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A sorry sight…

Our spell of warm weather finally broke yesterday morning with thunder, lightning and torrential downpours. I believe the news reported some localised flooding in our area. We had some pretty localised flooding in the garden too!

The video below shows a little repeat footage from last week followed by some from yesterday morning including one of a few blasts of thunder. For those who can’t view the video, my tiny pond completely flooded right out and along the paving. The birds were at the feeders and can be seen getting absolutely drenched …I had real difficulty in recognising a Great tit at the peanut feeder!

The seed feeders often ‘run dry’ on wet days. As the birds were still visiting them and looked such a sorry sight I waited for a slight break in the volume of rain dropping from above and ran out and topped them all up.

During this relatively small time frame of a reduced rainfall the excess water around my pond drained away as if by magic! Yep… this does show the importance of adequate drainage in the battle against flash floods.

Another sight met my eyes this morning… the sorry sight of damaged plants after heavy rainfall. Petunias were the first casualties I spotted from my kitchen window.

My heart then went completely out to all the gardeners that have spent so much time and care in raising bedding plants from seed… what sorry sights their gardens must have been this morning. I am vexed for them.

A brief early walk around the garden this morning revealed only a few casualties so I am not complaining myself. Although it is always a shame to see new plants to the garden take a battering like the tiny Erodium below. Mm… I must get the fine grit I bought at the weekend mulched around these plants.

The rain washed almost all the colour out of the rose below which was a beautiful deep burgundy. The weight of the water almost brought it right to the ground too.

Other plants in my front garden have flowers that can easily lose a few bells and still look great like the Penstemon below… the only evidence of the heavy rainfall of yesterday is in the few petals scattered on the ground below it.

Walking around my back garden and taller stems of the bell Campanulas are now leaning forward towards the edge of the border. Raindrop markings on the white petals can also be seen. Yes… white flowers do seem to fair the worst with wet. Madame Alfred Carriere also took a hit. Ah… but what was this I spotted?

A bit too early perhaps but among the golden foliage of the Bowles golden sedge grass I spotted the first flower buds of the year on another white flower that is very popular in late summer… the Japanese Anemone. I do love these white flowers. Yes… a bit early.

Almost singing out to me in the cool light of day this morning were a couple of Clematis at my back boor. They were almost defiant of yesterdays rainfall! Niobe is sharing a trellis with Alfred but I thought the second clematis below was also Niobe (a cutting I had taken) but the petals seem to be slightly different… Mm… strange that.


Walking back out to my front garden and I pass by probably the sorriest sight in my garden after yesterday’s rainfall… my pot of Lollo Rosso lettuce. Aw… I wonder what I should do with this now. Perhaps I need to cut back leaves to allow new ones to grow back. It really is a pretty plant and tasty too!


So yes, it’s now a clean-up operation in the garden … trimming back damage to promote new growth in the plants. I’ve a few other garden jobs in mind for this week too… much more fun… I’ll come back to them!

Here’s hoping, you haven’t sustained too much rain damage in your garden (or house) this time or at any other time. Perhaps you have the oppposite problem with water shortages and fires. As gardeners we have always challenges to face and climate change is really up there in the list!

All photos above were taken in my garden on July 7th 2009. The video above was taken mainly on July 6th 2009.

9 thoughts on “A sorry sight…

  1. Gosh – you really did get some heavy rain! So lovely to see your goldfinches, although we have them nearby – I have not persuaded them to hop over the garden wall … yet.
    Delightful video Shirl.
    K

  2. Sorry to see some of your plants took a beating, we had a lot of rain yesterday although I don't think it was too heavy – at times it was but for the most part it was just raining.

    I haven't had the chance to survey the damage but I think really only the cosmos had problems – so I dead-headed it yesterday.

    I've been on slug patrol yesterday a few times and this morning and surprisingly haven't found a single one… They must all know I'm coming and run away! Either that or they're planning something…

  3. We had similar rain here and with water running down our drive and into the garden we got some practical idea of flash floods – frightening!
    Poor birds – they look very bedraggled. Must make flying harder I would have thought.

  4. You poor thing. What a soggy mess. Luckily there is plenty of time this summer for things to rebloom.

  5. Hi there Karen, Liz, Denise and Lisa🙂

    Karen – Yep… but thankfully not as bad as others… it did drain away. Yes, for some reason those tropical looking birds always appear on mass in heavy rain, sleet and snow!! Fingers crossed they will visit your garden without persuasion 😉 Thank-you, glad you enjoyed the video 😀

    Liz – Yes… but it really wasn’t too bad at all. Most of my plants are perennials and shrubs (many from cuttings) and in all honesty it is the gardeners of bedding, fruit and veg that I feel sorry for. Yes, hopefully you won’t spot too much damage… I’d guess that cosmos would suffer with rain. LOL… now what I want to know is do you have bells on your boots as an early warning for the slugs! Failing that maybe they’re on their hols next door 😉

    Denise – Sorry to hear that… yes the idea of flash floods is scary. I can still remember the horror of watching the TV footage of the floods at Boscastle back in 2004 and cars sailing down the street! Yes, I agree how that Great tit managed to fly I’ve no idea 🙂

    Lisa – Oh thanks… it was relatively short lived and everything drained away quite quickly. We are not too bad here with no river running through our town… our ground doesn’t usually dry out either! We won’t need to wait too long for reblooms either as our plants are pretty tough and well used to battles with wind and rain 😀

  6. There is nothing like a heavy downpour or two to wash out a garden. My lovely small standard rose is a sorry sight now. I must get round to dead heading it. Fortunately for the roses there is time for a new flush of flowers but they never seem the same do they.

    A beautiful video of the birds at the feeders. They have to eat and feed their young no matter what the weather.

  7. Hi Shirl – was thinking of you when I heard from my Mum in law about the flooding and wondered if your garden would be okay… we have the opposite here it's just so dry despite the odd down pour but at this time of year so many of the beautiful blooms do suffer but I guess plants and wildlife overall do benefit in the long run? I'm off to the UK next week for a few days to see my family in Cornwall so will visit again v. soon – do take care and hope your garden recovers v. soon Miranda x

  8. Typical! You wait for ages, with everything dry as a bone and then it all comes at once and washes stuff out, a bit like the old saying about buses I suppose! The birds on the feeders did look a sorry, soggy sight, (rather a mouthful of esses there!) it can't be pleasant eating in the rain ;).

    The pond video showed the fierceness of the storm very well. Your clematis look lovely and yes they look different to me too.

    I'm glad you didn't have any major damage and I guess by now everything looks normal and lovely again 🙂

  9. Hi again John, Miranda & Jan

    Sorry John, I missed this one. Yep… I’d agree although having a mostly green garden mine thrives with the rain. Sorry to hear about your standard, I am not too familiar with roses so I didn’t realise the second flushes weren’t as good. Yep… need to do a little deadheading myself. Thanks, what a capture on the pine tree… poor things. Yep they do… my feeders get busier when it rains heavily!

    Miranda, Thank-you, I was thinking of you when I saw the juvenile swallows the other day. Hope your young ‘uns are doing fine. My garden is pretty hardy with rainfall… just a few casualties and it is nicely refreshed! Oh… yes the dry spells before the downpours are a prob. Hope you get light rainfall first. Have a great trip to Cornwall… hope the weather is fair for you 😀

    Jan, Yep… that’s just the way the cookie crumbles 😉 Yes, the poor hardy souls just got on with business as usual 🙂 Oh… I’ll look back on that storm footage again… incredibly very quickly the excess water just soaked away! I never saw it happen. Thanks, not much damage at allbut my posting really was aimed at those with gardens full of bedding displays… all that hard work into getting bright coloured blooms 🙁 Have a good week 😀

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