Gale damage

[tagh]

Dammm it, most of my sweet peas have been destroyed by the storms, even in the greenhouse some tomatoes have been ruggered and the rose buds are going bad with the wet. But the weeds are doing fine this year, great crop.
I just hope the late raspberries are gonna be ok.

[Char]

We've not had a gale, but I've virtually given up trying to grow anything this year, the constant rain and cold ruined most things.

We have a fantastic crop of weeds though - never knew stinging nettles could grow so tall, and the brambles have turned into triffids and keep attacking me.

[Doug]

Turn the nettles into a good fertiliser or insect repelent[mention]Char[/mention]
Gather up a hessian sack full of nettles (best in spring) you don't want the ling stalks or cut tops off.
Place in a large, about 40 gallon, plastic drum with a lid and a tap on the bottom, fill up with water.
Store it well away from house as it stinks like b****y hell.
After a couple of months min. take out a litre and disolve in 10 litres.
It looks like the colour of strong tea when right.
Water round veg and plant roots as fertiliser.
For a antipest spray use half of the nettle juice.

[Blaze]

Here in north-east Brittany, we haven't fared too badly. We've had a lot more rain than usual over the spring and 'summer' so everything, including the weeds, has done well. Temps below average here so the grass is still green and lush. Normally we don't get enough rain here, it generally passes to the north or south of us and we have to do a lot of watering in the summer.
During the winter and spring we had an incessant northerly wind which wasn't cold but did mean everything needed protecting/staking.

[Crystal]

I was going to say that our water bill should be a lot less this year, due to no watering...but I think any saving will be more than off-set by the extra electricity. We've had heaters on for a short time some evenings and I've even needed to use the tumble dryer a few times.

[Crystal]

....but to get back to the topic my line of roses that were quite spectacular early on in the year, were demolished by a sudden freak gust of wind. I cut off all the badly bent stems and they are starting to become upright again, but all the flowers are gone...hoping they'll have another attempt when they've recovered from all the abuse they've suffered.
My tomatoes are rubbish - the wind blew off the baby tomatoes that were just starting to form and snapped the tops off some of the plants, they are recovering now, but there aren't many tomatoes on them.

[exile]

Nothing here but I feel for you.
We live in an exposed position and have had storms that have demolished/destroyed our greenhouses in the past.

[Crystal]

Hmmm...that's nowt! We once had to evacuate 12 competition horses from their stables, at the height of a tempest, in the middle of the night because the roof was being blown off the barn!

Whilst trying to lead them outside to relative safety there were sheets of metal roof spiralling down around us - I don't know how any of us didn't get killed....my heart still starts pounding every time I think about it.

[Char]

Good gracious - I'll stop moaning about the rain then, 'tis better than gales.

[Doug]

Well now[mention]Char[/mention] please take some of ours as its hissing down.
We know why, its because weve dared to use the b word as our neighbours from Dubai have managed to get here to their holiday home for a couple of weeks
Not seen them for two years.