Sunday 25 November 2012

After the storm

Many parts of the UK have been affected by appalling weather conditions over the last few days (weeks? months?). Heavy and prolonged rain has fallen on already saturated land, and has been unable to drain away because the rivers are swollen beyond bursting point. Fellow blogger and allotment-holder Rooko, who lives in Somerset, has been very seriously affected, and has graphically described the difficulties of gardening in these conditions, on his blog Don't Lose The Plot.

Here in North East Hampshire (about 35 miles from London) we have got off comparitively lightly, but even we have had some pretty foul weather. Last night the heavy rain was accompanied by strong winds. This is the sight that greeted us this morning:


That's my back gate you can see... Fortunately (for me, not him), those larch-lap panels are my neighbour's, not mine. Three panels down and two posts busted. This type of panel is a mixed blessing: lightweight, cheap, quick to erect, but they have a lot of wind-resistance and are very vulnerable in a storm. These particular panels may be re-useable, but the posts aren't, because they have snapped off at ground level.


Look how the wind has arranged a pile of leaves right outside my back door:


They'll probably be inside my leaf-mould bin before very long!

Elsewhere, in the grounds of the new insect hotel, the wind has also been doing a bit of "landscaping". A pile of twigs has spontaneously appeared. These are Birch twigs from across the other side of the road. I'm sure they will make a fine Winter habitat for some sort of creature.


I would like to express my sympathy for less fortunate people in other parts of the country, who have much more serious damage to contend with. Let's all hope that the weather abates soon.

12 comments:

  1. We have soggy land but are otherwise unscathed so far - I hope I'm not tempting fate. I has been windy but not too bad. Just some strong gusts.

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  2. You would think those would be protected from sideways wind sources between two buildings like that.

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  3. We've had lots of rain, and it's been a bit gusty, but we've got off lightly. My heart goes out to those who aren't quite so fortunate. I'm surprised you've had such damage between the two houses, it must act as a wind tunnel.

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  4. We used to have fence panel damage like that all the time as we are very exposed where we live, in the end we paid to have concrete posts erected where you just slide the fence panels in, a perfect solution.

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    1. Yes; that's what we have. The neighbours will probably see the wisdom of this approach now!

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  5. Los temporales cada vez son más fuertes. Mi huerto está en el norte de España y también tenemos un tiempo bastante inestable y a veces devastador. Esta semana concretamente creo que vamos a tener mucho viento del norte y bajadas de las temperaturas. Espero que las plantas no lo sientan mucho.
    Muchos animos!!! y seguro que en unos días, en cuanto tengais el tiempo en calma, volverás a tener tu huerto fenomenal.
    Un saludo

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  6. Concrete posts, now that would be interesting. We often buy concrete to put around our posts that go in the ground which is what Phil did when putting in our outdoor swing but for the fence out back we just used pressure treated wood and are hoping that will be ok.
    I did notice your neighbor has a nice potted plant and bird feeder. Are you friends with your neighbors?

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    1. My neighbours are not very keen gardeners, but nice enough people. They came round to discuss replacing the fence. They plan to re-do the whole fence, not just the damaged panels, which is good (though I'll have to remove the wires supporting my Raspberry canes!)

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  7. Wow, that's some strong wind that has brought down the fence and posts. My fence panels, much the same as the ones in the photo, came down last year in the gales we generally get in Jan-Feb. The cost is more in labour to fix it. The amount of rain and flooding in the UK has really been horrendous this year.

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  8. We had a very similar fence in London and much the same happened to it. Sorry the weather is so hideous. Hope it improves soon.

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  9. I can certainly identify with storm damage!Glad to see it looks like you made out OK. Shame about the neighbors fencing...

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  10. Crumbs, bad luck about your neighbour's fence. We seem to have got away without any trampoline's landing in our garden this time :). We're very grateful for our hilltop position when the lower ground starts to flood, though our local lanes are suffering from river-complexes, as the fields are saturated.

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