"Rain, Rain come back, Go Away another day!"

Italian Parsley and Roma Tomatoes

my flower bed

The ground is shockingly dry. I've been really, or at least I thought I had, drenching the plants with endless cans of water, but the soil has been baked deep down. Normally the Wimbledon Tennis starting and Glastonbury festival normally ensures a decent spell of rain, but no not this year, I'm thinking we're in for another '76!! Not so long ago I was teaching my son "Rain, rain go away, come back another day" - as he had his nose and scooter disappointedly pressed up against the window! Now I think I'm going to teach him a rain dance - er, well if I knew any! Perhaps we'll just do "Rain, rain come back, Go away another day!? At home I've been recycling his bath water on to the lawn; very easy with a hose held in the bath by the bath mat then chuck the rest of the hose out the window, I fortunately found out that if there is water already in the hose it sucks through with need to help it syphon through yourself!

This is my first year at the Lottie and I didn't really think through what I could plant when crops were finished. Therefore I had nothing ready to go in and a bit worried as I hadn't sowed anything. I visited a lovely local garden centre this morning to buy some seedlings to bung in. Sweetcorn and Cucumbers were two things I had on my original plan but hadn't cleared their allocated beds, so I was pretty excited when I saw them already started. They have some serious catching up to do if they want to get as big as our award-winning neighbours and my god I'm going to have to pray for rain or be there twice a day nurturing these babies.

I couldn't decide what to do about the broad beans roots, pull them out or dig them in. I did neither I just left them in the ground dug in some more manure between the lines and covered the bed with black membrane and cut holes for the cucumbers. I planted them and a big plastic bottle upturned and bottom cut off next to them for ease of watering and seriously puddled them in. I have put the sweetcorn in the end of the onion bed where the garlic had been. I'm most worried about them as they we're all in one pot and their roots did not split very well. I also bought a very tasty Tayberry bush, I can say that as it already had fruit on and they tasted divine, I planted it where a summer raspberry had failed.