Yes. August. Lovely. The RHS, a body of prime practitioners, esteemed experts and hot horticulturalists in whom I have a great deal of trust and who I respect deeply say this about August…
August – Sultry late Summer. “August is usually one of the hottest months of the year – making watering essential” – How very true. How very apposite and appropriate – Yes, right, and don’t tell me…er… Slough is the Jewel of the South West, Jeremy Clarkson is a much revered gay rights and anti-racist campaigner and FIFA is a trusted and transparent international organisation. What are they talking about? When was August last hot and sultry? In Monaco maybe…
Those lovely people at the RHS obviously haven’t looked out of the window in the last few days and don’t know about the flash flood in the basement of our outhouse, caused by the overflowing of a local road drainage system and some dubious brickwork that has provoked me into buying, for the first time, a dirty water pump with which to evacuate said water. And when I say basement. I mean cellar. Yes. My cellar. My outdoor, secret store, say-no-more-cellar previously packed with some rather lovely wine and beer, bottles of bliss, most of them now floating in a big dirty pool looking like the sad and bedraggled flotsam of a booze cruise shipwreck.
It’s like losing your family…
…Sob! I’ve lost a lot of my prized alcohol and I’ve got nothing light and bubbly to drop in on friends with next weekend, nothing red and spicy to pop into the casserole I will make this week, never mind anything dark and hoppy to get down my neck.
Having said that, the whole point of this really is to write a brief but glowing report about the water pump I was forced to purchase. The Einhell GH-DP 3730 Dirty-Water Pump is a little smasher from some clever German chaps who are making a bit of an impact over here. In fact, only yesterday Dick was writing about a superb Scarifier they make and which is going down a storm here at MowDirect.
So, anyway, the 3730 is doing a good job. I’ve got it going now and it’s gradually emptying the basement/cellar.
It’s got some nice usual bells and whistles like an on/off float-switch that will activate when the water-depth goes below five centimetres (please dear goodness let that be soon) and this allows you to leave the pump running while unattended – in my case so I can try to go off and replenish my stocks of wine and beer. It’s a robust little chap and I can heartily recommend it, especially at £89.95 plus FREE delivery.
Now, if Einhell would just make a machine that renders undrinkable wine with dirty water in the cork drinkable, I’ll be happy. Still. The rain may have taken away some of my lovely wine and beer but it is, at least, good for the lawn. Ho hum. If it stops sometime soon, I might even get myself one of those Einhell scarifiers and make the most of it.
So. I hope you are luckier, and dryer, than I am and that your lawn is lush and green. Enjoy your garden. Drew Hardy.
Updated 30.4.19