daa. Here was our first attempt.
It worked perfectly. Just two problems. The flattish roof didn't really 'channel' the rain water so we would lose some rain to the edges but more concerning was we only had one water butt and that would empty in a couple of weeks of drought.
So, you add more water butts (above). But even then, the amount of water you need to water in 12 rows of potatoes and half a dozen raised beds for 6 weeks of drought soon goes if you are only using 'garden sized' water butts.
Over time I have got better at collecting the rainwater though, by overlaying some 'surplus to requirements' tin sheets that were about to be discarded at a friends factory. Not only did this 'recycling' provide a much more robust and weather proof shed roof (the previous wood/roof felt was showing signs of damage after just 5 years), the natural contours of the tin ensure that even in the heaviest of showers, we collected most of what landed on the metal sheets.
But still, the reality was that the amount of water I was collecting simply wasn't enough. Its feast or famine with rain these days and once a famine starts and your water runs out, it can have a major impact on your season. Seeds sown direct into the ground, if they germinate at all, just burn up in the sun so you can lose a month to 6 weeks of growing time with some crops after reseeding/planting. Potatoes can also suffer, just because the lack of moisture means they don't grow as quickly or as strongly, putting effort into just surviving rather than the 'fruit' they are supposed to supply.
So I got desperate. There's a picture below which shows my shed in the foreground and a big house in the background. One particular dry spell, the kind owners threw over a hose pipe to see if it would reach my plot - alas no, it didn't. The hose pipe would have filled any water butt it could have reached, but the butt would have had to have been in no mans land for that to work.
I tried filling up to 20 x 5 litre plastic containers with water from home, and packing them all into the back of my car. Then at the plot, carrying them all, transferring the contents into the watering can and then emptying the water over the land so parched that any moisture you did discharge almost immediately evaporated back into the atmosphere. Hard work that made me feel better but pretty pointless in the grand scheme of things, especially as I work away from home a lot so couldn't pop down regularly enough to make the trips frequent enough.
So last year (2019) something drastic had to be done...and was....in the form of 3 x 1000 litre water tanks, purchased and assembled at the rear of the shed as you can see below.
It was too late for last year's drought - yes April 2019 was dry again (as was May and June too) but over the autumn I managed to fill all 3 butts. And I would be ready for whatever 2020 threw at me (or in moisture terms, didn't throw at me).
So I go back to my opening statement - the sunniest April on record. And so far so good. As a result of the restrictions on work travel I'm now home all week so I can get to plot when I need to. And I have needed to. After 6 weeks of pretty much no rain, I have already used up half my water supply (that's 1500 litres!) so by my reckoning I can cope with a drought of around 3 months.
Surely that should be enough...and anyway, as I write, hallelujah, its raining. So not only is that one night when I don't have to trek down to the plot to water, it means my water butts will be filling up again too - that's win:win as far as I'm concerned.
Just not too much of it please though, we don't want everything waterlogged again like it was two months ago. We are never pleased are we!
Have a good week. #growyourown #allotment #bgveg #rain
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