Spring 2020 driest for 46 years in UK Garden

Uk driest spring for 46 years.

In the UK, 2020 has been the driest spring since 1974 according to the Met Office rainfall data. May was particularly dry. My nearest Met weather station is at Heathrow Airport and the recorded rainfall for May 2020 was 2mm. I could only see two other entries for Heathrow that were anywhere near this low. The Met Office records for the UK go back to 1862 and only a handful of entries were anywhere near this low. Even though we have had a rather wet end of June and into July, with frequent heavy showers, the ground is still very dry. The type of rain shower affects the absorption into the ground because the frequent heavy rainfall tends to run across the surface and into the drainage system without properly wetting the soil underneath. The top inch or so gets wetted but under that stays bone dry and the roots of the plants don't get any of the benefit.

I know this because I have been digging.

July is not a particularly good month for digging it has to be said. The ground is generally hard and dry and moving plants around is just asking for a whole Summer of watering duties to save their souls from wilting, but hear me out.

The flowerbed under my apple tree

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July is one of my favourite months in my UK garden.

It's far enough into the gardening calendar that vegetables are planted out and doing well, July's

flowers are starting to open bringing hot accents to the flower beds, and not much needs deadheading or supporting just yet. It's often warm enough here in the UK by July to be using the garden regularly, spending leisure time outside when it's dry, but rainy enough at the moment to keep it all green and not have to go out and water. Perfect.

Red crocosmia flowering in my garden and the large gunnera behind it.

Getting the job right.

Firstly, although I love doing little jobs in my garden and planning my garden for months ahead, I am not an expert. Each project that I undertake tends to be the mother-of-all-projects and subsequently the one and only time I will do it. So, I want to do it right. I also garden from a wheelchair, or occassionally a walking frame, or sitting on the floor when necessary. Which makes life a little difficult when it comes to the big heavy jobs.

So, last weekend, when I needed to get a couple of plants that had been moved in the Spring to bad positions, repositioned - my fault for putting them there by the way - I needed to enlist the help of the heavy lifting mob A.K.A. my youngest son and husband. Always a tricky manipulation. A very slightly sneaky, strategic, chessboard type manouvre to enlighten, persuade or otherwise convince them that it was their idea to help in the first place.

Is it just me?

Am I a perfectionist?

I hope not. I try not too be. I know that I am particular about what I need people to do when they 'help'. I want my garden to be right. I'm the one who goes out there and cares for the plants. I have a feeling of what is 'right' or what I see as aesthetically pleasing in my head. It's not something that is easy to describe, well not for me anyway. The position of the plant either looks right - or it doesn't - and it is as much about the potential of the plant, as it is about the colour, size and shape too. It's most definitely my garden. Not my husbands, or my children's, even though they all use the space too, and I have a specific plan for how to achieve that in my mind. That's how my mind works. In almost the same instant that I see a task that needs doing I have a comic strip like series of steps in my mind that I need to reach that goal. Oh so often these same tasks end up snowballing from a tiny weeding issue, to a plan for building the new patio or pool. Sometimes the series of events develops over time depending on the level of knowledge I started with, the detail involved, or the learning of new skills needed to enable me to get there. I have never shied away from an idea due to a lack of knowledge, or experience and will tackle any level of building skill needed to achieve the desired effect.

Purple flowering perennial

Often, the little hour-long job, turns into a days task, becomes an event, which then becomes a two year project. Frequently, also needing the enlistment of a wider group of either family or long-suffering friends who often suspect, when the BBQ invitation is extended, that there will be another project in the offing and if so, to bring their gloves and spades.

So, anyway, some of the plants that we moved earlier in the year, we moved again last weekend. The gunnera manicata with the enormous leaves I could never have moved on my own without damaging it, even though it's only a year old the leaves are almost a metre across already. There are still a few smaller ones to do like the rhubarb I didvided that is still crowding some crocosmia, some bears breaches that are to go where the cardoons were taken out. 

The ground is absolutely bone-dry as I had suspected. Even though I dug down another 50cm to loosen the soil before adding compost I never found moisture. Luckily I have some watering gel crystals in my garden shed so I mixed them into the hole too, and thoroughly watered before adding in the plant. I'm definitely going to be watering a lot this summer until the autumn takes over for me. 

Next time I will post pictures of the whole garden and give you a feel for the size of the task ahead and the reasons for all this upheaval.