Saturday 9 June 2012

Thirst quenched

Predictably, after a spell of hot dry weather at the end of May, our Diamond Jubilee long weekend was a total washout. I had been looking forward to sitting outside on the patio each evening with a cool glass of wine in my hand, admiring the burgeoning veggies in my plot, but sadly this did not happen.Instead, we had to turn the central heating back on again!

The rain we have had over the last few days has however been welcomed by many of my plants. A couple of the Blueberries have put up new shoots, which is highly desirable since most of their fruit is borne on stems from the previous year. The new foliage is a browny-gold colour and turns green as it matures.


In the Runner Bean bed I have found this late-comer bean plant popping up. It must have been lurking, ungerminated, in the compost when I planted out the beans three weeks ago, and has finally decided that (since there is now more than enough to drink) it does want to grow after all.


The moist conditions are also producing a burst of activity in the world of fungi. This tiny little thing will probably only last for a day or two, but there will be plenty more like it. Anyone know what type it is?


Do you remember what I said yesterday about Drought Orders and water-catchment arrangements? Well, if only we could  have collected and stored all the rain we had over the Jubilee Weekend, our Drought Order could definitely be lifted. My water-butt is full again:


330 litres of rather murky rainwater...



Now why can't we have some more reservoirs to do the same on a national scale?

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P.S. Want to know what this is?


If so, have a look at Jane's blog Onions and Paper...

11 comments:

  1. How wonderful it is your rain water reservoir. That is what I plan to do too.
    As for fungus, I believe it is a kind of the genus Coprinus (Ink-caps). Hard to tell the right species just from the picture, see C. auricomus, C. plicatilis...

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  2. We had a really heavy downpour yesterday. About an inch in 15 mins. And a bit of hail to go with it. Not too damaging but I had to tie up my favas afterwards. They were knocked over. And my mustard still needs to be dealt with.

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  3. Glad you got rain. Here it is normally an "occasion" in the summer for us to get rain but so far we have had a good bit. My pink blueberries have put out new shoots but the new ones are still getting their roots going.

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  4. We have added 2 large rainwater tanks (1500l & 2500l) and it only takes a few good downpours to fill both. Wish we could have more, but they take up a lot of space and are rather unsightly.

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  5. Our tank is full too at the moment. There must be somewhere it isn't raining at the moment...

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  6. I've had enough of the rain now, we definitely need some summer.

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  7. Do you have a lid on your water butt to stop young birds falling in and also stop mosqitoes colonising it.

    We are lucky in that our water company took steps to avoid drought conditions. We had hardly anty rain at all from February last year. Dec and Jan crept up a bit them it was dry again until May but no drought restrictions were placed on us.

    Countries that regularly have low rainfall must wonder what we do with all of ours!

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    1. Sue, Yes, I do have a cover on the water-butt. I removed it for the photo.

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  8. By the way why don't you send your fungus photo to Springwatch and baffle Chris Packham?

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  9. It certainly seems to have been a wet June watching from over here...but there's something comforting having your water butt full ;D
    We collected our last runner beans this afternoon and only have one capsicum and lemons left to harvest!
    I must start planning for spring planting ~ oh but my blueberries are looking very happy now that I've transferred it from a pot into the ground.
    Have a great weekend :D

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  10. Hooray for you! We still need rain quite badly and with heat today and tomorrow in the 90's, and no rain in sight, we'll have t water some more.

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