I know I welcomed a bit of rain last week, but can I have a quick word with whoever’s been in charge of the weather lately? “Enough!”
It’s amazing that in just a couple of weeks we’ve gone from a drought warning where ‘hosepipe’ is a dirty word and all the pond creatures are on the danger list, to a full-on flood alert, where the little critters are all getting washed away.
Our garden’s had so much rain that my patio could easily double for an overflow pond, and bog plants could live happily in my lawn. A few sections of the veg plot are currently under water, and if we have any more wet, I’m certain the chickens will start to develop webbed feet. Although there are several drier areas of the run, and logs for them to sit on, I was a bit concerned about the amount of paddling they were doing, and asked my friends on the ‘tinterweb if they had any ideas. According to form, I shouldn’t put things like bark chips and sawdust in there. True, it will keep their feet dry for a bit, but the chips/sawdust can go mouldy very quickly and can then cause lung problems for the birds. The advice was to use hardwood chips from a tree surgeon instead, or put some pallets down until the weather cleared up. Sound advice indeed.
On a slightly more cheerful note, I stumbled upon a corking facebook group recently, called ‘Leicestershire Garden Exchange’. Set up by Sarah McCarthy, the aim is for people to swap or sell their surplus garden produce, fruit, veg, flowers and plants… all to make Leicestershire a little bit more self sufficient. Genius! No longer do you have to face a summer of eating the produce of the forty tomato plants you sowed: you can now swap a few for another plant someone else may be overrun with.
I soon learned that Sarah had excess courgette plants, so we’ve set up a swap for some of my aubergines I’ll have left over. I may also be interested in some of her dwarf beans that may become available, as the ones I planted haven’t fared too well. Only two have popped up so far: one got eaten by something, and while I was trying to help the other one into the world by easing off its seed shell, I sort of managed to snap his leaves off.
Joking aside though, the group is open to anyone – so if you’re a keen Leicestershire gardener with produce to swap or sell, you’ll be made more than welcome.
This one appeared in the Hinckley Times on 3 May… with a curious picture of a compost bin
