Sunday 17 April 2011

Who Stole our April Showers?

Posted by Rosie

"April showers bring forth May flowers" - or so says the rhyme.  However, the last 2 Aprils here have been incredibly dry with just one small shower last year and, to date, an even smaller bit of drizzle this year. Compound that with the driest March on record and things are not looking good for gardeners and owners of grazing livestock. And it gets worse, not only no rain but also we are having quite high temperatures and/or strong winds thus further drying out the soil.  At the moment the grass is still growing (and the shady lanes are full of earlier than usual wild flowers) but wondering how long this dry weather could go on for is very worrying. Last year I made hard decisions about which vegetables to water and which should wither on what turned out to then be a very hot, dry summer.  I really do not want to have to make those decisions again this year and have another year with no vegetables to sell.  We also want to reseed the front grass area and sow sugarbeet for the pigs, neither is which is worth doing in dust dry soil.


So whilst it is lovely to see the sunshine and feel the warmth on your back and whilst it is great for tourists visiting Calvados, spare a thought for those of us who rely on the rain to water our vegetables and help the grass to grow.  A few decent rain showers would help no end in the veg patch and refill the empty water butts.

3 comments :

  1. We have had work done this spring on our veggie plot so we planned not to get anything out before Easter. It now looks like we're on target and with good weather forecast for Easter, we should be able to get everything out, but then we'll have to water, water water. I'm torn between good easter weather for us (sun) and good weather for the plants (warm but wet)

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  2. It's a very similar situation here - we've only had a few feeble showers and it's too warm for them to have much effect. I just hope that when it does finally rain it doesn't also turn really cold...

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