Weather is something that often has a huge impact on my gardening work-hot, humid, cold, wet. You name the weather condition, I can say how it affects my work in both good and bad ways.

As I live in Sydney, and we are finally in autumn, I’ll start with the heat and humidity that has been so hard over this summer that we have just had. Plants have loved it, especially after rain! The heat has been hard, because it is just hot-obvious, I know, and shouldn’t need to say that but people often think that gardening is no harder in 35 degrees Celsius that’s it is at 20 degrees!

I say this because I use mowers, hedgers, whipper snippers (strimmers in the UK, not sure what they are called elsewhere), leaf blowers and other tools, with which I do physical work to do the relevant job with each tool. They also have engines which get hot. So, what you find hot to have a walk along the footpath air through the park, I do when I’m physically working hard (it’s so much easier when it’s cooler). The heat is draining, so taking regular breaks in the shade and to drink water is essential, and also slows you down. I’ll add that here in Sydney, the humidity usually accompanies the heat-the humidity is worse than the heat-a dry 40 degree Celsius day is easier to work in that a humid 35 degree day just because the humidity isn’t there (although 40 degrees is still far from pleasant!).

I usually love the rain it has to be said. As a Lancastrian that grew up in the north-west of England, rain was a constant companion growing up. While I am not bothered about working in the rain, there is a point where it gets too heavy-getting soaked through and staying that way all day is never a good thing. A change of clothes is of course useful, but if that change of clothes goes the same way as the first, it is a hint that the weather is too wet in my opinion. This is the sort of weather where you do tool maintenance that we don’t always have time to do, but should still be doing, in the summer (as well as all year).

The rain, which usually doesn’t last that long in Sydney, is followed by the sun. The two together allow plants to grow like crazy! It’s only natural. Weeds, lawns, hedges and anything green and leafy, just grows so quixotic after rain, you struggle to keep up! The grass especially grows thicker as well as quicker, so that makes it harder to cut with the mower-sometimes the mower cuts out due to the thickness of the grass! As with anything growing fast, it takes time to get tidy again, often longer than people think if they haven’t done the work often, or at all.

That’s a little about how the weather impacts me at work.