31/12/2021
Its been busy long 2021 year for the Kirky Gardener and the weather very much played its part in that. I can’t ever remember seeing a rose on the 31st December but I have one hanging in there despite the overnight heavy rain. With temperatures forecast to be 14 tomorrow, I fully expect it to last a few more days yet!
Looking back on 2021, winter was very quiet work wise mainly due to a wet January and snowy February. Storm Christoph in January was followed by storm Darcy in February which brought snow and ice plus comparisons to the Beast of the East. Not sure it quite lived up to the name but it was still very cold and killed a lot of plants. Semi-hardy Fuchsia amongst others took a bit of hit - a firm favourite of mine.
Much like 2020 and the flick of a switch, Spring came early with an unseasonably warm March as the mercury hit the high teens. Messenger went bonkers for me with requests for help and it I suddenly became very busy which wonderfully stayed like that for the rest of the year. April was notable for very frosty cold nights but warm sunny days. It was the sunniest on record if I recall correctly and best tan I’ve ever had by April! It sadly played havoc with my Azaleas and Rhododendrons which lost most of their beautiful blooms and I also lost an Acer. I guess the shrubs didn’t quite know what to do. May was dull, cool and quite wet and I was becoming quite pessimistic on a good summer. I shouldn’t have been!
Summer was a belter. No need to go abroad to see the sun and it was very dry too. Don’t recall losing a day to the weather for several months. However, the first ever Amber warning for extreme heat issued by the Met Office was followed by Storm Evert late July which primarily affected down south but how could we forget the thunderstorms that Saturday afternoon in July that hit Edinburgh. Record rainfall saw Stockbridge and Corstorphine turned in to rivers.
Autumn stayed largely dry and warm right through September but it had to change eventually and October was the catalyst. Don’t recall it being cold but was very wet/showery and threw the diary in to chaos. Having played catch-up I then got hit by the dreaded covid virus at the beginning of November which largely brought my gardening season to a close but in all honesty I was ready for a rest.
It’s been a unusually warm end to the year so far (in recent times anyway) but couldn’t finish by not referencing Storm Arwen and the red weather warning for wind. Edinburgh seemed to miss the worst but the damage to millions of trees down the east coast has been horrific.
I wonder what 2022 will bring? Many thanks to all my customers, family and friends for making 2021 a positive one despite being in the middle of a pandemic.
