Saturday 5 January 2013

Wet Wet Wet!

It's official - 2012 was the wettest year for England since records began.
See the story & stats from Mark Kinver at the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20898729
This is extra amazing since we were in drought mode until April. In March I walked the field that surrounds our garden and the stream that usually runs through it was absolutely dry, as were the various springs. Now this is how it looks:
Billy's field in late December


Water flowing from the draining pipe into the fern garden



The previous owners of Froggarts Cottage built a system of "French drains" in the orchard and vegetable garden and channeled the water through a pipe into a series of water features - the fern garden, then through a pebble fountain and stream at the top of the rockery and over a slate waterfall into the pond. From there the overflow goes into a soak-away and drains.But there's so much water now the system is overflowing and the plants in the fern garden and the lawn are waterlogged. As an emergency measure we have diverted the water straight from the drainage pipe along a length of guttering straight to the pond. The result is continual sound of pouring water - but the lawn and fern garden are a bit more healthy.
Water pouring into the pond from the guttering
The last few days have been sunny and warm and we're promised a good dry weekend so I'm looking forward to getting out there and getting rid of wet leaves lying on the garden and trimming back some of the more unruly bushes.

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