Will it Ever Rain?

It doesn't seem quite right to be complaining about endless sunny days, but it is incredibly frustrating that Meteo France keeps promising us rain that never comes. 

We watched the news on the television last night and the drought (secheresse in French) is now getting a lot of coverage.  As of yesterday, 20 departments had some sort of restriction in place on water usage.  Farmers, as is their lot, are already complaining that their cereal crops are being damaged and that their yields will be lower than expected. 

For us, we've got over 4,000 litres of water butts around the barns and vegetable patches and they are all empty now.  We have now resorted to taking water from the pond so with evaporation this is dropping quickly.  We are using about 300 - 400 litres a day just to keep the newly transplanted garden plants, the sunflowers, and the vegetable and strawberry patches watered.  We know that in an ideal world we would be using twice as much to make sure that the courgettes, peas, beans and cucumbers were getting as much water as they need, but as we move all of the water by hand even 400 litres is a backbreaking enterprise.  

Filling a water container from our pond

When we had fewer plants we used to carry the water from the barns to the vegetable patch in buckets and watering cans.  This was hard work as there is over 100m of uneven ground (it's meant to be a lawn but the moles have made it look more like the Somme) between the barns and the vegetable patches.  We ended up watering ourselves more than the plants as most of our precious water slopped out over us as we wobbled backwards and forwards.  We knew that if we were going to continue to water we'd have to make it easier for ourselves by moving more water, more quickly with less wastage.

Hauling water containers from pond to vegetable patch water butt

As you can see, the solution we have put in place is for Andrew, two or three times a day, to haul a sack truck with three 30 litre water containers from the pond to the vegetable patch. I am sure the resulting fresh pea risotto and raspberry flan will make this all worthwhile!