Feckin ' weather

GreeBo

The consistent rain has destroyed most if not all of my flowers

The sheer volume of water coupled with soggy ground has resulted in most of my flowers snapping in half or pulling themselves out of the ground.

I had some lovely dahlias in full bloom that are now toast. (I was actually able to wring out the flower heads!)

Also Foxgloves, blue lily of the nile & Gladiolus lying flat on the grass

Harry Palmr

I feel your pain. Tomato plant ruined, luckily have a replacement in the shed but it going inside cos this "summer" is done and I'm not putting any trust in the Autumn delivering. Load of kale and lettuce seedlings also cowering indoors at the moment but hopefully they'll be back out soon. Pollinators have held up well albeit a few at 45 degrees.

magicbastarder

not much damage done at all here, thankfully (am in dublin).

GreeBo

South Dublin here too.

I'd say 25% of my fruit (apple, pears) are now rotting away on the ground also

Reckless Abandonment

I'm in d12. Honestly my garden is like a wind tunnel. I've so many plants up against the house to protect them. Currently growing a hedge for protection. but I've a bloody huge scyamore half way down the garden that is slowing the growth of the hedge down, and that happens to be the area I need most wind protection.
A friend lives half way up the Dublin mountains and he doesn't get the wind as bad.
I hate the wind...

Sorry for the rant

looksee

I have just planted up a largish area with trees and shrubs and almost everything is wind burned to the extent of leaves have gone completely or or brown and withered. Hopefully they will come back, but they look very sad.

Harry Palmr

There's another dose of this on Tuesday/Wed

Daisy 55

Feel your pain Greenbo. First day out to garden after all the wind..my dahlias took a right battering. Have over 30 different types but lots are lying on the ground despite being staked..the sheer weight of the rain and the wind caused many with large flowers to droop. Out with more bamboo and the secetares

Gruffalux

Gardening is a metaphor for life. You do the groundwork, carefully tend all your fragile seedlings, weed out obstacles, defend against intruders, go on bravely day after day with hope in your tiny heart, and still the chard will bolt, the broccoli will ripen all at the same time and turn to useless yellow flowers the next day, a bazillion mange tout will come on together until you are sickened by them, prize bulbs and glorious perennials will falter and fail though nettles and horsetail will thrive luxuriously, the wind will topple your sunflowers and lay all your marigolds flat, the plums will go from hard to shriveled overnight, by late Autumn you will be on your knees, worn out and withered and battered, and everything dies in Winter. Come Spring, like an innocent fool, you will be reborn, a new life that forgets all others, and you will be happily sprinkling seeds into trays as if you had never been remorselessly crushed by slugs, and storms, and mildew.

Harry Palmr

I really hate philosophical gardeners!

Gruffalux

Harry Palmr wrote: »

I really hate philosophical gardeners!

All gardeners are philosophers. The big pity is that all philosophers are not gardeners.

kylith

‘The tomatoes will be fine’, said my dad, ‘just stake them’.

They have no bloody leaves, dad. I’d love to see them come back from that.

I think i’m Calling it a year, possibly 3, on the veg bed. I’m too pregnant to do any work on it now and I’ll have horsetail, wire worms, and toddlers to contend with for the next few years. Maybe i’ll Put some ornamentals in the garden and do a bit of container veg.

Harry Palmr

Everything is horribly leggy. Outside it's never going to stop blowing a gale inside nothing is getting enough "good light". Dunno what to do

Gruffalux

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Everything is horribly leggy. Outside it's never going to stop blowing a gale inside nothing is getting enough "good light". Dunno what to do

Do what I just did. Vigorously rip out all the leggy stuff, the stuff that is bolting, the stuff that has mildew, the stuff that went to flower or seed before you could eat it. It is cathartic. Just rip the fecken stuff out. The empty ground is calming to the eye.

whelzer

I have had some serious job keeping a lot of sunflowers upright. Have used every bamboo and branch going , lengths of 2*1, curtain poles (metal ones that have been in the shed years!) chopped the head of an old yard brush, you name it. Last night it was swapping stakes around to see if I could save them all.

Lost 3 from about 25 so far.

Note to self, get proper "standard" size sunflower seeds next year and not random packet from Lidl. Some of the plants are over 10ft tall!

Graces7

It has not been too bad out here as I am used to a short growing season and to planting where the gales and wind cannot destroy. And to adapt what I can grow

Low yields of peas and broad beans but that was lack of pollination and a bad wind scorching the flowers.

Low growing leafy greens are doing well. Kale etc.

NB I never get a sunflower for long enough to flower.

lottpaul

I collected and dumped 3 barrowloads of damaged apples from the ground in the last fortnight or so - a mix of birds and the wind, but am not too worried. Nature takes it's course, the wind will blow and the birds have to live too. (And I have about 4 barrowloads of good apples in the shed, so I won't go short)
The amount of rain is making the ground soggy already and dahlias, begonias etc are in danger of rotting in the pots, so I've laid them on their sides to help drainage. It's difficult to believe I spent ages watering them all back in April, May etc.
We escaped the worst of last weeks storms - by west Kerry standards - so can't complain too much, but I keep thinking it's only August..... Maybe we'll have a lovely, dry, calm, mild autumn

GreeBo

lottpaul wrote: »

I collected and dumped 3 barrowloads of damaged apples from the ground in the last fortnight or so - a mix of birds and the wind, but am not too worried. Nature takes it's course, the wind will blow and the birds have to live too. (And I have about 4 barrowloads of good apples in the shed, so I won't go short)
The amount of rain is making the ground soggy already and dahlias, begonias etc are in danger of rotting in the pots, so I've laid them on their sides to help drainage. It's difficult to believe I spent ages watering them all back in April, May etc.
We escaped the worst of last weeks storms - by west Kerry standards - so can't complain too much, but I keep thinking it's only August..... Maybe we'll have a lovely, dry, calm, mild autumn

I'm having the same issues, I lost a few potted things over the arid spring and those that survived are now in danger of rotting!

I hear you on the fruit, the birds are destroying a huge number of apples and pears and the wind is taking care of the rest.

My compost heap smells like a Bulmers factory

Oh and Brown Rot is taking a good few of my crop

kylith

I just want 24 hours of no rain so the lake that is my garden can drain and I can get out and spray the horsetail which is resprouting and thoroughly enjoying the swampy conditions.

AMC123LM

kylith wrote: »

I just want 24 hours of no rain so the lake that is my garden can drain and I can get out and spray the horsetail which is resprouting and thoroughly enjoying the swampy conditions.

What are you using to spray the horsetail?

kylith

AMC123LM wrote: »

What are you using to spray the horsetail?

Resolva Pro. Seems to have knocked back the green bits and it’s resprouting with what looks like the spore heads that usually show up in spring.

We’re in it for the long haul. I don’t think we’ll ever be free of it.

AMC123LM

kylith wrote: »

Resolva Pro. Seems to have knocked back the green bits and it’s resprouting with what looks like the spore heads that usually show up in spring.

We’re in it for the long haul. I don’t think we’ll ever be free of it.

Same here. Have had it for years and will always have it. It’s all around us on road. Just have to try and control it and stop it taking over completely. I use dicophar and spray as soon as there’s any growth. It kills it put a week later it pops back up again. Resigned myself to doing this every summer 😞 I can tolerate any other weed apart from horsetail and it doesn’t help that it’s the only one that manages to punch through our tarmac every summer. It’s a real problem here because it crowds out all other plants and wildflowers along the road. The council infested the whole area when they tarred the road. They brought in soil that was full of it to bank up road and it’s everywhere now. 😀

kylith

We’re in a similar situation: it’s all over the estate and the fields around us. Will be trying to improve the soil, work in some organic matter and, hopefully, sort out the drainage. That might help control it a bit, but the garden has been totally neglected for years so it’s got a head start on me; we’ve only been here a year.