It finally rained

The vineyard was quite dry

We have had a long dry spell and yesterday it finally rained. And it rained quite a lot in Mayo. You can hear the trees breathing a sigh of relief. They had already started dropped their leaves. With the ash dieback disease, forestry is suffering in Ireland. We don't need more pressure on the canopy.

We have been watering the gardens but not the vineyard and not the rewilding area. Our rain catchment and pond were getting very low and now have been topped up. The grapes had not increased in size since the last time I posted but now I expect them to plump up. We've got another dry spell coming over the next few days, so I am hoping they won't get too diluted. The Azores high has been parked solidly over Ireland for weeks. 

During the rainy weather, we went to work on the polytunnel again. We still have not found a suitable eating grape for the tunnel. We did, however, manage to install the third and last raised bed. Still need to fill it with compost, but I've got a layer of seaweed at the bottom. Alex is planning a strawberry bed as well. It's all coming together.