[Swing Swang]

However, do not fear!  Rain is surely on its way in abundance!  WHY? you may ask....

Regression to the mean

SS

[fatcat1955]

I had a vacant piece of ground that was cracked on the surface and dusty when you walked on it. Dug it over yesterday, 10mm below the surface it was still damp from the winter despite all the hot weather and no rain. Next door plot holder is allways digging over his plot and it is like a desert . Food for thought. Have any of you seen a farmer in the middle of his field with a hosepipe. I think that established plants cope a lot better than we believe, seedlings are obviously a different matter. A good soaking fortnightly is enough for most things.

[mumofstig]

Have any of you seen a farmer in the middle of his field with a hosepipe.

Not with a hosepipe.............. but with great big sprinklers on arms, pumped from the river............just to keep crops alive! and there is talk in the SE of ccncelling their contracts to extract water because the rivers are so low  

[DD.]

They've been out in our local fields for weeks now. Must be mains fed as there's no rivers nearby.

So, yes - farmers do use hosepipes - big ones!

[stentman]

I to use the upturned plastic pop bottle method for watering certain things Pumpkins for example. I leave the screw tops on though but with a 1/8" hole drilled in. I find doing this, whilst it obviously still delivers a bottle full of water, the rate of supply to the plant is slowed.