South West France

[Jardiniere]

As i'm new here i thought i'd put a south west france weather thing in even if it is only for me and suee (anyone else?)
Sorry...but yesterday we had temperatures of 19 c.(after an overnight frost).

today it is raining.
which means the river might flood..

[rustylady]

19 degrees - that's high summer in UK. It's not fair. We had a high of 11 degrees today and I thought it was lovely.

[Jardiniere]

Yesterday in the sun it alllegedly reached 20C and I put in some carrot, lettuce and rocket seeds under a cloche which next door kitten then got into and ran up and down all over cos she couldnt get out so my rows will be totally mixed.
Also put in some tomatoes
today is cooler and cloudier......allegedly 15c but dont believe it.

[Mrs Dobby]

I can only look on in envy at the temperatures! Here its about 8c, but with a storng gusty and chilly wind, and the ground is still soaking from the past few days rain, no planting out for a while and no digging yet as its still too wet!

[TonyF]

It's gently raining here in SW France now but at least it's still warm - too wet to work outside so got into the shed to give it a good tidy. Shed is 3 x 5 m chalet style so when it gets untidy it really gets untidy!

Haven't put any seeds in today at all, just moved cold frames and stuff, general maintainance.

But it's still warm!

Weather forcast until Monday is basically wet and warm tho ............

[TonyF]

Well, when I got up this morning it was coming down in stair rods, more rain which means that the river Dordogne will be even more flooded than yesterday. But it's one of the reasons that this area is so fertile so have to grin and bear it, the good thing is that until very late summer we don't have problems getting water to recycle - I have 9 x 300 litre water butts scattered around the garden and because we're on a terraced hillside, we pump it round when we need to.

Temp this morning is 12 degrees at 10.30. Should reach 17 this afternoon but no gardening today, have lunch out and then wine tasting this evening - ok it's tough but, as others may say, somebody has to do it!

[Jardiniere]

Been raining here too but its warm at 15c.
River very high - our garden is protected from the river by a disused railway embankment but our land on the river is regularly flooded but I haven't gardened it yet - its totally overgrown -
off to London on Sunday for two weeks so have to get some seeds in this pm!
When i get back will be looking for advice on the embankment...happy wine tasting Tony!

[TonyF]

Raining hard here at 7 am.

Yesterday was driving along the Dordogne Valley and the river has flooded for a distance of 25 k along the length of the river between here and Sarlat.

Where my commune borders the river, (petit plage) it's about 30 meters wider than it should be and at one of the major tourist villages/small towns a little further on, it's dangerously high.

We're 250 meters above river level so not too much of a problem for us.

More rain forecast for the next two days tho .........

[TonyF]

10 am, 12 degrees, sunny tho a bit watery ............

Some mist across the valley which is clearing quite quickly.

And today is the first of the big plant fairs, fruit bushes and trees in general plus the first of the herb growers. It's about 20k away, so quite local if you live round here but a must go to thing.

Market day put on hold for this week, guess where I'm off to ........

Catch up later in the chat room.

[TonyF]

Well, for the second day running, it's been well above 20 degrees. It was 11 degrees at 10 am and has been gently warming all day.

Friend told me this pm I've even caught the sun a bit. Have been working on more seeds and then building boxes to raise roots of fruit bushes (thornless blackberries and kiwis), if not the lack of soil will stop anything rooting - about 6" on top of a rock hill so raised everything essential.

[TonyF]

Just arrived back home from 2 days (almost) in Bordeaux.

Weather across SW France is grim at the moment. Grey and overcast, a good lot of rain around. All the rivers round here are already flooding so it looks like more on the way.

Which means, of course, no outside gardening for a few days at least so into the shed and starting more seeds off I suppose.

Found a nice red spring onion seed the other day - can buy them on the markets when they mature but easier and cheper to grow my own.

[TonyF]

And how wrong can the meteo be?

Glorious here this morning, sky the most wonderful shade of Dordogne blue. Lots of sun, very cold tho, only 5/9 degrees this morning.

But managed to do more tidying, took the lids of some of the seed trays in the cold frames where I've got shoots starting and managed to get some more seeds in.

[TonyF]

Well, the weather forecast for the next few days is glorious.

And today, started at 5 degrees and by mid afternoon has risen to 24 - and it's set for this until at least Friday.

Can't remember why I moved here but think it was something to do with the weather ............

[TonyF]

Glorious again this morning - I had a visitor last evening and when she left at 9.30 it was still 12 degrees.

Not much gardening today, have errands to run. Yesterday did too much, caught the sun it was so hot, planted up the lavender bank, demolished two lilac trees and managed to grub out the lonicera bushes that smell like cats pee.

At last the garden is starting to open up - when I moved here it was very dark, not overgrown but like the house, completely covered in by the previous owners who were a bit odd and shut themselves away from the rest of the village.

Still, two years in and the sun now shines on the garden, have new things growing (have to buy 10 forsythia plants today to fill the gaps in the front hedge) and the overwintered iris' will hopefully go in when I get back this afternoon.

TTFN

[TonyF]

Just caught the weather forecast - dry and sunny for the next few days, temps between 6 and 22.

So guess what I'll be doing, should I work on the computer or go gardening ..........