Europe 2007

[roitelet]

Well it's Christmas Eve and as Rustylady said it doesn't feel like it! The beginning of the week was not bad. Cold but bright but the last couple of days have been really grey and depressing and not at all condusive to gardening. We have missed the fog that you seem to have had in the UK and had a reasonable amount of sun. The low was -7C and the high 6C and there was no r*** only 1mm of moisture in the gauge.

Ah well, on to the festivities tomorrow and then back to normal. We only have one day of Christmas and then normality until the New Year. Quite nice really.

Happy Christmas to everyone

[roitelet]

Almost the New Year and the last week of the old one has been a 'head under the duvet' sort of week. Grey, grey and more grey I know just how DDL feels!

To start the week it was cold and seasonal with minus temperatures and black ice. The lowest was -5C and the mercury only just managed to climb to 5C. The last two days have been much warmer, 6C at night and high of 10C today. BUT it has turned wet and we have had 8mm of the wet stuff. Very little done in the garden but I did manage to cut the first Optima lettuce for lunch on Boxing Day, small but beautifully formed

With the turn of the year I shall try and moon Garden with the aid of my diary, Jardnez avec la Lune. It even tells me just what I should be doing on a particular day!!!!! Well may be.

I would like to wish you all a very Happy New Year and thank all of you who look at the weather in far off parts.

Bon Annee

[Lesley Jay]

Happy New Year Roitelet!

Keep the updates coming - I really enjoy reading them

[roitelet]

And to you too LJ. I will keep it up and hope that something exciting may happen. I don't mean like the Storm of 1999 but we should get some snow at least then I can show the local kids how to tobogan with bin bags

Old Devonshire custom

[roitelet]

Another very mild week in fact quite spring like.

Lowest temperature on Wednesday was 1C and on the same day it shot up to 15C! Wind directon has been anything from NW to SW and bring with it rain. Opps Iv'e actually used the 'R' word. However not as much as some of you have had, only 27.5mm. The forcast for the next 10 days is much the same.

Not a geat deal going on in the garden. Daffs are coming up fast but the snowdrops haven't started to show yet. Although I have seen what looks like buds on the species crocus. Purple sprouting Broccoli on the move but no purple sprouts yet and the curly kale is starting to send out side shoots. Onions planted in pots, Rhubarb covered for forcing and Broad Beans sown in toilet rolls today.

[roitelet]

Well a pretty grey and damp week until today when the sun shone ALL DAY and there was very little wind. A beautiful day

Overall the week has been very mild until today when we had the first frost since 29th Dec. Which meant that the low for the week was 0c and the high was 13C (Last Tuesday). Wetness has been minimal 13mm total.

You may have noticed that I rarely mention wind. Well I used to live on the edge of a cliff 400ft up facing the Bristol Channel so unless the wind gets above force 8 I don't even notice it

Good news is that today the first crocus has opened, I found a snowdrop in flower and the Japonica has flowers on it.

Is Spring far away?

[roitelet]

Quick PS,

I also saw a peacock Butterfly and CK saw a bumble bee(both flying) and the gnats were dancing.

[roitelet]

Hi All,

I am not going to bore you all with the events of Thursday 'cos I think we all know about that, but even I noticed the wind!!

The week in general has again been mild with night time temperatures ranging from -6 to 11c and the day time +6 to 13C. There has not been a great deal of R***, 25mm, which, for the time of year is not a lot. However things are set to change next week according to the forecasts. Depending on which one is read we could have a mixtre of rain and snow tomorrow and snow showers on Tuesday and Wednesday, but by the next weekend it seems as though it will return to the mild weather. I shall just have to wait and see

The Witch hazel is in flower and the bulbs I planted to flower in the late spring, Dutch Iris, Alliums and Frittalarias are screaming out of the ground. There is life in the pond and yesterday I saw waterboatmen and evidence of frogs, ie the splash!!

[jcwhite]

Hi, I also live in France for nearly a year now,I am new to the Forum. I am a new gardener but used to buy Grow Your Own magazine in the UK, and was very proud of my success here with cherry tomatoes, peppers and squash and round courgettes that were freebies last year.I am looking forward to doing battle with the extreme weather conditions here again.Maybe I can pm roitelet and any other French resident for lots of advise.I have a greenhouse and a polytunnel, what should I be doing now?

[smallblueplanet]

Hi jc I think suee also lives down sw france way, whereabouts are you? I'm a bit of a Francophile and so need an outlet for my jealousy!!

[jcwhite]

France

Hi Sue
We are in dept 24, Dordogne.
We had snow on the ground for several days, bright sunshine as well.
Would welcome dialogue with others, we really do have bizarre conditions, how do the French grow such wonderful produce from little patches of ground, that would otherwise be redundant? I take my hat off to them!

[madderbat]

Bonjour JC, Roitelet
Have no experience of weather in france, but respond to the feelings about growing in the Med.
We visit Crete a lot and the locals grow everything and anything all over the place. Little room for flowers, but they don't half eat well! That's part of the reason we got a lottie.

[roitelet]

Hello All,

Welcome to the vine JC, I have PM'd you.

Before I forget, last Sunday we had the most amazing Hail Storm. CK and I were in the garden and we heard this strange rushing noise which got louder quite rapidly and the Hail arrived. It only lasted a few minutes bit it was heavy and turned the ground white!

It's quite not this week to say 'we have had another mild week'. Night time temperatures have not been above freezing the lowest being -11C, Burrrrrrrrrrrr. During the day the temperature has reached 6C and apart from about 5cm of snow on Wednesday there has been nothing falling from the sky. There has only been one obvious frost but Wednesday and Thursday there was a lot of black ice around. Later in the week there has been quite a lot of mist/fog as well as a little sun, other than that it has been rather grey and un-inspiring

On the growing side of things the cold has put a hold to anything that was making an effort but the weather is now forcast to be mild again things will move on

[roitelet]

Hello All, Sunday again, how time flies when you are having fun

The week started GREY,GREY and more GREY, misty and generally damp but no actual r***. Saturday the SUN SHONE for the first time in 10 days and today it has shone again. We had frost this morning for the first time in a week. Day time temperatures for the whole week have been 7 or 8C and the nights ranging between +6 to -4C and the only wet precipitation recorded was 1mm. Strange weather!!!

On the growing side of things not much change on last week. Daffs are showing buds and the crocus are in full bloom. There are signs of the herbaceous stuff growing and the Allium bulbs (pretty ones) I planted in the Autumn are up.

Just enjoyed a Curried Parsnip soup made with one of the huge and straight parsnips I dug yesterday I will post the receipe on the Season to taste. Yumeeeeeeeeeee

[roitelet]

Monday and Tuesday were grey but dry, Wednesday we had an 'icing sugar' sprinkle of snow, Thursday was windy with showers (4mm) Friday, grey with sunny periods and showers (1mm), Saturday, overnight rain and then SUN, Today, heavy overnight rain, windy with heavy showers and a little sun. It has calmed down now and is quite still and dry.

It has not been at all cold with a low of -4C and the highest recorded temperature of 9C (today). The total wetness for the week was 16.5mm which is not a great deal and I hope that the general lack of rain is not an indication of what we might get in the growing season.

Not a lot on the growing front, a little 'window sill' gardening only which is a bit difficult because the French dont 'do' window sills inside . Their's are all outside for the Geraniums in the Summer