Climate change adaptations

Four out of the last five years have been droughty. This year and last year were particularly bad. They have also been characterised by very dry Springtime weather just when you need the grazing grass to grow as the temperatures rise after Winter, and when the early crops are planted out in the vegetable beds. Next year the predictions (courtesy of the impending Super El Nino) are more of the same, if not worse. We will have to keep adapting to these changing conditons. 

We have sold our flock of sheep for this reason. Something else we have done, after mulling over it for some time, is the installation of a bore hole to secure our own water supply and to bypass any hose pipe restrictions. Its not for drinking but for watering crops and grass. The bore hole pipe was sunk thirty-one feet deep into the underlying chalk bed where the chalk is saturated with ground water which has percolated down. An electric pump provides the pressure to the outlet where a hose can be attached. The water pressure is very impressive. 

The greenhouse crops did very well this year. Outside it was mixed results: quite a good poatato crop but the tubers were smaller than usual, for example. One surprise was how well the outdoor-grown tomatoes did (San Marzano) despite the drought. Unlike the green house tomatos (twenty seconds per plant every day, twice on heatwave days) they were watered only occassionally. They are currently in the process of being turned into passata, among other things. 

Bore hole in its own a small shed. The bore hole
is on the right of the electric pump

Outdoor-grown San Marzano tomatoes

The last of the aubergines, another crop that did well