More rain

Yet more rain, here :-( It is seriously wet here, now :-( Beyond just "topping up the water butts" or " wetting the soil" wet.

This is torrential. Downpours. Sodden. Drenching. The ground underfoot is not just damp but squelching underfoot, and if I walk the same path over the lawn more than once or twice the ground oozes and the grass turns into a muddy track.

I left a wheelbarrow, with a bit of compost in, outside the poly tunnel - I WAS going to use the compost in the bottom of some pepper pots...but after yesterday and today the wheelbarrow is full of water :-( and the compost is all floating on the surface.

I left some deep gravel trays outside meaning to scrub them - they WERE empty but are now full of water.
I guess that makes them easier to scrub?

In the veg plot all is NOT well. The spuds are still OK at the moment, even though we are already into Smith periods for early Blight ! The onions and parsnips are doing well but beans are struggling and I have not yet managed to plant out more pea plants or the leek plants as do not relish doing so in torrential rain, and the ground is so sodden I do not want to squish it! Courgette and pumpkin plants are battered beyond redemption - and as for the spinach and salad plants outside - oh dear they have just been pounded into the soil and oblivion :-(

Good job we have the poly tunnel to protect some crops for us to eat! So I have been working inside there, 

trying to pot on some of the plants which really should be outside by now. If I can get them into larger pots I may still be able to harvest from them. But the kales and other brassicas and the rest of the pumpkin plants will just have to wait - it is just to wild and wet for them to go outside just yet.

 

And harvesting the crops. Lots of salad leaves, cucumbers, courgettes - the outside plants still only have about 4 leaves on, so it is a good job I have two plants producing inside the polytunnel!

When (!) we get the new paddock area I think I will install another poly tunnel - a flat sided modern one to maximise space, and will then grow direct into the ground as it will be good soil over there rather than sub soil as in the existing poly tunnel. So I could grow all sorts of extra stuff direct into the soil :-)

I am very fortunate to have such a lovely polytunnel - it means I can at least carry on gardening and growing something, even if it IS pouring with rain outside.