The cost of these storms to your garden/allotment!

atrixblue.-MFR-.

I live in the south wales valleys, literally live on a mountain that my house/garden is exposed to all the nice stormforce winds and rains.


Last 2 days has been good enough to go into the garden and assess what damage has been done I full detail.


As there is no sign of ANY of my 500 snowdrop bulbs coming up at all, i'll take a good guess that bulbs have rotted out.


Tulips started coming through in December, weve had a sharp frost some nights (inbetween storms) some of them have Black and brown rot on them with white mold but the main part of them is green but to take away this outer layer will expose them further to front in future, so ive taken to just leaving brown parts and removing any moulded rotten out outer layers (managed to save some entirely with a covering of compost).


Half of my Golden king, king Alfred daffs have somewhat survived but haven't taken to being woken up early, the stems are thin and heads are big making them fall over when flowered they look deformed and I have taken to cutting them at soil level and putting them in a vase when they have flowered or have become too tall for it to support its own weight (better luck next year). my generic dwarf, Dutch, lion and Las Vegas and cheapy unbranded special buys have sadly all rotted out from water damage (dug a few bulbs up they are black and squidgy Will let them decomp in the soil), only the potted/sheltered ones have survived.


I bought "festuca pepingdale Blue Grass"
http://www.grassrootgardens.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Ornamental-Grass Pepindale-Blue.jpg


I've now aptly named it "ornamental Tom" Aka tom jones green green grass of home, as its a better green than my lawn! hasn't grown a bean and is showing signs of root rot as the sides are dying off (black grass arounf the edges), has been relocated to an elevated flower bed to try and save it root was about 2 inches long some were just moulded and rotten that I picked out.


My Hydrangea didn't get to fully hibernate this winter it simply didn't stop flowering until early December, then January it turned a light brown and leaves started to fall from it not its growing green leaves again, I had put decaying leaves around the base ( late OCT, don't know why as I though it may help in protecting the root somewhat from the unpredictable nights of frost and frost bite), and help soak up some excess moisture, There was a layer of Mulch inserted around the base when planted also (biodegradable) but the wet weather made light work of it and encouraged it to turn to a black mess in no time. Soil layer again to protect it this week. Dead headed, (it young so really no need to prune), Its showing signs of survival with it producing greenery, but the white "potato mash fluff" has formed at bottom of some damaged/broken stems?


Edit: research suggests the stem is trying to propagate. will cultivate and try to save them! more hydrangea for the garden hopfully!. as according to this page http://growingthehomegarden.com/2010/05/hydrangea-propagation-hydrangea.html the stem that has white "potato mash fluff" in the 2nd picture is whats at the bottom of damaged and broken stems.






Ive lost lots of floor covering young plants to water damage.


I bought 200-400 of viola and pansy giant and pendulum winter hardy rated, all suffered at the hands of water damage bases turned black and just the weight of the stem snapped them off at base.


winter Heather have all died and I mean nothing left of them they have decomposed or are a hollow twig bush.


Young holly tree somehow got diseased theres like a dark purple/black fluffy moss all over it (lucky enough it was planted well away from other plants and shrubs), has now been disposed of.


Crocus came up and flowered mid December, theres greenery left but no flower left hope they will comeback so to speak.


alliums the same as the crocus, and some dutch iris and fuchsia sprouted up but didn't flower but are still alive though. hoping that the untimely sprouting has just delayed the flowering.


all in all plants alone and bulbs and planted seeds ive lost more than half of the gardens flowering color for this spring and summer.


approx. £400.00 in plants and bulbs lost.


What about you guys.


My garden is still young as I only started it out last june.

DaftyDuck

I'll stick £3,000 worth of tree surgery in there for you. That's before we go for the flood damage.

Mind you, new garden, so no personal friends to lose. I would have said a grand total of four shrubs in the garden, plus a Pampas grass... But I've found three rose bushes, of sorts.

It is very run down here... Very.

REEN

Mine's been like this since Christmas.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lG__upqGgRY

It usually floods a bit in winter but this is the worst in the 24 years we've been here. I'm worried for my lovely old-fashioned roses. Some are showing signs of life though, so fingers crossed.

I have bulbs in containers because previous winters have seen them off in the garden proper. They are all confused, tete-a-tete daffs, snowdrops and tulips flowering together.

Acers in pots are showing leaf buds so they will suffer if we get frosts. They are ones I have nurtured from little twigs so I'd be upset if they don't make it.

Davesnave

Yes, there have been storms, but rainfall amounts are localised, so experiences around the country are likely to vary tremendously. Our worst winter for rain was 2011/12, but at that time folks in some other parts of the country were wondering what I was grumbling about.

This winter, the local river has barely escaped its banks. A person who put up a commercial sized polytunnel in an area where he had no business placing one, got away with it for the second winter, but his entire veg patch was inundated for weeks. He will have to re-think.

Another neighbour is currently busily building a wall around his property, having had water in a couple of weeks ago. This was the result of a farmer ploughing their field with the slope, instead of against it, creating masses of quick run-off.

I expect if you asked either of these characters, they'd say it has been a difficult winter, but they are both within half a mile of me.

As for the wind. The polytunnel frame is connected to 3 tonnes of concrete and the chicken houses have wooden piles concreted-in behind them, so they're still standing. I have a feeling those precautions have paid off.

I gave up 'fussy' plants after losing most of mine back in the winter of 2009/10, but it's amazing what comes through, despite everything.

I have stuff like salvia ugilinosa going mad just now, which I could never keep in my warm city garden for more than about one winter. I put that down to soil type and good drainage. Last week, when replacing a large fence post in the orchard, the 0.6m hole filled to the top with water. Today, it's empty.

DaftyDuck

It also has to be said that the cost - "loss" - is a movable feast (although there's got to be a better expression). I'm not a business, I don't run the farm for anything other than fun (which is also a debatable term), the massive tree-chopping bill equates to an equally massive firewood heap, and would have to be done soon anyway, and I'm not sure I have actually any real loss or cost. I have lost rather more of my transported pots, more from the general damp and gloom (and lack of care) that I'd like (something Dave experienced a few years back). But, I have yet another greenhouse to get up soon, and can shift plants into that.

I do see people on the telly who've been seriously flooded, see the sheer confusion, helplessness and loss of future, and feel so sorry for them. I haven't yet suffered a serious house flood wherever I've been. Here, it's a possibility, albeit remote.

Davesnave

DaftyDuck wrote: »

I do see people on the telly who've been seriously flooded, see the sheer confusion, helplessness and loss of future, and feel so sorry for them. I haven't yet suffered a serious house flood wherever I've been. Here, it's a possibility, albeit remote.

This is the real issue with increasingly unpredicable weather. Places that were supposed to have 100 year events, have a had several within a decade. Those people are probably now trapped in houses which have insufficient equity, though the obviously risky ones have always been relatively cheap.

When we wanted to relocate, our most affordable and convenient-for-business options were on the Somerset Levels, but we couldn't contemplate going there, even in the mid-noughties.

It was my belief that govermnents, strapped for cash, would do too little too late, or indeed nothing at all, when things turned nasty financially, around 2008.

All this is a long way from losing a few bulbs or tender plants, which are easily replaced.