Global warming

I think us gardeners are more in tune with what the climate is doing than most people. Here in the UK I can grow plants in my garden that my parents and grandparents never could have becuase they wouldn't have been hardy enough. Also, lots of insect pests have spread northward from the continent, which is another clear sign that the climate is warming. The last three summers have been unusually wet too...

We are getting hotter, wetter and, more importantly, windier weather. Our winters, on the whole, are considerably milder than they used to be. OVerall there is probably not a lot more rain but instead of coming as a gentle drizzle we are getting heavy thunder plumps which do the ground and the plants no good at all. For two weeks we had temperatures of 28˚C in the shade (this is northern Scotland I am writing about). Then the temperature dropped dramatically and we had two weeks of wet and windy. This week has been mixed with some heavy rain showers and some sunshine, warmers (low 20s)
Global warming is a reality what ever the politician say!

Mg says that 'on the whole our winters are milder' but during the last two winters we have had a very short period of VERY cold weather that has done a lot of damage..

True

Agree, milder but the odd vicious winter weather just to let us not forget whos in charge.
Has all this rain this summer global warming related or is it just natural cycle!?

And Rhodea is in Canada! where i thought is was cold but thats me not knowing much about Canada!

You are in Canada, Rhodea - we're on the same latitude as you here in Britain, but at present, we still have the Gulf stream to keep us warm (although its flow has been reduced by over 30 percent the last time I checked). We're sort of waiting for it to stop flowing, at which point we'll be ice and snowbound, just like you over there. Currently, though, the change over the last ten years has been exactly as Moongrower says - lots more windy weather, lots more heavy rain events, so we're more at risk of flooding than freezing - till the gulf stream moves, if it does. And of course, compared to 20 years ago, plants start growing and insects are moving around on average 2 weeks earlier in the year, and stopping later. There is NO doubt its happening, global warming - but it's happened before. This last 10,000 years we've had the most settled climate ever known on the planet, according to ice core samples, rock samples, etc. Fascinating stuff... well to me, anyway;-)

I'm fascinated by it aswell Bamboo.

Fascinating yet slightly scary too!

Definitely scary...

The temps hit high of 38 degrees Celcius yesterday.We were liturally roasting.It's raining (very little) right now. We needed it.
I noticed too that plants from a higher zone are surviving here now.We're officially a zone 3 or 3a, but I've been putting in zone 4 plants and they're survivng.