Forecast for the 2011/2012 winter for gardeners?

splodger_seedswapper

i don't care how cold it gets - my heating won't go on until november
i have storage heaters only - as heat source - and they are rubbish anyway - and because they are so expensive to have on - i will only start using them when layers and blankets are not enough to keep my circulation going

i'm in rented accommodation - so can't change the heating set up :mad:

Rummer

I have started the winter prep for the indoors but not sure what to do about the garden.

kazschow

scottishminnie wrote: »

Can I hop in and ask a question please? (sorry for hijacking the thread a bit)

we are also subject to quite a number of power cuts - 3 last winter of more than 24 hours and we don't want a repeat this year however because we are rural (lower population) we aren't a priority for getting it back on.

Hubby and I planned to buy a genny for this winter- really only need it to power the central heating (kerosene but needs electricity to fire the boiler up) and to keep the 2 freezers ticking over. We've been quoted upwards of £5000 and told we need a much bigger generator than we thought. What does your 1kw power? and if I can be really rude - how much did it cost?

We had £2000 put towards it but we've pretty much been laughed at - one distributor suggested I just go to Tesco and get some candles and firelighters if that was all we were planning to spend:eek:

Thanks

We've got a 5 kw suzuki genny to power the second ring, but we also have a 3kw we bought from Aldi, that we used to power our caravan before we had mains power into it, it's a great wee machine if anyone is looking for a cheap standby, it's not to noisy, and you get a good 6 hours out of one fill Our back up system has cost absolutly nothing like what you're being quoted!!! however we are having it put into our new build at the same time we are getting the general wiring put in, so there's no real big addition to the work being put in for a standard system.

GreenFly_2

kittie wrote: »

Dehydrator is working hard, potatoes, parsnips, herbs, onions etc as is brining and lacto fermenting. The freezer is stuffed full.

I am curious! can you explain what lacto fermenting is please?

Always looking for new and interesting ways to store my veg

Many Thanks
GF

J_J_Carter

Britain to be hit by SNOW in October... forecasters warn an early winter is on its way

Britain is about to experience an early winter, with snow expected to arrive as soon as next month, forecasters have warned.

dbt3mummy

Last year all my Christmas veg was stuck in the ground after being hit by the snow, forecasters said it would miss us!

This year I've grown all my Christmas day veg in tubs so I can move into the greenhouses when the colder weather sets in.

We got back from Florida last week and I've been begging dh to turn the heating on but he has said no. It will probably go on latter part of October if we dont get the early predictions of snow.

I love snow and am happy being snowed in for weeks or month on end but a bit more warning would be better!

peter_the_piper

J_J_Carter wrote: »

Britain to be hit by SNOW in October... forecasters warn an early winter is on its way

Britain is about to experience an early winter, with snow expected to arrive as soon as next month, forecasters have warned.

The forecaster said ""in certain parts of the UK"" they'll be the Cairngorms so no surprise there.

annie123

annie123 wrote: »

OP I monitor all of those things but I still can not tell you what winter will be like in August;)

The quote is from James Madden who forecasts for exactaweather, the link posted a few posts above.

I'm not saying he's wrong but whilst he did predict early snow even in the south east (so did the met office but they only told the government!) he was not right for other months here in London and in many other bits of the UK.
The UK is a big place and over the years I have found that you can make almost any forecast fit somewhere in the UK.

I'm a member of several weather forums and they can be very useful for gardeners maybe
http://forum.netweather.tv/
http://met-monkey.co.uk/weather.forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=12863&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=375

and the link below will be full of ideas and disagreements soon with regards to the winter coming:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/newsdebate/f/t-10229610/p-51/index.html?threadIndex=30


You can't use berries as a guide because you get a good crop after a cold winter, the only thing I know works is that ladybirds come into my kitchen on the last few days of nice weather so I know when it's turning, but other than that I predict that winter will be colder than summer:D thats as much detail as you can get for certain in August;)

The ladybirds are back in droves today, all over my kitchen, so this is the end of summer.

peter_the_piper

J_J_Carter wrote: »

Britain to be hit by SNOW in October... forecasters warn an early winter is on its way

Britain is about to experience an early winter, with snow expected to arrive as soon as next month, forecasters have warned.

Still waiting, mind you there was some snow when OH was on top a Scottish mountain 2 weeks ago.

wallbash

Tonights temp is 8 degrees warmer than average, here in the S.E. .......... so no snow ball fights this month!