A decent drenching at last

First task was to battle the crowds on a bank holiday Sunday and buy another hose and attachment (praying to the god of fiddly metallic bits that these ones would connect to the elderly tap). I also scooped (hah! They weigh a ton) up two extra grow bags for the tomatoes and five foot long canes for the tomato supports.

These tomato grow bags are curious large plastic pillows full of the heaviest compost you can imagine. Miracle food for tomatoes and very moist. Hence the weight. And they are going to be the growing medium for my toms this year. Last year the soil was so hard and dry and I just didn’t feel that I gave my vegetables the best start. I did get plenty of tomatoes from last year’s crop – but they were on the small side. Perhaps that was due to the drought and my inability to go up and water every day, but this method looks worth a go.

I dug the trenches extra deep, hauled the grow bags into place and planted seven more tomatoes. The extra soil I took out of the trenches came in handy to put down at the potato rows. It just took ages.

Then it was joyous watering with a hose. I managed to connect the hose to the tap with a new attachment and run it as far as the wheelie bin. It filled in no time (which in allotment speak means it took much longer than one hoped). But then I thought – go for it. Attach the other 30 metre hose to this one (which I bought) and do the whole plot. Naturally the connectors don’t really speak each other’s dimensions, so I had to hold the two hoses shut and water like mad with a constant drip of water down my trousers and shoes. But it was a warmish sunny afternoon and so pleasing to give plants a proper watering for the very first time. Most of these potatoes and onions and garlic haven’t had a good drenching since they were planted six weeks back. 

The very second I stopped watering there was a sprinkle of rain – oh the irony. But it was merely a splatter of rain drops, and didn’t last.