Daydream thread continues.....

rhiwfield

Its a valid question. If we have continued extreme weather then we will be forced to grow in a more protected environment.

Think UK strawberries, now grown mostly in polytunnels.

Trouble is, which extreme weather will we have? Drought, floods, snow, frost?

Rummer

rhiwfield wrote: »

Its a valid question. If we have continued extreme weather then we will be forced to grow in a more protected environment.

Think UK strawberries, now grown mostly in polytunnels.

Trouble is, which extreme weather will we have? Drought, floods, snow, frost?

Maybe there is an argument (again for small scale growers) to prepare for both extreme wet and dry conditions?

Itismehonest

But then you'd considerably cut down on the amount of land which produced a successful crop in any year.

And don't forget gales. They seem to be increasing, too. Any structures become more risky.

Davesnave

Rummer wrote: »

There must be ways on a small scale to improve the conditions for growing. I think it is worth discussing and exploring options.

Raised beds are worth doing for the majority of situations, though they're not appropriate for some crops.

It goes without saying that our polytunnel was particularly useful this year. How long it will take to pay back the capital investment in it is a moot point, however.

Years ago, I built tall frames for a fraction of the price of a polytunnel, and those helped us keep plants dry in wet winters like this. It's often the wet and cold that kills, rather than low temperatures alone.

choille

Hope everyone's dry!

Went over East today to get some stuff & escape the horrendous gales & persistent drumming rain. Came back to a big flapping cracking noise of building paper off the house high up, but nothing we can do.

We are kinda used to high rainfall but the last month or two has been awful. The sheeps feet need attention as they are in mud constantly just now, but when the rain stops it does dry out quickly.

We have raised beds, but as our Summer was incredibly dry we had to water everything! But that's not a usual problem. Nutrients deplete in this constant rainfall, so a good feed of the soil is needed in the Spring. I put dung & seaweed on at the back end & will use dung again in Spring. I use seaweed every three years, it's free! as is sheep dung. I also do the Russian comfrey juice & that's excellent stuff to make.
We experimented with mini plastic tunnels over the raised beds this year as it was really cold early on & that was a great success - will do that again. We used bent into hoops blue water pipe & covered the hoops in the polythene & weighted it down with stones. Brought the salads on early & courgettes.
I keep meaning to do some bio-dynamic gardening but I'm so disorganised it takes me to find the toothbrush & my trousers of a morning without having to work out when to plant! I just shove things in when I remember to.

It started to get dark at about 2.30pm today as the sky was so leaden. It makes me go into semi-hibernation, could hardly drag myself round the supermarket.

Rummer

We have raised beds as our soil is prone to getting very wet and the raised beds have helped immensely with that. Shelter from winds is something we have worked hard to provide and planting hedges around our garden has made a difference.

Someone gave us mini plastic tunnels last year and I have yet to open them however I think they will give us a good start this coming year. I know there is no fail safe way to avoid the impact of bad weather however taking steps to reduce the impact I think will be valuable.

Itismehonest

Dave, Rhiw - Hope you're OK. I see people have had to be rescued from cars in both your areas.
I hope everyone else has fared OK, too.

Had an interesting night ......... digging trenches.
Not directly from what has fallen from the sky but from springs coming up in weird places around the land. It would have been silly to leave it all until daylight as, by then, who knows where it would have got to.
Just come back in for an hour (until dawn) when we can check round properly & see what still needs doing.

Need to check on the people at the bottom of the valley, too. They could be underwater.

lostinrates

Oh god itsme. I hope you are ok, and the body is holding up. Others, hopefully they will be popping in to let us know they are ok.

At the moment it's not raining here. (seems so rare this year that it hasn't been) but the cloud is still dense.....know stars and as the sky tries to lighten its possible to see there are few chinks...I can see two gashes of pale grey sky ina dense duvet of of dark blue grey cloud right now.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

ITSME.... thats not a type of thing you should be doing in the middle of the night, but as you said, it might have been a potential nighmare if you didnt.

all this rain is causeing water to run from places you would never think of.

up at the ranch... when it rains heavy, there is water coming from the ground in once place, and runs down the public foot path. it sort of comes from nowhere, would it be some sort of water table? spring? or just water running from the fields underground, and when it gets too much comes to the surface?

stopped raining here now, but it is grey, overcast, damp,dull.

I want to switch the tv on, but i know its all i am going to see is the devestation and misery of those people which have been flooded etc, and there is nothing i can do except feel for them.:o

we havent managed to 'do' our turkeys yet been so busy, so will take a big joint of pork out of the freezer, but on facebook last night someone asked us if had turkeys as they want them for pets:rotfl: they also tried selling us their 7 month old donkey for £70.... I thought donkeys were to be kept in groups or at least a pair?

rhiwfield

Were fine here, dont know what possessed the woman to (try to) drive through a ford in flood in a mini :cool:. She's so lucky to be alive, well done her rescuers.

Itsme, a sadly departed friend had a spring start in his lounge after weeks of heavy rain :eek:. This cant be fun for you at all

Still patches of flooding around but the village road was ok last night and its stopped raining. So DW/DS2 will resume their trip a bit later.

Noticed that the newly moved rhubarb is sprouting in the mild wet weather. I'd much rather it held back until early spring, sure to be plenty of cold weather to frizzle it!