Put Your Hosepipes Away!

I was delighted to see my cousin Lynda and her husband Chris over the weekend; they had travelled up from Leicestershire to see my mum and dad and we went out for a lovely tea at a local Italian restaurant in Cottingham East Yorkshire. Also with us was Lynda's daughter Suzanne and her partner Hedley who live in London. We don't see them often and it was a pleasure to chat and spend time with them.

The weather has been okay these past few days with a little more in the way of showers which are much needed and surprisingly chilly nights which are not. No ground frosts thank goodness but the breezes do persist, knocking a few degrees off the temperature. Some really dark clouds and heavy summer showers this afternoon.

Now I'm not a tennis fan particularly, I'll watch it if I have to, you know, but unlike cricket which I could waste my life away watching, tennis does not have the same appeal. Imagine my surprise when I walk in and my other half has Eurosport on the satellite watching tennis at Queens, the forerunner to Wimbledon and Andy Murry is on (he won by the way.) What amuses me is that when he wins, he's British and when he loses, he's Scottish. Bizarre.

I notice once more the stories of potential hosepipe bans are hitting the news. Normally this is annual British Sport: three weeks without significant rain and the hosepipe ban looms. It seems on this occasion, it looks more likely this year. Spring rainfall in the UK was only 86.9mm, the lowest since 1893 apparently. Our friends in Ireland and Western England and Scotland might not agree however, they seem to have had a lot of rain recently.

Here are some tips from the BBC about gardeners coping with the dry weather (click on the link for more info):

• Scrape back the surface to make sure water goes to the roots
• Re-use house water, collect rain water
• For vegetables, step up watering two weeks before eating
• Water late at night so it's absorbed before evaporating
• Add a layer of mulch to keep moisture in
• Don't cut the lawn too short in the summer
• Put soaked newspaper under crops that need lots of water
• Use screens or windbreaks to reduce effects of drying winds

Seems to be a lot of work?

Enjoy the rest of the week.

Chat soon

Ta-ra.