Dear Lucy, where I have pricked over the borders with a fork the rain has permeated and does seem to be doing some good. However when I was at Crystal Palace Park on Wednesday some of the grass was awful. The Gardeners are fighting to keep the bedding and the shrub borders alive, and there is no way they could cope with 200 Acres of park to water! The only good thing is the weeds are not growing, as they have no water either! It looks like it is going to rain today which is what we need, but I need to do a lot of hardy Fuchsia cuttings. Oh well it can wait till tomorrow.
At least it is helping with my tree ferns as normally in the heat they need watering three times a day, well I don't have to worry much now.
Here is a picture underneath some yew trees on Wednesday, look at that soil. Then as I went to go home this is what happened above the BBC transmitter at the top of Crystal Palace, and it poured down. The problem is Lucy when you have soil this dry on a slope the rain just runs straight off it.
Regards.
Neil.
