Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => General Forum => Topic started by: David Nicholson on February 11, 2007, 07:27:30 PM
-
In his signature line Ian McEnery shows that he gardens at 600 feet above sea level. When I find my address in Google Earth it shows an elevation of 304 feet above sea level. My prevailing winds are from the South West and my garden is very open to them, but living on the Southern slopes of Dartmoor means that winds from the North and more particularly those from the North East "slide" over the edge of Dartmoor and these hit us as badly as those from the South West. Today was a strong gale from North East and threw a solid 24 inch pot containing a four foot high Camelia some ten feet across my patio.
I wonder how many Forum members garden at a higher altitude than Ian McEnery, and I am sure that there will be those in parts of Holland /Belgium who garden at below seal level, maybe Tony Goode does as well. Give Google Earth a try and find your Elevation and lets compare notes.
-
From GIS we are at about 20m above sea level. Just high enough not to be swamped by sea level rises in 2107!
-
OOOh er - we're only 15m! :o
-
My garden is at 750 feet above sea level. It is the highest place of the region. It even names “Mountains”. :) Garden goes down from the top of the hill to a ravine. Its lowest altitude is 741 feet. Main wind blows from the North East. Sometimes it is strong but garden is hidden in old trees. This is why I successfully grow many unusual things. There is much snow every winter (our best shelter from the frost).
-
From GIS we are at about 20m above sea level. Just high enough not to be swamped by sea level rises in 2107!
David how far away from the sea are you, and does it play a part in the micro climate of your garden?
-
OOOh er - we're only 15m! :o
And the River Ouse on your doorstep?
-
My garden is at 750 feet above sea level. It is the highest place of the region. It even names “Mountains”. :) Garden goes down from the top of the hill to a ravine. Its lowest altitude is 741 feet. Main wind blows from the North East. Sometimes it is strong but garden is hidden in old trees. This is why I successfully grow many unusual things. There is much snow every winter (our best shelter from the frost).
Olga, is your climate relatively dry, apart from the snow?
-
Hello, I'm being a bit dim again...while I can find our place in Google earth, how can I get it to tell me our elevation above sea level? I think we're at about 250feet (from contour lines on old map)Ian says 220ft
but can someone help me with this new fangled stuff?
-
David
Our climate is… unpredictable. :) But it is rather damp than dry. Water stays in every pit until the end of May and after rich rains. It’s a property of soil I think. I have a natural pond in the lowest place, it is always with water. It dried out just once three years ago after two months without rein. But that summer was one in a 30.
Air is dry, yes! It is a problem for rhododendrons and some others.
-
Maggi
I wonder how to do it to. My Google map does not have elevation lines. I know my altitude because I have an official state plan of the garden.
-
Maggie,
As you move the pointer around, it shows on the bottom left of the picture the co-ordinates and elevation of wherever the pointer is.
My garden is in village, sheltered from the wind but a bit of a frost pocket at 185ft.
The hill is at 350ft open to the elements but seems to have a warm draft coming up from the river which shows up in it having less snow than the other side of the Sidlaws. The north side also provides a bit of a rain shadow, great in the winter but not so good when you see showers coming in the summer which then seem to bypass the thirsty Mecs and Primulas :(
-
David,
There is a small field between our house and the local river, the Suir - please say, 'Sure' and not 'Sewer' though I wonder which is more appropriate on occasions. I swam in it twice, to rescue cows who had fallen in, and it took quite a bit of scrubbing to get rid of the smell afterwards.
Anyway, on the riverbank there is a levee, as the field level is below that of the river at full tide; as it is esturine, it is also tidal. The occasional combination of spring tides, heavy rain and high winds lead to the river overflowing its banks, the levee, and this is a frightening sight. Imagine looking from our house at this levee: we have a view of about 100 metres of the levee. When the tide overruns the levee it is like a wave coming over its entire length. The field between us and the river is flooded within a minute and the road at our gate is under water to a depth of 2 or more feet within another minute and flows at a torrential rate. Fortunately, our drive rises quickly and the water has only rarely come into the garden to any extent. The deepest we have witnessed on the road has been about 4 feet. I have had the exhilirating, but afterwards expensive, experience of driving through a smaller flood on this road - the water coming like a wave up and onto the hood and on over the car.
So, at the gate, I would say we are at about 5 feet above sea level and at the back of the garden about 20 perhaps. Re the subsequent microclimate of the garden, the most notable features are that frost and fog run down a hill and as we are at the bottom of the hill we receive all the frost and fog of the area. Cold and dull at times!
Paddy
-
Maggi in the layers wndow tick the terrain box. This puts elevation next to lat & long.
By the way my garden is at 283ft.
-
My garden is at 360 metres which is around 1,200 feet. Friends in Australia's Blue Mountains garden at at least twice that.
My winds come from every direction, hot, dry from the north west and bitterly cold off the southern ocean, then a mean, cold wind almost every day off the sea to the east. It's a very healthy atmosphere here. But because there's almost always some air movement, there's very little frost. Much less than on the Taieri Plain below me or in Dunedin, 15 km (as the crow flies) away.
-
Aha, Mick, thanks for that. I was getting the lat/long bit, but not elevation. Partly hampered by not getting page fitting screen very well, too, which didn't help!
Now I see that we are at 67m, which is about 218 feet in old money, as we say, so our old contour map isn't far out from the modern gadget, then! We can look out and down to the sea, that's about two miles away.
-
Maggi if you want to change it to old money? Tools, options gives choice of settings for elevation.
-
Steady, Mick, no need to confuse me more! I don't find those doofers easy to navigate and the page size seems tochange on me for no reason. Never mind, it's not important, I'll have a play with it sometime and see if I can make sense!
-
Our house and garden is at 15 m in the middle of a residential area so quite sheltered from heavy winds compared to many others here.
Prevailing winds here are from the West, we get quite a fair amount of rain but rarely any snow and if so only for a couple of days.
It was a relief to hear lately that sea level would "only" rise 6 m by the end of the century (that will be a relief to Ann as well... ;D)
-
David, the sea is about three miles away to the north west. We are protected from winds from this direction by the Culbin Forest which comes to within about a fields distance of the village. To the south east low hills rise about five miles away.
The prevailing wind is from the south west and as this strikes the Monadliath Mountains first we benefit from the Fhonne (sp?) effect giving us a favourable micro climate. We are exposed to the wind from the north and the east.
Soils are light to such an extent that when local farmers prepare the fields for sowing spring barley a strong wind can create a sand storm of such magnitude that the local authority have to deploy the snow ploughs to clear the roads!
I sometimes complain about the weather but overall this is not a bad place to live. :)
-
Steady, Mick, no need to confuse me more! I don't find those doofers easy to navigate and the page size seems tochange on me for no reason. Never mind, it's not important, I'll have a play with it sometime and see if I can make sense!
Maggi, others have explained much better than I could, I only found the elevation figure by chance. I'ts making some very interesting reading!
-
Hi David
Your initial post got me thinking and I've had a look at where I live this morning and discovered I'm at 50m - which is higher than I thought.
Mind you - my holiday island for this year rises to a maximum of 6 m so we'll have to hope sea levels don't rise before late June!
Sue
-
My garden is at 360 metres which is around 1,200 feet. Friends in Australia's Blue Mountains garden at at least twice that.
My winds come from every direction, hot, dry from the north west and bitterly cold off the southern ocean, then a mean, cold wind almost every day off the sea to the east. It's a very healthy atmosphere here. But because there's almost always some air movement, there's very little frost. Much less than on the Taieri Plain below me or in Dunedin, 15 km (as the crow flies) away.
So far Lesley's garden is the highest at 1200 feet (I stll can't think meters-I even keep a little conversion chart in my wallet for use in Nurseries and Garden Centres) and possibly Paddy is in most danger of getting his feet wet.
Lesley referred to the Taieri Plain in her post-picture here, just beautiful.
-
Goodness David, where did you get that? The town down below is Mosgiel where I do my shopping, banking, doctor, post office etc and the picture is taken from about 3 kms from where I live, so far as I can see.
The long, low hill in the backgound is The Maungatua (Maori word maunga = mountain) and though it's low and close to the coast and Dunedin, there are wonderful plants there like Herpolirion novae-zelandiae in its glorious sky blue form, Celmisia argentea and many others and the blue orchid Thelymita venosa along with at least 4 other orchid species. Also of course the super flat cushions of Phyllacne, Donatia and various Dracophyllums. A magical place and only half an hour from the city
-
So far as I can see from an atlas, the top of the Maungatua is around 900 metres but one of my Australian gardener friends gardens at well over 1000m, in the Wollemi National Park. No wonder he gets snow and frost in the winter.
-
I can only work out the height I am above the ground on Google Earth? ???
-
Adarby
The thing called elev is elevation I presume and that is in between the cordinates and the "eye hight"
I have the Hungarian house at 305m =1000feet if I am correct here the difference to the end of the garden is 16m and that is an 75m so it is steep! It was a great google picture with great resolution :)
The Swedish summerhouse (parents) at 35m = 105 feet
Joakim
-
In the 'mine is bigger than yours' argument, I have just been on Google Earth and found out, much to my surprise , that our section (just over 2.2hectares) goes from 1558ft at our lower boundary to 1642 at the top of our paddock Our house and where the major part of our garden is, is around 1602ft, or around about 480 metres. We have always known that when the weather forecast says snow to 300 metres that we will probably be hit, but now after 30 years I am going to have to worry about snow forecast to 400 metres as well! We were always under the impression that we lived at 1000ft or just over 300 metres. We were hoping that global warming was going to turn us into a seaside resort - oh well...
Maybe that is why some alpines such as Ranunculus lyalli and some of the Celmisias grow reasonably well here. I often think that altitude has a lot to do with the successful growing of our natives.
Susan
-
It's quite amazing, to me, when I think about it. In Okotoks, Alberta, Canada I garden at 1053m or 3454 ft. I've never even seen an ocean or sea. Our growing season, on average is a mere 112 days.
I should move down the slope. ;D
-
So how do I find the height I am above sea level on Google Earth? The elevation certainly isn't it because it changes when I zoom in, and a ground level it is zero.
-
Anthony you can find the height below on the left side of the picture
beneath the coordinates!
-
elevation change when You zoom in since the pointer change unless You have it exactly in the midle of the picture.
It is the elevation of where You have the mouse in the picture.
That is what I have and I think that is what Thomas also had/said.
Hope You find it.
-
Anthony from an earlier post
Maggi in the layers window tick the terrain box. This puts elevation next to lat & long.
Cheers
Mick
-
Anthony, when I google earth you it says 110m for your address.
Sandy's at 134m, Jean's at 82m.
-
Gosh, wee sister is watching me! Thanks Maggi.
-
Goodness David, where did you get that? The town down below is Mosgiel where I do my shopping, banking, doctor, post office etc and the picture is taken from about 3 kms from where I live, so far as I can see.
The long, low hill in the backgound is The Maungatua (Maori word maunga = mountain) and though it's low and close to the coast and Dunedin, there are wonderful plants there like Herpolirion novae-zelandiae in its glorious sky blue form, Celmisia argentea and many others and the blue orchid Thelymita venosa along with at least 4 other orchid species. Also of course the super flat cushions of Phyllacne, Donatia and various Dracophyllums. A magical place and only half an hour from the city
Lesley,
I just Googled Tairi Plain and found the picture at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taieri_Plains. You really do live in a wonderful part of the world.
-
Mmmm. Could be Dunblane fae the Shirramire?
-
It's quite amazing, to me, when I think about it. In Okotoks, Alberta, Canada I garden at 1053m or 3454 ft. I've never even seen an ocean or sea. Our growing season, on average is a mere 112 days.
I should move down the slope. ;D
Linda, that's going to take a bit of beating! It's pretty hard for someone born and bred on a small island to think that some people have never seen the sea. It is said that in the UK no-one is more than 72 miles from the sea and I am about 12 miles away from it as the crow flies on the South Western peninsula of England. My climate is governed by it and any bad weather on the Eastern side of America usually crosses the Atlantic and gives us a taste of it too. Just at present we appear to going through a phase of regular low pressure weather systems following each other across the Atlantic and so far in the last ten days we have had rain on eight of them and strong winds on seven of them. We don't get much frost though so we can't have it all ways can we?
-
Mmmm. Could be Dunblane fae the Shirramire?
This Huddersfield lad needs a translation from t'other Huddersfield lad!
-
Shirramire = Sheriffmuir, which is a moorland (and famous battle site) up the hill from my side of Dunblane. I'll try to find a pic when I get home. It is the home of the fabled Evelyn Stevens.
-
........ of Meconopsis fame?
-
That very one, David. Evelyn and her husband, Lewis have a wonderful garden high on the moor which they have created from scratch around their house which they had built from a little more than a pile of rubble. It is there that Evelyn grows a wide selection of plants, but, most famously, of course, Meconopsis.
-
We garden at our 3000 square meters large site in Tyresö, some 30 km SE of Stockholm. The average elevation is something like 40 m, top elevation 46 m and lowest 24 m. (This I know because we are about to bild a new house). As you perhaps realize by these figures we actually own the top of a hill, close to a bay of the Baltic. Use this link and see an aerial photo of our ground with our (old) house marked :D
http://tinyurl.com/27gy3b
If you zoom it to maximum (lower left corner), you can actually see our boat laying upside down! This makes me feel a bit sad, because the boat was ruined a few weeks ago in a storm together with the highest water level ever recorded in the Baltic. (We should have left it upside down at our parking space).
I'll insert a pic to give you a feeling of what it looks like at ground level. We have a miximum soil depth of about half a meter, meaning we do grow a lot in pots, meaning constant watering!
The climate of this area is not quite like that of Gothenburg, we only receive about 425 mm (17 inches) of precipitation yearly this is less than half (a third?) than Gothenburg! So seeing our ground you understand that constant watering is essential. Since maximum precipitation is in november and minimum in May we have a bit of Mediterranian climate (but colder).
Our most common weed is Hyacinthoides hispanica (Spanish Blubell) that self seeds everywhere, we also have a lot of Digitalis purpurea and Anemone nemorosa.
We do love our hill and try to get the new house to fit in disturbing as little as possible!
Cheers
-
Maggi, you must have a better version of Google Earth. East of the Cathedral, Dunblane is a badly made tartan travel rug!
-
Here is Dunblane from Dumyat.
-
What an interesting thread this has turned out to be. Thanks David for asking the first question.
Although just a little way from the sea, I often has the silly thought that John and Anita Watson in Santiago are my next door neighbours. What's a Pacific Ocean between friends?
-
Are these two yours Anthony? What a pair of charmers. All the Forumists have beautiful children. Good God, you'll have me wheeling out my grandchildren next!
-
Yes Lesley. Lucy was nearly six and James eight when the pic was taken.
-
Anthony wrote "Maggi, you must have a better version of Google Earth. East of the Cathedral, Dunblane is a badly made tartan travel rug!"
I know, Anthony, but if you enter your address or postcode you can still get the details even if you can't see what you're having for supper!
P.S. El Gringo, Shouldn't you admit to Lesley that James and Lucy strongly favour Vivienne ? ;) ::) :-*
-
Thanks Maggi. Wouldn't inflict my looks on anyone 8).
-
Sad how bitter and jealous the childfree (sounds so much better than childless) amongst us are, faced with the lovely offspring of our friends, isn't it? Just great to see these nice children out enjoying themselves ....one thing about our forumists, you can be sure their children are getting lots of fresh air and exercise as their parents take them hiking up hills and round gardens. This probably makes them the healthiest and happiest children around, from what I can see of non-alpine-loving folks!
-
Maggie, from what I see at Discussion Weekend, Early Bulbs, shows etc. alpine loving folks in general are the healthiest and happiest people around :D
-
Now, David, you know as well as I do that most of us are crocks, hanging on by a thread, ( think of Carol's knees!) but we are happy, certainly, and it cheers me to see those kids, who DO look and I am sure are, healthy! With a lot of us, it's down to warpaint and determination, isn't it? ;D
-
Anthony
Try http://local.live.com/ (http://local.live.com/) for an arial view of dunblane, you can just about see what's flowering in Sandy's troughs :) Click on Aerial or hybrid view. Doesn't seem to give you heights.
-
Don't agree, Maggie. Think of the people you have responded to on the forum by exclaiming that they cannot possibly be as old as they claim!
As a 63 year old going on 53, going on 43, going on 33, going on 23 (enough) I must admit that my knees no longer feel 23.
-
I give in David. We are all wonderful, jovial gadabouts with nary a stiff knee between us! I agree that even the more seasoned amongst us has more than a little joie de vivre, and I think that's what makes your difference! Just off now to take the prozac and paracetamol.
-
David-do you not have at least the odd morning when you feel 63 going on 73, or am I on the wrong kind of Weetabix? ;D
-
David, there is now many a morning when I wish I wAS 65 + 1 day but generaly my mind is much more youthfull (childish) than my body!
-
Maggi, I WAS going to express some surprise about how attractive Anthony's children are, but even I know that the line must be drawn somewhere.
-
David, I'm sure you mean childLIKE not ISH. Quite a different matter.
It seems this thread is morphing into another thing altogether. How how/Low is Your Morale/Self esteem, instead of garden.
-
but even I know that the line must be drawn somewhere.
Nah! He can take it, Lesley, besides, he's bigger than I am and can get revenge on Saturday if he is truly put out. I'm counting on him being pleased that we admire the children and his choice of wife!
-
My flat is at 35m and the shallow river in my little town appears to be at between 1 meter and 10 meters, depending on where the cursor is ... hmm I don't know whether that reflects the rather (dangerously) uneven river bed. My land in the country ranges from 178m at its lowest point, to 213m where the house is and 221m at the highest point. I also have a little bit of land up in the hills with a spring for drinking water for the house (0.85km or 0.52 miles away) which is at 367-377m.
My children are pretty cute too :D :D sez I modestly ...
Chloë
-
That's the same aerial pic as on "Flashearth" Susan, again with no heights. It's even got the recycling lorry at the entrance of Leighton Avenue, just over the hedge from me!
Maggi, James is definitely a chip off the old block!
-
I can vouch for that the children of Chloë are pretty cute.
Nice with a spring of Your own! Maybe You should do a Spa insted of a B&B or a combined thing :)
Take care.
By the way I am gardening ona balcony in Lund at 35 m and in a garden (parents) at 75m. The summerhouse (parents) is at 35 m with winds only coming from south at ground level.
In Porugal we garden at 134 m on balcony and 130 m in the garden (parents-in-law). In Lisbon it will be at 87 m on a minibalcony :(.
Luckely there is some land for me to play with and grow olive and citrus trees at 235m and a more shelterd place with less space at also 235m.
So a lot of places to play at but very few are mine, only the one in Hungary.
Joakim
-
my sat nav says I'm 62m above sea level
-
And I can vouch that Joakim's little Father Christmas is very cute!! :)
Chloë
-
What I have noticed in this thread it is surprising how many people have either 2 gardens or extra plots of ground quite a distance from their house. I thought I was the only mad person that travelled each day to their plants. In the case of Joakim he seems to have plants all over Europe :)
-
Chloë, I didn't know you had children but I wouldn't have doubted their cuteness for an instant! :-*
I second Joakim's Spa suggestion... you can charge us a lot more for a spa visit than for a B&B and you know we are all queuing up... ;)
Anthony, I can see a little of you in James, but, frankly, Vivienne is fab, so I reckon that the answer is there! 8)
-
Susan B
At least in Sweden there is a tradition of summer houses for people living in cities. The houses where often permanent houses that where sold due to the owner moved to the city or of the family of the previous owner was not interested in keeping it. There where also a lot of summer house vilage built near the coast in Sweden so that is quite common. Now with propertiess being more expensive it is getting less common. There are a lot of interest from Danes Germans and Dutch (People from more crowed countries) to buy summer houses in Sweden. I also see that trend in Portugal with the houses in the country side being sold to citypeople to be used as summer houses.
I garden where I am and am using my pareents and parents in-laws-properties to be able to do that.
The alternative would be an alotment that is also common in Sweden but why pay when it is free at the parents place :)
In Hungary the alotments are outside the cities and used to be for growing vegetables and grapes for vine as well some as flowers. hen You were certain that You had something more than bread and potatoe to eat.
They often had a small house but generally not with running water and the rain water was collected to be used to water the garden. Now many of these houses are getting bigger and bigger almost suitable for permanet living and city water is also coming to many more places.
We bought first on alotment in Hungary that was a double and then the neigbour wanted to sell so I bught it and a few years later my neighbur also wanted to sell. I think it was due to them being old rather than we being bad neigbours. The next ones have bigger houses and are younger so the expansion has stopped.
In Portugal the properties where I grow is also where the family used to live and some still do so it is 40 minutes drive to the place. In Portugal the properties have risen a lot (at least close to the expanding cities) so people try to keep it for the grand children so there are a small place that used to be a farm next to a modern 10 store house almost in the midle of the city.
The fact that I am a Swede whos parents moved to the university city from small cities with a father that came from Hungary and now with a Portuguse wife who´s parents moved from small vilage to university city makes me garden all over Europe.
Sorry that it became a bit long but that is why I garden all over Europe.
Kind regards
Joakim
-
Joakim, now I have a good title for you, you will become our Euro Gardener !
I was expecting you to be back at work in Lund to the university after the Christmas holidays, are you finished there now?
-
Maggi
I am now working at both he university in Coimbra and the one in Lund.
I were a week in Lund hence my silince 2 weeks ago.
I only strive to be a gardner I am more of a planter to be honest.
Kind regards
Joakim
-
Mercy, you're working at two places in two countries? That IS busy ! Now I must give you a better title... it will make a nice joke for British forumists, who may use the train to go to the continent... you are now our EuroStar!
-
Maggi I am flatterned and flattened.
The work is actually one work that I do in two places and often from home, at least in Portugal, so I am not really a star even if I have the extra job of also taking care of my son when he is not with his grandparents, like today, so we are playing and I pretend to work and actually do some as well.
a humble
Joakim
-
No, Joakim, this is a planter:
[attachthumb=1]
You are so much more than just this empty vessel !
This is more you: sleek and busy ;)
[attachthumb=2]
Our Euro Star and a good Father!
-
Can not someone that plants a lot call himself planter?
I thought it was possible to make words like that.
In Swedish t is possible. Maybe not if the word already exist with a different meaning.
I can be a like a train just rushing forwards not that willing to change tracks but sometimes that is good.
I will try to honour the name by being even more European than before. No complaining with other countries :( :)
Kind regards
Joakim
-
Can not someone that plants a lot call himself planter?
Of course he may, Joakim, I was teasing you.
Some years ago I got Ian a shirt with the logo "Super Potter" on it for him to wear at bulb repotting time! The lady in the shop thought I was mad to be asking for a shirt with these strange words on!
-
Maggi now they would associate Potter with Harry Potter so that changes with time :)
-
Howdy All,
Came across this thread...... was ill at the time so never contributed. Quite fascinating seeing what elevations people are at who are friends here on the forum. Canberra is around 570m (varies depending who you talk to, but give or take 5m) above sea level, but I don't know about my actual garden. If the official level for the city is at the airport like the climate statistics are, then I am a bit higher than that but not a lot.
-
Great excitement today. The photo for my town has been replaced on Google Earth. It's not very sharp but you will be able to see the gravel paths between the raised beds. I'm supposed to be 258m above sea level but at school we were told we were c50 feet. When you look you will see a planes vapour trail
Search for Antrim, N Ireland
-
A planter used to be someone who owned, lived on or worked on, a plantation and drank Planter's Punch? :)