Topic: Gardeners World - At last!

[allaboutliverpool]

Thank goodness Gardeners World has started again lifting the gloom of the worst winter for years.

Some of the irritating things have gone, like the session at the end, but sadly Alys and Carol remain- if they are so good why can't they have a programme to themselves and leave the produce section to take over?

The figures that I have recorded for the last 4 years here by the relatively mild conditions by the Mersey make interesting reading.

Winter 2006-7  - 19 days Frost
Winter 2007-8  - 31 days Frost
Winter 2008-9  - 53 days Frost
Winter 2090-10- 64 days Frost (and counting)

Clear evidence of global warming.

I have sown Pumpkins, Squash, Tomatoes, Chillies, Peppers, Onions, Leeks, and Brassicas this week in a propagator.

I am probably mad!

http://allaboutallotments.com/index.html

[realfood]

The ground in Glasgow is still frozen, as it has been most days since mid December with snow on  the surrounding hills. The greenhouse was -6c two nights ago, so too early to sow in there!
I have sown peppers, alliums, peas, broad beans in the house, but certainly not sowing pumpkins this month.
Glad to see that you are still around as I have not seen you posting for some time.

[Robert_Brenchley]

The figures that I have recorded for the last 4 years here by the relatively mild conditions by the Mersey make interesting reading.

Winter 2006-7  - 19 days Frost
Winter 2007-8  - 31 days Frost
Winter 2008-9  - 53 days Frost
Winter 2090-10- 64 days Frost (and counting)

Clear evidence of global warming.

I think you're confusing global climate with local weather. We've had a cold winter just here; planty of other regions have been unusualy warm. If the weather patterns which produced the very cold weather recur in July or August, we'll be complaining about the heat.

Nothing planted yet, there's plenty of time. I gave up on GW a long time ago.

[:(]

Didnt watch gw at all last series, just too irritating. Good to see it back tonight in the old format wall to wall planting and sowing. No gimmicky projects, wobbly cameras, or whats in and out. They just need to dump tb now and it will be back to what it should be.

[bazzysbarn]

Started watching it to see about raspberries my sister turns up with her family just at the wrong time >:(!!!!!! not gardeners

[.]

Maybe, sometimes, it's more about letting go than taking sides...

[allaboutliverpool]

I have followed the "Global Warming" debate from the beginning and have books about it.

It seems that the glum prophets want to have their cake and eat it. The climate v weather debate always crops up, however the predictions have always been that global warming will cause Northern Europe to have warmer weather, ie mild Winters and warmer Summers, which for a few years appeared to be the case.

The last four years have seen the opposite and extrapolating the frost figures (in the same way that Al Gore and others do) indicates that there will be 365 days frost per annum, ie an ice age within 30 years.

Thank goodness I have a small property in Nice where I and my family can escape the advancing ice sheets and celebrate my 94th birthday in 2040, although the recent closure of Nice airport, due to 6 inches of snow and causing my plane to be diverted, means that even that is not certain!

http://allaboutallotments.com/index.html

[cjb02]

thanks for mentioning, will watch on iplayer later.

[sunloving]

I'd look at those figures and say that the winters of 2006-2008 were the years that are greater deviations from the norm.

We wont nec get warmer anyway just wetter more stormy and with a sea level rise of around 1.9m by 2080 retreating from many areas of coastline.
Sea level rise in blackpool not far from you is currently 5mm per year set to accelerate.
x sunloving

[Vortex]

I think you need to revisit your books and look at the effect that global warming is directly having eg the melting of the Russian permafrost and the Northern Ice sheet resulting in a 3 fold increase in the volume of fresh water entering the North Atlantic in the last 10 years alone.
One side effect of this is the re-appearnce of all the "swirly patterns" featured on the old 17thC Naval maps, that people previous thought were artistic licence. The winters of the mid 17thC are refered to as the mini ice age btw.
The effect of the increse in fresh water flow is the reduction in the salinity of the North Atlantic which if it continues unchecked will switch off the North Atlantic conveyer within 30-70 years.
No Atlantic conveyer = No Gulf stream = Continental Arctic winters making the winter we've just had look like chicken feed.
The upside is we also get Mediteranean summers.

I have followed the "Global Warming" debate from the beginning and have books about it.

It seems that the glum prophets want to have their cake and eat it. The climate v weather debate always crops up, however the predictions have always been that global warming will cause Northern Europe to have warmer weather, ie mild Winters and warmer Summers, which for a few years appeared to be the case.

The last four years have seen the opposite and extrapolating the frost figures (in the same way that Al Gore and others do) indicates that there will be 365 days frost per annum, ie an ice age within 30 years.

Thank goodness I have a small property in Nice where I and my family can escape the advancing ice sheets and celebrate my 94th birthday in 2040, although the recent closure of Nice airport, due to 6 inches of snow and causing my plane to be diverted, means that even that is not certain!

http://allaboutallotments.com/index.html

[Mrs Gumboot]

I'm with Vortex I'm afraid. It's far more likely that we will end up buried in ice and snow for half the year. Bear in mind that we're on a latitude with Hudson's Bay in Canada which freezes solid all winter. The only reason we don't have weather that harsh, or even as harsh as much of mainland Europe, is the gulf stream. In all probability this will head north and we'll have to learn how to cope with snow.

Having said all that, it is also worth bearing in mind that there have been all manner of climate fluctuations if you look back far enough. We really have no idea what is going to happen climate wise, or how long these changes will take. Anyone who says "this will happen" is at best only guessing. This may well end up being an anomalous (had to look up the spelling on that one!!) couple of years/decades and then things will go back to 'normal'.

Back on topic, I'm afraid I voted to watch QI last night instead of GW. Gave up on it several years ago. May give it a go next week just for the sake of comparison but not optimistic! Enjoy the presenters on their own, but put them all together and it just doesn't seem to work!

[Robert_Brenchley]

Last summer actually was warmer than average, it was also wetter. One possibility which was mooted long ago was that our climate might become more continental, with colder winters and warmer summers. It's unpredictable on the local scale, but last winter would fit this pattern. Last summer fitted the alternative pattern; warmer and wetter. But to get an idea of the effects, you have to look a lot wider than Northern europe.

[Kea]

The problem is that someone used the term "global warming" which is incorrect...climate change is more correct. Consider the climate as a system...when you make alterations to any system it fluxes erratically until it reaches a new equilibrium ...that is what we have. Actually we should be heading into the next ice age hence the misnomer 'Global warming'. There will be no pattern until some sort of stability is reached allowing an equilibrium.

[Borlotti]

We had a cold winter in 1962 when we thought we found a dead, frozen dog under the van at midnight.  Called him Jan as found on Jan 1, he warmed up in front of the fire and I walked him to the police station (we had one then), off the lead as no cars and no traffic.  he was never claimed so had him for 14 years, he also nearly drowned the next year chasing ducks on the pound and I had a baby in a pram so a man said you can't do anything, let him drown, but he managed to climb out of the ice.  Also had a stray cat that used to sleep outside in the outside toilet and found it dead one day frozen, still feel guilty about that, but it wasn't my cat.  We had no central heating then and went to bed with the window with ice on the insides, showing my age.  Think this winter has been quite mild but then we have heating, when it works.  Haven't seen Joe Swift at his lovely allotment for ages, so his raspberries that he was talking about are still there.  If he doesn't do some work soon he will have to give it up.  All done for the cameras I think.

[Robert_Brenchley]

The problem is that someone used the term "global warming" which is incorrect...climate change is more correct. Consider the climate as a system...when you make alterations to any system it fluxes erratically until it reaches a new equilibrium ...that is what we have. Actually we should be heading into the next ice age hence the misnomer 'Global warming'. There will be no pattern until some sort of stability is reached allowing an equilibrium.

It's not inaccurate when the change in question is an overall warming up! When I was at school they were speculating about why the current interglacial (the ice ages aren't over!) was lasting so long; it now looks like a small degree of human-induced warming was preventing another glaciation.

[Kea]

The problem is that someone used the term "global warming" which is incorrect...climate change is more correct. Consider the climate as a system...when you make alterations to any system it fluxes erratically until it reaches a new equilibrium ...that is what we have. Actually we should be heading into the next ice age hence the misnomer 'Global warming'. There will be no pattern until some sort of stability is reached allowing an equilibrium.

It's not inaccurate when the change in question is an overall warming up! When I was at school they were speculating about why the current interglacial (the ice ages aren't over!) was lasting so long; it now looks like a small degree of human-induced warming was preventing another glaciation.

No it isn't inaacurate but the media has seized on the term 'global warming' and miss used it. The overall trend is warming but as soon as you have a cold winter the media comes out and says 'see it's all wrong there is no warming we've had a very cold winter' and yes we have had a cold winter but Global warming is just that it's 'Global' our cold winter was 'Local'. The Southern hemisphere has just had an extremely hot summer.

The media and science don't mix...in fact neither the media or politicians have a clue how science works...which means the average person who gets all their info from the media doesn't have a chance of understanding science.

[Robert_Brenchley]

I've been getting quite irritated with the people saying that we've got cold weather so there's no climate change. They need to find out the difference between weather and climate.

[campanula]

yep, robert. GW - still rubbish!

[allaboutliverpool]

Last night at 8pm I was in my  6X6 greenhouse at home pricking out seedlings by the light of an Ikea clip-on light and was thinking how much I would like a large greenhouse/orangery like the one on GW attached to the house so I could just wander in at any time and spend 30 minutes just pottering.

It did revert to irrelevance again last week at a time when many gardeners are anxious about the later season this year and they could have been reassured and given tips.

http://allaboutallotments.com/index.html

[Kea]

I've been getting quite irritated with the people saying that we've got cold weather so there's no climate change. They need to find out the difference between weather and climate.

Yes me too.