Sods Law and a Hen Party

It immediately invoked Sods law, the principle that what can go wrong, will go wrong. Sods of soil that were bone dry and crumbled in your hand are wet, wet, wet balls of mud today. Arguments rage on.

Why are allotment holders and gardeners who grow their own food unable to use modest amounts of water to fill up water butts with hoses?

Why can commercial farms water with sophisticated irrigation systems all day and all night until their heart’s content?

The water boards have been intransigent, no ifs or Butts, they had the power of the Law and £1000 fines to back them. The heavens cried at this folly and have emptied themselves for the last week.

I measured 7 cm of rainfall on my allotment (almost 3 inches) in the 5 days and this week is not over yet. It’s one of the delights of gardening, you win when it rains and you win when it shines, as you smile smugly as the sky darkens or smile sweetly when the suns says hello.

I have heard it suggested that this is the wrong kind of rain and that it’s the wrong time for rain. The rain is too hard, they say, it not soft rain, the rain is being used by plants and is not by reservoirs and car washes. Of course- like all eloquent politicians –this spin is partly true, but largely lies as the wet soil easily accepts heavy rain, while prolonged rain delves deep into the soil. This is ideal for building up the moisture in the ground especially for organic gardeners , who have a reservoir of organic matter in the soil. It’s of far less use to those who farm intensively and fail to nurture their soil.

Of course it’s not so easy for gardening on Brighton’s chalk, where every drop of rain is quickly drained leaving a dry crust of crumbling soil. But when you are sitting smugly on Hove’s loamy clay soil, where sods of soil can be rolled in your hand, you know it’s going to save hours of back breaking and boring watering through the summer. You can be even more smug , if you caress and cover the soil with wood chip from conifers, whose pine perfume is fresher than a daisy. It crushes the competing weeds and conserves the moisture from the drying winds and the summer’s sun.

But Sods law does not always favour the brave. On Sunday, Macs organic chicken farm in Ditchling is having an open day, One good egg, it might even be called a Hen do -or may be you prefer an eggistentialist name. It certainly won’t be a cock up , it been very well planned, unless everyone chickens out.

One good egg is to sponsor an egg farm in Malawi, so if it is still raining we can hope for a Noah’s Arc competition, sponsored by an unique partnership of Jeremy Hunt,( the Minister of Culture and Leaks) and Southern Water.

I am hoping that more people will come to see real farm life – a farm for all seasons-and that children will have great fun splashing around in their wellies. Parents can enjoy the shelter of the gazebos and the thought of good organic food and self-sufficient farmers in Malawi, who have much more to endure than the water boards’ regulations or even our rain.

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