How is everyone fairing in the current weather in the UK? I hope you are all safe and well and not affected by the floods and heavy rain. I just saw the garden of someone living in Tenbury Wells on the TV - it had transformed into a fast flowing river!
The big rain
I'm OK up here, I was north of the rain band, nothing more than a bit of light drizzle.
But Patbarr was right in the thick of it, and hasn't posted since - probably got no power (at least I hope it's nothing worse than that!). Patbarr's last pic (this thread: http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/729865/ ) showed a garden path under deep water.
Resin
Glad to hear you're OK Resin.
That's a wonderful photo of Pat's garden, but what a lot of water! Thanks, I hadn't found that post. I hope Pat and everyone else is OK
Lincolnshire has some bad areas... but i live on the top of the hill... i feel sorry for those at the bottom.
Getting to work was a giggle... drove some nice deep water...
We have had similar to Pat, a fair bit of rain, now I really don't remember when it started but we had showers for a few days before with over 1/2" on one day. Sunday I managed to do some gardening, rained all day yesterday but I'm not sure just when it started and when it ended but at midday today my rain gauge had 2.75" in it.
The water was stood on the path as it was coming down in sheaths, before 7.30 last night the drain at the front of the house was loking dangerously high, much higher than I have seen it in 9 years, another 6" and we would have flooded. There is a brick wall near the bridge going over the drain which was completely immersed with water over the edge of that bit of garden, it's never done that before. There is a family business a few yards up the road, they run a boat yard, they have been flooded but are slightly lower than we are.
The water has gone down a little now, but more heavy rain is forecast for the weekend. We tend to get the run-off from other places here even if we haven't had much rain, if we get another heavy lot of rain it could be floods for us. The water level is usually very low, last summer it was dry for most of the summer but in normal summers it dries up for about 2 weeks in early August before we get heavy rains in late August.
The Irises are at the edge of the water where it usually is, there is an old Victorian brick lining at the bottom. I took this at midday today, it had already subsided a little as there was another 1.5 to 2" soaked on the cherry tree trunk.
The fern in front of the cherry tree is Polystichum munitum, the highest it has been before has just covered the heart of that. To the front of that is an Iris versicolor Kermesina which is quite tall, I can't see it!
The Typha and other bog plants grow in the boggy soil at the side of the drain and are not often under water even at the bottom!
I didn't realize it was sooo bad in the UK! Hope every one gets out of it without too much damage!
I took this last night at 7.18pm from an upstairs window while still raining of course, the level went higher than that. The water isn't supposed to be on the garden side of the bog plants! The ground level is lower than on the road, but the bank is still fairly high.
I've not been washed away - I've only just seen this thread, and have put an up-date on the other one. The photo of my garden path is just before the water rushed down from the road, so it was over the wellie tops and lapping the bottom of the greenhouse a couple of minutes later.
All is well again today, but lots of people had to be evacuated from the low lying parts of Sheffield and there are still lots under water, power off and the M1 Southbound is closed as a reservoir looks likely to burst, and that is just above a huge power station serving half of Sheffield and Rotherham, so quite a lot of disruption.
The water has washed huge chunks out of some nearby streets so I think we've got away relatively lightly with just a flooded garden.
7 inches of rain in 24 hours is rather a lot though, and everything in the garden seems to have grown about 2 feet and flopped all over the place.
Heck Pat, if we had 7" we would definitely be under water by now! My garden is sandy so nothing looks to be bothered.
This is a pic of the drain in mid April last year with a fairly high water level, you can see the fern at the right which is well covered.
Hi Wallaby, I hope the cherry tree is OK. At least your garden should drain quickly if it is sandy, and looking on the bright side, we won't have to worry about watering again for a while. It is a very strange year - hot, dry, sunny, April and waterlogged, cold June.
Yep, they were forecasting an even hotter year than last year! Now they say it's going to be cold, gee I think I could be a forecaster without all the high tech equipment!
Cold for sure, was only 12C here today!
Pics from the BBC, for anyone who wants to get a flavour of what it's been like . . .
http://www.bbc.co.uk/southyorkshire/content/image_galleries/flooding_june_2007_gallery.shtml
Resin
Glad to hear you are all OK if a trifle soggy.
Great photos wallaby and good to hear from you Pat - I'll go and see your update on the other thread.
Thanks for the link Resin - some amazing photos!
Sad storry for you all.... A friend of mine who owns a farm near lincoln was asked if she could loan some hands to help a neighbour..... not a bad request so of course she accepted, and her cousin spent the day helping out....
The job was to clean out a chicken shed that had been flooded ... unfortunatley it was full of chickens that due to the timing and speed of the flood the chickens all drowned......
Sad but true..
I have picture of some of the fields near me i'll post later when i get them of the camera but they look simliar to the bbc site above.
Mike
Oh, that's awful, poor birds.
Look forward to your photos when you have time Mike.
Ok here goes...
The funny bit on this one is the building you can see is the enviroment agency who controls this river! Serves them right for buying cheap land on flood planes! heheh
This one has a chicken shed in the back ground.... great lighting effects..
This is the bridge i drive over... looked worse on tuesday before the river flooded the fields.
The road has been closed for days but i keep driving as its nice and quiet now...
Wow, yes very wet!
Thanks for the photos. Love the irony of the Environment Agency building ;o)
Hi, I have just put this somewhere else before I saw this post but will enter it here anyway.
Here in Hull we have had terrible floods, our house is OK, our house in on a rise and they water got to 18 inches of the outside walls but that's all, so although the garden outside was under water though we are OK, but many neighbours within half a mile of me are in trouble.
Our veggie allotments have been under water for 3 weeks now, as high as three feet at one point and all our crops are ruined.
We are hoping our toms will be OK as they were submerged for only a few days and their roots are draining now, the same for our high raised beds, but our main flat land is still under water. We can now wade in and walk on the concrete paths, but the ground is just a lake of smelly bubbly water, and is contaminated due to the sewers flooding.
The school where I work has been destroyed and all it's contents are being dumped, it will be closed for 3 months and the children are being bussed to other schools.
I have never known rain and flooding like this.
XX Jeannine
Ah, lol, I answered the other post. Glad to hear that you may get some toms. Wow, three weeks is a long time to be under water - I didn't realise the floods had been going on for so long. Just hope the land will be well fertilised *grin*. River silt is usually very fertile, so in the long run perhaps the outcome won't be so bad - though awful to lose all that hard work.
Quoting:
River silt is usually very fertile ...
In nature, yes, but I'd not be too happy in Jeannine's case – the water will also be full of all sorts of poisons leached out of drowned cars, garages, chemical factories, . . . you name it. Not nice stuff, high risks of heavy metal contamination, toxic fuel oil, and worse.
Resin
More worrying is if you live in my area and the sewers flood! lol
Seriously though that is a point about chemical contaminents. The guy that owned the house here before me had a thing for burying his rubbish in holes in the garden. First thing i notice is the plants have strange colours to them and grow differently. Like they have orange hints in the leaves that remind me of some kind of nutrient deficency in autumn. Then i dig down and find a load of what looks like electrical equipment thats so rusted up it crumbles.
Never did fancy growing veggies!
Mike
The sewers don't worry me too much - that's biodegradable organic matter, and the sewage bacteria don't last long in competition with natural soil microfauna. It's the PCBs and dioxins and stuff like that out of industrial sites which make me nervous. Lethal dose 20 microgrammes per kg bodyweight, and soil persistence of 100 years or more. Remember Seveso?
Resin
Seveso? Isn't that spanish for beer? lol
It was the sewers that flooded, are community garden is still under water after 3 weeks and the water is stagnant and slimy now, all bubbly.The town is being declared a disater areas as 17% of home were flooded and the damavge is running into billions. Wt went into our school after the waters went down with face masks and protective clothing to see if we could rescue anything but it is all gone, books, desks, chairs everything. The floors are too be replaced, same with all the doors, skirting boards and the plaster. We were then told we could not go in anymore as it was contaminated. It is very difficult to deal with but we will come through.
XX Jeannine
Amazing that the water is still up. There must be a major drainage problem. So sorry to hear that you have all this damage and destruction to cope with Jeannine, all best wishes that you get help and support. Hope it is cleared up as soon as possible.
Figures I heard on the news were 30,000 houses damaged, and £2 billion (€3 billion) estimated repair costs.
Quoting:
There must be a major drainage problem
Yep. Hull and Doncaster are barely above sea level, and protected by sea walls to keep the sea out. Which means once the water has accumulated inside the walls, it is very difficult to get it out - it won't just drain out, it has to be pumped.
Resin
Oh this is so sad to read :o((
During my exams I`ve been thinking of you all.
There has been raining a lot here as well, but nothing compared what UK have been trough :o((
Its ok.... hose pipe bans next week! lol
;o))) that is a good thing then, they can go crazy on you. Well mine does ;o))))
You know Mike, I was just thinking… Freck sounds/reminds me of the Danish word fræk?
Can you guess what that means? It suits you very well with your wonderful humour :o))
My name at school was freak so i'm not offended.... that was one of many names i had... another was satan.. long story!lol
Michaelus satanicus freakus? LOL
Fræk means;
Naughty, mischievous and even wicked (meaning everything from bad to mischievously well tasting/good looking or having a good humour :o)))
Doesnt sound like me at all! lol
Except the good looking part of course... j/k
Mike
Ahhhh I knew my intuition was right :o))))
Womens intuition.... can't beat it....
Mike
nope :o)))
I mean the intuition not the women of course.... that would be cruel!