http://www.rhs.org.uk/Shows-Events/RHS-Show-Tatton-Park/2011/Gardens/Garden-A-to-Z/When-the-Waters-Rise

This beautiful garden won Gold yesterday and was further enhanced by having a A Handbag Full of Harmonies, a ladies choir, sing a specially composed piece in the garden.The song and the garden combined depict the struggles faced by farmers around the world, that are brought about by the effects of climate change. The 50-strong all-women choir is a symbol of solidarity with women farmers especially, who are often hit the hardest by climate change.

http://www.oxfam.org.uk/applications/blogs/pressoffice/2011/07/20/oxfams-climate-change-garden-wins-gold-at-tatton-rhs-flower-show/

You might like to visit another page on the Oxfam website that is helping to raise money for the terrible drought in East Africa. It would be wonderful to use wiining a Gold Award at the RHS Show to create funds for communities who are already suffering the devastation of climate change.

http://www.oxfam.org.uk/oxfam_in_action/emergencies/east-africa-drought-2011.html

Staying with the weather theme I wonder if you have any idea where this photo was taken today?

Not Spain, not the South of France or even a tropical island. I took this photo at lunch time along the sea front at Eastbourne on the South Coast of the UK – sometimes known as god’s waiting room or the sunniest place in the UK.

http://www.eastbourne.gov.uk/environment/weather/sunshine/

Great to have some lovely heat and sunshine back after endless days of rain and grey cloud over the past week.

I really hate to moan about our very wet weather this summer when parts of Afrca are suffering such severe drought and putting so many lives at risk.In my experience gardeners are usually compassionate people who care about the earth they live on and the people who inhabit it which is why I am offering this link today

http://www.dec.org.uk/item/506?gclid=CIOe07fxjaoCFcEd4QodpmTUyw

The weather never ceases to amaze me – it truly is the one thing we just can’t control and we should be aware of the effect we are having on it.

http://environment.about.com/od/globalwarmingandweather/a/Does-Climate-Change-Cause-Extreme-Weather.htm

Consumer appetite for cut-price Kenyan roses for Valentine’s Day is “bleeding the country dry” by threatening the region’s precarious ecology.

Seventy per cent of roses sold in European supermarkets come from Kenya, most from Naivasha. UK supermarkets are being asked to show more concern about the health of the environment that the flowers come from.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/feb/14/valentines-day-roses-kenya

A Keyhole Garden allows a family to grow enough food for three meals a day – even in the face of an extreme climate and poor soil.

Keyhole Gardens recycle as they grow. The design – which looks like a keyhole from above – incorporates a central ‘basket’ where compostable waste is placed and used water from the kitchen is poured. They add nutritious vegetables to diets and are especially useful in areas where good soil is scarce. They get fantastic results: families start to grow enough to eat, to give to their neighbours and to sell at market.

Keyhole Gardens help to extend the growing season, even in dry periods, so that food can be grown by families nearly all year round.

Send a Cow is a UK based charity that can organise for you to give a keyhole gardento families in Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Lesotho.

http://www.sendacowgifts.org.uk/build-a-keyhole-garden

The collective answer of the scientific community can be boiled down to a single word: probably.

“The climate is changing,” said Jay Lawrimore, chief of climate analysis at the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. “Extreme events are occurring with greater frequency, and in many cases with greater intensity.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/15/science/earth/15climate.html?ref=globalwarming

http://vodpod.com/watch/4018941-2010-hottest-year-so-far-on-record

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/07/2010717132048381555.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weather/7895681/Worlds-hottest-year-on-record-expected.html

http://climateprogress.org/2010/07/10/nasa-hottest-year-solar-minimum/

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100716/wl_nm/us_weather_hottest_record

http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/hottest-year-on-record/story-e6frg12c-1225892772028

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/World+simmers+hottest+year+record/3290162/story.html

With so many football matches to watch and the weather a real challenge at the moment, I know that I am going to struggle to find time for my allotment over the next few weeks. Football and gardening just do not mix at the best of times.Especially when the weather turns wet in the UK  and watching TV indoors seems more appealing than gardening in the rain.

Perhaps instead of buying veg seeds this summer, I should have considered putting the cost towards supporting African communities that are already devastated by the effects of climate change on their land. Some 23 million East African farmers and their families are dangerously short of food and water following years of failed rains and worsening drought.

Oxfam provides African farmers affected by climate change with special drought seeds that  helps them grow crops despite terrible drought. Just £2 could provide seeds for 4 families to grow enough food to live on.  £2 in the UK would buy two packets of flower seeds that might make our gardens look pretty but could save many lives in climate change challenged Africa. http://www.oxfam.org.uk/get_involved/campaign/climate_change/?ito=1482

70% of plants are threatened by extinction as a result of climate change

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1VYmpTikgw&feature=related

For the first time ever, an indigenous people are creating a garden at Chelsea .The Green & Black’s Rainforest Garden tells the story of how their lives are being devastated by the destruction of the rainforest, their homes destroyed and their way of life reduced to little more than a memory.

Well done to Jane Owen, the writer and broadcaster who  dreamed up the project after a trip to Cameroon last year and  created the garden with designer Ann-Marie Powell. “They ask for very little. And yet it is being taken away from them.”

http://bakagarden.wordpress.com/about/

http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/gardens/chelsea_flower_show/article7133236.ece

Check out the amazing  South African native plants that have been planted by Kew Gardens right outside the British Museum. This building always impresses me with its grandeur but my breath was really taken away when I arrived this morning,  just as the early light was falling on this scene.

South Africa Landscape highlights the rich diversity of plant life from South Africa’s Cape region, an internationally renowned biodiversity hotspot.The landscape celebrates the two institutions’ shared vision to strengthen cultural understanding and support biodiversity conservation across the world.

The names and growing conditions of these beautiful plants are explained in great detail plus there is an excellent introduction to the diversity of South African Plants.

Take your own tour round the British Museum’s new front garden with BBC reporter Tom Feilden and Kew’s Director, Professor Stephen Hopper.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8652000/8652015.stm

Despite this inspirational display, it is important to remember the shadow that is waiting behind this scene. The hot, dry climate that encourages these beautiful  plants to grow is also bringing huge challenges to the African population as climate change increases its grip on the continent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdwWDEsdxtk&feature=related