What's special about gardening In your county?

Until 2012 I would have said dryness

Here in South Wales, we have mild, wet weather. In my small, walled grden, I can grow quite tender plants but the waterlogged ground means that some things rot in the ground and the wind does not dry up the ground. It would be a very sunny garden except that we get so much cloud and rain! 2012 was terrible, here as everywhere else, but there is always a lot of rain. Rose black spot is a severe problem.

We have dealt with the rain problem by building a large pergola with sheets of plastic nailed to the top, so that we can get into the garden in warm,wet weather. Plants that like moisture are lush and green, but sun-lovers struggle. Wales is a breattiful place with ever-changing scenery, from the coastal plain and beaches to the lower hills of the south and the rugged mountains of the north, but sometimes I think that the only way to really enjoy the garden would be to put a roof over it all!

Know what you mean about Christmas tree's Bunnysgarden. Drove through South Lakes and the edge of Grizdale today. Scenery is fabulous in Cumbria but it was sad to see forests with tall conifers grown tightly together and the tree's had little foilage on their bottoms even though the tree's must be as tall as houses or even taller.   

I'm in Lancashire but very close to Cumbria. Heathers and bracken grow for fun in cumbria. We have lots of rain this part of Lancashire and the county soon looks lush in the summer. It amazes me the plants people are able to grow in their gardens in Lytham St Annes on the sea front, with gale force winds coming in from the sea, often leaving drifts of sand on the roads and then there are the floods and high tides. Barnoldwick and Bacup near the Yorkshire boarder get snow even in our mildest winters but their gardens come alive in the spring.

For me it's the diversity in Lancashire that's special.    

Hello, We have more than 35-40 degrees Celsius (10% humidity) on the day and at night less than 20 degrees Celsius (80% humidity).

...maybe, but I have not say that no problemes on our land. Our biggest problem are clean air and water! What can we do? Close our farm exist two plantations: 1 for rubber tree and another for rice. The owner on this large land plots spray every seasons 1000s of liter chemy on plants and soil. We need both: clean soil and air. Our deagon fruits blooming only 1(!) night/season...and we need the nignt-insects for propagation, and the most of insects not flying in the night time. We are happy, that all of the other neigbours used only organic methods. Many time for convincing the neighbours to organic we spend in the last time...

Can't speak for the whole county of Dorset but my bit was once mostly farmland - there is still some left - and lowland heath. Sweetcorn is grown nearby, and blueberries and camellias not far away but the soil ph varies depending where exactly you are. I'm the alkaline side of neutral so need my blueberries in pots. Also, pears must have once have been grown here as the village name means pear field. I've been meaning to plant a couple for ages now - Comice is my favourite. My garden has lovely loamy soil with a gravelly layer about 18 ins down so drains pretty well and it's a mild climate here near to the south coast.

Here in Dordogne, Perigord blanc, (blanc means white for the limestone) we have shallow soil on top of limestone (quarry a mile away) with clay pockets. The winters can be very cold and the summers can be very hot. But in between it can be mild and very wet. Last winter was fairly dry, but went down to -17° and snowed - 15cms. This year we've had snow but it's been milder with a lot of rain. If you grow mediteranean plants you can lose them in winter and if you try to make an English garden you can lose plants in the summer. Don't think about sweet peas! I have added extra topsoil and loads of manure over the last 20 years!

Here in the shadow of the Malvern Hills the soil is very clayey, though it probably has had little enrichment to it since the house was built 60 years ago. Originally the land was common land and the central 'green' is so still. 

The climate is mild even compared to where we came from - Staffordshire. Of course Worcs is known for fruit and the cordon trees I put in when we first moved here nearly 3 years ago are thriving - in fact all the fruit bushes are. Apparently roses should as well but have only planted them latter half of last year so i wait to see.

We are on raised ground so don't get the flooding they do a mile away, nor do we get the rush of rain from the hills. 

Soil needs alot of work so we just take an area at a time rather than rushing to do the whole thing.

We're in the SE corner of Ross-shire, a few hundred yards from the Inverness-shire border on a low-lying area on the Beauly then larger Moray Firths.  About half a mile from us, inland, the ground starts rising quite sharply & Ben Wyvis at over 3,400 ft is only a few miles away to the north (currently behind cloud).

Ross-shire includes the mountainous west coast & inland, then in the east is the coastal plain & the Black Isle, which isn't black or an island  but is very fertile.  Lots of big farms there & big fields, unlike the small crofts of the more upland areas.

Our soil is very good for growing - at least it has been for the 2.5 years that we've been here!  But exceptionally stony.  For at least a couple of hundred years until the late 1800's this area was used to gather the cattle which had been driven through the glens from the north & west along the drove roads before eventually walking them down to Smithfield market in London, there was a cattle & a sheep market here, too. That's an awful lot of dung!!

Our growing conditions are good compared to the thin soils & harsh climate inland & to the west.  Our garden, all 50x50 foot of it faces north & is extremely exposed to north winds, of course the sun doesn't yet get to 95% of it at this time of year, unfortunately 

Sorry to waffle on, but to summarise the answer to the initial question - variety!

Jean.

Good things about Cambridge/Norfolk/Lincoln borders; roses and plant auctions. Some good independent plant nurseries; I hate the big rip-off chains. A lot of people here love growing veg, so at any social gathering you can usually find a fellow veg bore! Loads of horses in the neighbourhood, so loads of manure. My soil is fairly alkali and in areas a sticky clay. I have never heard anyone complain about the soil, but we can have problems with lack of rain; we are in a dry corridor east of Cambridge.