On 30/04/11 11:57, Will Hand wrote:

"Adam Lea" wrote in message
...
On 30/04/11 06:36, Phil Layton wrote:
If no rain today, I'm heading for my driest month since the AWS was set
up in 1997. I'm still at 0.6mm for the month, which would beat April
2007 when there was 1.0mm

Phil
Guildford

Wow that would be a seriously dry month. The Met Office rainfall
anomaly map for April should look interesting.

I was up in Salford over Easter and my dads garden was full of
flowers. In contrast, mine seem to be really struggling and I still
have large patches of bare soil everywhere. Seems a shortage of rain
has a similar effect on the garden to a prolonged cold spell.

Only 16.4 mm in Haytor so far this month (normal is 92mm, second driest
month).
Ground is nice and hard and dry and moorland bogs are firming up nicely.
Soil is moist in undisturbed soil after about an inch, freshly dug soil
is a bit drier. No watering needed yet apart from patio tubs and hanging
baskets and veg. seeds newly sown. Grass is green and has slowed down a
bit in the past week, thank goodness. Most amazing thing this Spring is
how lovely the flowers are, all fresh and colourful and coming so
quickly too! Where do you live Adam, seems like you are having serious
problems there, also what type of soil? If it is clay then it will dry
like concrete on the surface unless you dig in lots of manure. Clay
soils hold nutrients well though. If it is sand then it will dry out to
a great depth very quickly.

Will (Haytor, Devon, 1017 feet asl)

I live in Horsham, West Sussex.

It is clay soil in my garden. The back lawn is still green but has
stopped growing, the front lawn is yellow. It is mainly vegetable and
flower seedlings that I sowed last month that I have to keep watering,
plus the potatoes. The Hollyhocks, Dicentra and other perennials have
almost stalled but herbs like Lavendar, Thyme, Sage and Rosemary are
thriving (probably because they are adapted to dry spells).

I'm planning to replace the few sq meters of front lawn with a Thyme
lawn which will cope much better with drought (and look better as well).

I'm sure we'll get some significant rain soon. The Met Office outlooks
keep hinting at a transition to more unsettled conditions throughout
May. There are no general water restrictions at the moment as the ground
water supplies are healthy but if your gut feeling of a continually
blocked pattern and a warm dry summer comes off I can see hosepipe bans
here in the not too distant future.