Garden Blog

It is raining as I get the key for the garden from Durning Hall. We’ve had it all morning, but as I am walking to the side gate of the garden, the rain stops. A pleasant coincidence. I open the door, and am hit by greenness. The garden has grabbed the rain and light, and come to life. I go …

It has rained all day. Our awnings are dripping into buckets which we add to the water butts. We watch the rain in fascination like children who are seeing snow for the first time. It has been ages since we’ve had a prolonged downpour. I stick a garden fork in the earth to see how far it has penetrated. Several …

It’s 31ºC in the garden, a clear blue sky with not a single cloud. For an hour, four of us collect water to fill the barrels. We have enough for a few days and will water tonight at 7.30, when the day is cooling. There have been three rainy days in the last week, but the pond reveals how little …

At 34°C, it is the hottest day of the year. We collect water from Kevin, but don’t work too hard as we have sufficient for a few days, and it is too hot for extended exertion. We have had no rain since 29 May. I keep a journal and on that day, I wrote: ‘Lots of thunder and lightning, one …

Another hot day, 28°C, and the drought continues. We have gone seven weeks without rain. People are bringing water to the garden, for which we are grateful, but the bulk comes from Kevin who lives across the road. His flat is up on the second floor; he puts a hosepipe out of his window down to the gate of the …

It’s cooler today, about 25ºC, and cloudy. There’s still no sign of rain. We are watering most evenings to keep as much life going as we can. Many plants have finished flowering, accelerated by heat. Flowering depends on chemical reactions, and these are speeded up as the temperature rises. There are lots of seed heads scattered around garden including scabious, …

It’s six weeks without rain. The longest drought I can recall, made worse by the heatwave. The pond is a foot lower than it was in May. And there is nothing we can do about it. Any water we get has to go on the plants. A low pond is not as bad as it appears, according to the Freshwater …

Every evening this week a few of us have come in to water the plants. Our barrels were filled by members who live nearby. Even so, we are barely keeping up; it’s so hot and dry, and we have no running water. Water is essential for plant survival. The various chemical reactions that maintain plant cells take place in an …

Another warm summer’s day, which is not as good as it sounds, even with the sunshine, as we have had no rain at all this month. The garden is gasping, especially problematic as we have no running water. For the past couple of weeks we have been discussing what to do in case of drought. And now we are in …

It’s 23°C, sunny and breezy in the community garden. We’ve had a week without rain and the plants in pots and raised beds are suffering. We water and we water, but there’s a limit to what you can deliver with a watering can. The large cubic metre tank at the back of the container is 2/3rds empty. The buddleia is …