Watering gardens in Galway

Has it rained enough in Galway?

Rain soaked in today, and the ground has taken it.

Galway has had 201.7mm of rain in the last 30 days. That is well above the 115.7mm a normal October brings here, and closer to the wettest on record (214.2mm).

Rain in Galway through a normal year

Across a normal year Galway gets about 1137.6mm of rain, most of it in October (115.7mm) and least in April (72.2mm).

A normal October in Galway has rain on 19 days. Only 14 of them bring enough to reach a root.

That makes Galway one of the wetter places this site covers in Ireland in October — 3rd of 8, against Sligo at the wet end (127.5mm) and Drogheda at the dry end (82.3mm).

What that means for what you grow

• Pots and hanging basketsWorth checking by hand even so — a pot in the sun can dry out in a wet week, because there is so little soil to hold anything.
• Beds and bordersNothing needed. Watering soil that is already wet does more harm than good.
• New plantingsAnything planted within the last month is the exception; its roots have not spread far enough to find water on their own.