Gardening in a drought

twopenny

I used to have a standing joke with my neighbour that we had a clover lawn and it didn't need mowing.
It just grew that way by not being treated.
The not having to mow is a bonus 😉

Ripley I know about that. I have to spend time with my feet up and last year the mass of birds and fledglings trying to learn was a treat
Unfortunately someone chopped my ivy tree down without permission. Bats roosted, fledglings hid and butterflies and others were around.
They all vanished overnight which is so sad. 
Hopefully they will come again.

SuzeQStan

That is very sad 2p -  our welcome visitors 🦇normally turn up to roost in our gable end - they didn’t come for their normal May/June visit this year - am hoping they turn up in October. we are a couple week long layover on their travel plans usually.

there was an incident though last year - a newly minted pup made it in through an open window in our lounge and was terrified by time we found it (possibly some time later 😔) and carefully placed it at bottom of a tall fence so it could climb to fly again. Wondered if that might have put our visitors off us.

RipleyG

The pond definitely helps with bats too, though the population took a dip when next door converted their attic. But we put a housemartin box up last year, and found bat droppings in it when we checked it early spring - so something has definitely been here for it's holidays! 

@twopenny sorry to hear that, but glad the wildlife also keeps you amused 😊

greenbee

I thought my bats might have been upset by all the work going on in the house and garden, but they're happily back in the roof and flying around the garden (and in the porch, pooing on the doorstep).

We've recently installed 3 x 1000l IBCs on our shed, and are in the process of setting up a solar pump system to feed the veg plot via soaker hoses. We have a 227l waterbutt on the front of the greenhouse with a solar pump feeding a drip system, and 2x 100l slimline waterbutts on the back of the greenhouse. Unfortunately the one on the front doesn't fill efficiently, so we have to move the water manually from back to front. There's also a small water butt on a small shed by the compost (doesn't collect much as it's under the trees, but is useful for wetting the compost in this weather), and two 260l butts on the house (annoyingly the house has very few downpipes in suitable places for rainwater harvesting) to provide water for the pots on the patio. We're in the process of adding another four 260l butts on the back of a summerhouse (I think we might actually have room for five... but will wait until we have four in place before confirming), where they'll be useful for watering fruit trees, and as backup for the IBCs. There is one more IBC to go on the garage at some point so there is water easily accessible for the new hedge at the front.

We've realised that there is potential to get a lot of water from the garage, but it's a long way from where we actually need it, so we're not sure that it's worth the investment at the moment. The IBCs were cheap, but making the hard standing behind the shed and sorting out the plumbing (they'd previously been used for a grey water system, so we had to work with the existing holes/connections) wasn't. Still worth it if we get a hosepipe ban, and I'm making sure we keep them filled.

SuzeQStan

Wow @greenbee - by reckoning you have 5k litres of water storage!  Thought I was doing ok with 1k 🤣 - wish we had the room for a set up like yours.  Will be lookin into this solar pump to drip feed though thank you 

greenbee

My existing solar pump is from irrigatia, and has worked well for the past 5 years. However, when I called to ask for advice from a technician as to what was needed for the veg plot I struggled to get past customer service agents reading the same information that I’d already reviewed, and the promised call from a technician never happened. I then found a company in Wales that makes similar systems (Harvst), who called back within 48 hours, asked me relevant questions and then emailed me confirmation of what I needed - and I could just buy the components, not a kit with stuff I don’t need. Parcel was dispatched the same day, and is due on Monday, can’t vouch for the equipment yet, but the customer service was excellent, and I’m happy that I’m supporting UK manufacturing. 

All of these systems are fiddly and frustrating to set up.

SuzeQStan

SuzeQStan said:

That is very sad 2p -  our welcome visitors 🦇normally turn up to roost in our gable end - they didn’t come for their normal May/June visit this year - am hoping they turn up in October. we are a couple week long layover on their travel plans usually.

there was an incident though last year - a newly minted pup made it in through an open window in our lounge and was terrified by time we found it (possibly some time later 😔) and carefully placed it at bottom of a tall fence so it could climb to fly again. Wondered if that might have put our visitors off us.

It’s like we summoned the bats - they must have arrived yesterday as their droppings were on the path beneath their roost this morning.  Watching them gloriously glut on insects in our backyard.  They would give top gun jets a run for their money in the precision low flying stakes

SuzeQStan

Just come on here to say it’s raining!  I can hear the water pouring into my rain barrels 🤣

twopenny

Talking of lawns I saw this on my physio walks around and it was stunning, bright yellow and orange and covered in insects. bees and butterflies.

Unfortunately the lovely orange dandelion type plant closed up for night time so I want back the next day - and they'd mowed the lawn

the orange and yellow has spread all the way up the street and no one minds.

I'm hoping to get some seeds stuck to me so I can do this to my place. I like it better than the perfect green sward that I work hard on each year.

If anyone knows what the yellow is I'd be grateful. It's a pea like flower.

So I searched duh! and I used to know this

Bird's-foot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus).........or it could be Meadow vetchling (Lathyrus pratensis),

The Fox & Cubs I'm not convinced of but hope it will bloom again and I'll get a photo. It's something like this

https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/65455/pilosella-aurantiaca/details

After 10-12 weeks without useful rain here it's bleak and leaves are drying out. We had enough to wet the paving today but none forcast for the forseeable.

SuzeQStan

Birdsfoot treefoil - thanks very much for that lovely photo @twopenny - been reading up on that a bit since your mention as I’ve got the orange plant in my garden. 

Am afraid I pulled it out at the time, but noted a largish patch of it in the same places a couple weeks ago so have left it be as it seemed more determined than me. 

I’m going to try to transplant to the lawn and see if there’s any birdsfoot trefoil knocking about while am at it as it’s supposed to keep moisture in the ground.  They can join the clover which is about 50% of my lawn (grand word for a small thing that it is)

hope the forecasts are wrong and you get the rain you need soon