Is it ever going to STOP!!!!

I am getting very very cross at this weather!!!   Everything in the garden is retarded...The dreaded blight got to the first earlies so up they came  on the plus side  they were very nice... The runners wont grow properly  they just start then stop  then start again then stop again....The outdoor tomatoes are getting waterlogged...Even in the greenhouse things are very different this year..The sweet peppers are only half as big as they should be....the cucumber hasnt started to flower yet although the Shirleys tomatoes are going great guns  the beefsteaks arent doing so well and the yellow tomatoes are only now forming their first trusses...so...whoever is responsible for the darn weather can you please just STOP it now and give us half a chance at least   thank you  rant over

Know the feeling, my gardens really lush at present, no doubt due to all the rain but I did despair at the weekend when we had torrential rain and it flooded all the trays and pots.

I enjoyed sitting outside last year, eating breakfast before work, then being able to sit out again in the evening, not so this year, if it isn't raining, last thing I want to do is dry the chairs and table before they can be sat at so the garden is currently being enjoyed from the great indoors and through the window. 

We've had 7 or 8 full smith alerts in June so blight is in the air. Same problems here in the GH and with runners/french beans.

A problem shared is a problem halved, chin up July and August maybe alot better         

I'm getting tired of it, too.

My poor roses, which should be at their peak now, are being smashed to bits (if they open at all), my lupins and delphiniums being flattened, and don't even talk about the sweet peas. Blooming "drought"!

The Olympics opening ceremony will be based on the theme of 'Englands Green and Pleasant Land'. Apparently that's how we want the world to see us.

There will be a wildflower meadow, and real cows. And rain.

Just in case it's not actually raining on the day, they will have artificial rain on standby.

Honest.

More here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/9327594/London-2012-Olympics-Opening-Ceremony-to-start-with-anarchic-pastoral-vision-of-GBs-green-and-pleasant-land.html

If it doesn't stop raining soon they might have to consider a few more events, such as the water marathon

wellthis rain has broughtthe island to a total standstill with the bloomin gfestival traffic..it took hubby 7 hours to do a 13mile trip home.. normal time 30mins.. and nothig could move as the field was muddy and cars couldnt get in.. blerdy ridiculous.. the stage was closed for while last night due to rain and high winds.. just cancel it i say.. and it is going to get worse over the weekend.. poor children were stuck at one school until 8pm last night as parents couldnt get in to pick them out.. and staff couldnt get in to work at hosipital or anywhere within 10 mile radius of newport.

and the poor students who have missed their exams today as traffic is is still blocked all night.. some one on radio had come from scotland and been driving since 5am yesterday morning are still sat in the car waiting.. i would have gone home yesterday..

so with more rain and high winds forecast for us over sat night and sunday.. it is not looking good.. my plants have been battered to death inthe last few weeks..i have also had enough of the weather..

Ouch, poor you, Gardeningfantic - that sounds dreadful.

Wimbledon next week.

It's not a proper tennis match without half-a-dozen rain breaks.

The atmosphere of Wimbledon was quite ruined when they built that roof thing.

I had to check the calender to make sure it wasn't April 1st when I first heard about the opening ceremony, I'm sure it will be alot better than it sounds although I'm not sure about the opening music or what the sex pistols did to contribute to the British way of life, their demise was really quite tragic.

Cliff might stand up and sing again at Wimbledon to entertain the crowds during the showers (or torrential rain) worth watching if you can't get out inthe garden. 

I wouldn't say I was an official sufferer of SAD, but I strongly miss the sun during winter and have developed a strategy over the years that involves gritting my teeth, planning and painting my garden to get through the darkest months. I have files of photos and not just my garden, but hundreds of photos saved from the Internet that I just look at, to remember the greenness, and the warmth, and the energy.

Just after Christmas is the worst time for me because there is no distractions until spring, which I can smell in the air when it arrives. It's my favourite time of the year purely because there is so much promise and hope and freshness and I am in a frenzy of excitement to see what I will achieve in the garden that year.

The summer months I'm sure are the same as yours, full of long evenings spent in the garden, pottering around, drinking, chatting and soaking up every moment of beauty before it fades all too soon. Just looking at the lovely flowers and foliage fills my heart with love and peace, the smells are enchanting and the helpful insects and wildlife always an absolute pleasure to watch.

Autumn mystifies me with its colour changes, its fiery foliage, its woody remains, its dying breath, its slow slow dewy decay when the sun is still warm, the morning grass is soaking wet and seed heads and berries replace flowers. I love the amazing contrasts of foliage and the quiet demise, like waking from a spell, but I also know that long span of darkness is approaching and I prepare to knuckle down and grin and bear it once again.

I do hope we have enough sunny days to get through the coming winter, or we might all go a little mad.

My OH keeps having to put up with me unleashing similar rants. Very very sick now. Clearly not a good year to have started gardening...

I don't get het up bout the weather, nowt i can do about it. But I must admit, the garden is looking gorgeous at the moment, but the veg plots have failed miserably, so next year they will be transformed into perennial planting schemes, with maybe the odd veg. Veg seeds sown in march (peas and broad beans) are only just germinating intermittently. and nothing else is appearing except for a small row of spring onions, which have germinated this year for the first time ever. Do I hear shouts of not too late to sow some more, well it is at my location, as the time limit before autumn starts with me is short. so hey ho. Don't like growing veg as much as perennials anyway. 

Well I can't see me getting very many courgettes or chillies this year.  I did, however, have my first gorgeously sweet mange tout yesterday evening which I came across when I was checking everything for signs of flowers.  

@wintersong..mr borther inlaw is like you.. he gets very low and depressed about end of november and last until march.. he is hard to keep up beat at times.

our vegs not doing to well..only peas and swede look the best.. french beans not grown a cm since planting out.. and the onions have failed this year.. it is getting bad.. i got a letter yesterday to say my free lavenders from last months GW have been delayed until july.. bet it is  this weather stunting them too. my day lilly still waiting in bud for the hot sun to come out.. i cant blame it for not wanting to waste it flowers at the moment

and what has flowered is being beaten down by the damn wind. not a good gardening year at all.. i have heard we are going to have nice august and september so ahve cut some things back in hope they will flower again later.

my parsnips seem to be doing okaybeans yellowy not budging runners that  is ,got pods on broads swelling but very little content spinach seems immobile then goes to seed,coriander running to seed too .the weeds on the other hand seem to think its wonderful!!!!!!!

My flower borders are looking great, and so are the fruit bushes and cordons (hoping for some sun now to ripen them), but my veg beds are very mixed. I too have good broad beans and parsnips are coming on well. Lettuces are nowhere to be seen as are peas, climbing beans rubbish. Wondering what the taters will be like as the top growth is very lush. The onions though look better than they've ever done. I was just wondering when I should bend over the tops and lo the following day the wind had done it for me!

Just got back from my allotment - very lush. Cut a fine Hispi cabbage and dug new potatoes. Everything is need of a bit of sunshine.  Not have to water for a while.

I've seen & felt  the sun I've been in my garden in a vest t- shirt and flipflops.

Everything looks so much better with some sunshine

New potatoes here have done okay, just picked our first lot of peas which were lovely but eveything else has been pretty much a failure. Broad bean plants about half the size they normally are, onions pretty much the same size as when planted (although for some reason the garlic is growing okay), spring onions eaten (by slugs?) and carrots failed to germinate at all!! Pretty depressing year to be growing veg.

And it's raining again now....

My garden is so lush I now call it my temperate rain forest.  Lots of pruning to do.  The strawberry crop has been amazing.  Eight ice-cream cartons full put in the freezer for the winter and i am still having them three times a day with cereal, scones and cream or ice-cream.  My raised beds are and have been stuffed with veg and flowers for a month now .  braod bean crop super, great lettuces and salad leaves and rdishes and spring onions.rainbow chard a great success.  I can definitely recommend raised beds for wet seasons.  they drain beautifully.  I have finished eating my Swift, first early potatoes and they were delicious.  Starting on the King Edwards this week as they have been in flower some time.  The colour in the garden has been and still is superb, sespecially the Sweet William and the hardy geraniums and phygelius.  only thing is I haven't had many meals outside this year, but then one cannot have everything one wants in this life.  Stick at it everybody.  when you get to my age you will know what to expect from the British weather and how to cope.  Painting from your pictures in the winter is great too!