Wet weather effects

Why not pot up some of each and put in greenhouse or cold frame out of the rain, then you will have a start if and when the weather improves.Alternatively if you have some bell jars or cloches, cover to keep the rain off.

Thanks for thought - but greenhouse and coldframe are overflowing! Might try to find/make cloches for precious lavenders, though. Couldn't really for caryopteris, they are a bit too tall! Forecast for next three days down here is - wait for it - SUN! Maybe things will perk up?? I certainly will...Fingers crossed!

This weather is atrocious, I have to pick the cane fruit as soon as it ripens and freeze immediately else it just goes mouldy, fruit under leaves goes mouldy before I find it.
It seems to suit the greens though. The farmers must be having a hard time, I guess we will get shortages and higher prices.

Amazing! it is sunny, albeit very windy today. I shall be able to start clearing and digging on the stream bank.

another effect of this awful weather is the number of insect bites I am getting - I am scratching and anointing myself all over! Nothing seems to stop them, either. Never had so many! Anyone else suffering like this?

Yep, I am allergic to mosquito bites, just had one on my leg , came up the size of a tea-plate red and angry.....scratch ....scratch!. They bypass others and make a beeline for me!

They don't bite my husband - but he isn't a gardener, he cuts the grass and helps with anything I can't do like digging up fennel roots (Wow - a pickaxe job!) but is usually in his workshop. Obviously no midges in there.

News! He cut the grass today in the sunshine and he has got a gnat bite! (only one - and I've got several more) Hoping for another sunny day tomorrow...

Well. today started well, with sunshine, but the clouds soon came up and it has been rain alternating with patches of sun since then. I feel like the woman in the weather house thingybob who pops out to forecast the weather! At least my husband got all the grass cut in the dry! We are only able to compost about a third of each cut as there is so much, so the rest has to be transported to the council tip! I have to try to get back out there again, there is always more to be done, isn't there! The weeds sure do enjoy this weather, they are appearing everywhere in their thousands, so it seems to me, anyway. My least favourite weed is the hoary bittercress - if you miss one, it shoots its seeds in all directions (clever but annoying) and it seems to flower when very tiny, too. Since I dug up all those symphytums, new seedlings have emerged, including to my surprise a tomato! Now where did that come from?

Hi Spritz, grass cuttings can be used as a mulch to keep moisture in and roots cool, if you want to reduce the trips to the council tip.

Hello Tussie - Thanks for the thought - IF the weather turns dry I may just do that! Can't at the moment, though. I'd quite like the soil to be less muddy!

Ours is quite workable now, in drought it gets very hard as the soil base is clay and we live almost at the top of a hill so it drains quite well. I am trying to incorporate as much organic matter as I can to make it more workable.I have raised beds with bark paths between, so mud is only a problem in the chicken and duck pens.

I planted two Tropaeolum speciosum plants last week, a la Sissinghurst (Ie next to evergreen shrubs, to grow through them) As I have not had to water the garden lately apart from my tubs, I was horrified on doing my daily walk-about following a very heavy downpour to discover that one of the new plants was sitting in a dry as dust patch, sheltered by its so-called host! So out with the can again, and then I moved the plant further away from the tree with a cane to start it off climbing. (Fingers crossed!) I'll have to mulch that area, won't I! The rest of the garden is still well soaked quite deep down. Compost or grass clippings do you think - remembering that this is a new, as yet small plant?