-1 April - cold and dank (the usual)
0 May  very cool but bearable
+2 June - pleasant weather and sunshine
-2 July  stifling hell  No rain at all requiring constant watering. Bye bye Blue Poppies  nice knowing you.
-6 August - hotter than hell. Still no rain. Broken lawn mower required repairs. Hired a handy man who in repairing the mower spilled gasoline and oil on various areas of our lawn killing the grass. Lawn mower repair no longer necessary.
3 September  Lovely decent weather and RAIN.

Sorry  weÂre off the charts for lousy weather in Quebec. And we still got swarmed by mosquitos AND black flies.

Overall, I'd have to give our summer here a 7.
-June was very wet, but at least it diminished the grasshopper explosion of previous years.
-July was fairly nice and warm, unlike last summer.
-August had very little rain and was warm, so things are drying out. Thank goodness for all the rain in June, or we would've been in big trouble!
-September to date has been beautiful. No f**** forcasted for the next week anyway, hope it stays that way:)
All in all, the gardens have done well this year......far better than the last 4 years. Last year was too wet and cold for anything to grow well, and the two previous were very hot and dry and then the swarms of grasshoppers ate what was green beginning of August. So really, I'm pretty darned happy about this year! :^)
Laurie

Terry I could almost cut and paste your answer! That is totally how I feel about this summer. I live right in Edmonton so we've probably seen fairly similar weather.

The super strange weather started already when I was doing the winter sowing in late Jan/early Feb with all those +10*C temps and then followed by the cold snap at the end of Feb/early March.

YUP, I'd say in total about a 2 or 3 out of 10.

Laurie, for us IÂd pretty well have to agree with your 7 rating, if you mean 7 to be average.

To me it almost seemed like the entire summer was "two weeks of cool weather, following by two weeks of warm weather". Maybe every summer goes through that, but this year I noticed it.

I loved the 3 weeks of much above normal temperatures in April, it got me excited about gardening early on, but of course hated the end of the month cold snap. Somewhere around april 30th the top of the soil was starting to freeze. I remember planting cedars at my parentÂs May 1st with +1C, snow pellets, and a biting north wind. Strange how it could be 23C two weeks earlier.

Then there was the incredible rain for June to mid July and the bad mosquito outbreak. The saving grace was the heat in July. All that water dried up pretty quick.

Then there was the violent July thunderstorm and the mini-version we had last weekend. I usually like watching thunderstorms but I basically hid in the basement. All that flashing of lightening and those winds had me running outside to stack the deck chairs before they blew off into the pond.

I found August somewhat coolish, but dry and sunny, so thumbs up.

And so far in September we canÂt complain. It does feel like fall, however, with the sun at a lower angle and setting earlier. Also, even with the daytime heat things cool off considerably most nights. I always think of spring and fall as similar to living in the desert. The other day it hit 25 for a high, but was down to 7 at night.

Glen

I'd give the summer a 7 or 8 gardening wise. Plenty of heat and plenty of rain. No late frosts. Too many bugs and slugs but I can't expect perfect.

Now in terms of making hay....the summer was a -100. Impossible to find three days without some precipitation.
Jan

I give my summer a 5 or 6..less then normal..most of our hot weather came in a few days in May..we had frost in May,June,July and August..not enough to hurt anything but enough to scrap windshields in the morning..not only windshield frost this month but a nasty nipping frost on September 6th....got to love living in zone brrrrr...savona

I'm going to say our summer was an 8 in this area, losing points for a very wet May/June and, and then it quit raining and I did have to water late July/early August (and I hate watering). If we continue with this nice weather in September, I'll have to raise my score to a 9. Overall the plants performed very well. I had little bug problems aside from something chewing up some chokecherries, and powdery mildew only on a couple of Monkshood that seem to be afflicted to matter what the weather. Yes, mosquitoes and wood ticks were bad for a time, but it seems they always are here. There were lots of butterflies and dragon flies, too. Oh yeah, there was my bird problem on the ornamental wheats - I guess I have to take a point off for that. We had little in the way of extreme weather - some heavy rains but no hail, not much wind (relatively - it seems like it's always windy here so when it's not, you notice). Enough heat to make my broomcorn bloom like mad and Castor Beans are now about 9 feet tall (and still growing, LOL), but only a couple of uncomfortably hot days. I'm working half as much as I did the last couple of years - I have had more time in the garden so have not felt so rushed and was able to enjoy it more. I've made some decisions about the yard and types of plants I really want to grow, and have started to make changes in that direction.

Today I noticed the ash trees have started to turn colour.

Oh, that reminds me. +2 points for the fact that neither the Green Ash trees, nor the Manitoba Maple trees (and I have both in the yard) produced any seeds. I went and checked my neighbors trees - no seeds on them either. Could it be - next year no Maple or Ash seedlings to deal with? Wow, what will I do with myself without those millions of things to weed out of the beds?

I'm going to rate this season a 7.

Although it was cool and rainy most of the days here, IÂm not complaining, the moisture was MUCH NEEDED after the previous years of drought. CouldnÂt of picked a better year to plant tree seedlings.

Basement got flooded a few weeks ago but again IÂm not complaining, compared to New Orleans, this flood was minor. Just read at the weather page that weÂre into another heavy rainfall warning for the weekend!

IÂve been here for 5 years now and because of all the rain weÂve had this year, IÂve seen my first slug or should I say slugS, dragonflies and frogs in this garden.

Because of the rain everything was nice and lush, didnÂt have to water any of the established gardens, only the pots and containers and the new bed I made this year.

Only one light hail early summer with minimal damage to the Hostas but no tornado warnings at all this year, thank goodness.

No flea beetle, IÂm thinking itÂs because farmer Joe decided to plant wheat instead of canola in the field next to us.

Oh for sure I will never forget the Painted Butterflies of 2005. What a sight that was. A few of them are still hanging around now.

No late frost and hopefully no early frost either...., oops I said the F word. LOL. I remember last year we had a late frost on June 18th, which killed all my tenders like Cosmos, Amaranthus and Morning Glories. This year they are glorious!

It was also the first year I got to play with my new unheated greenhouse. What a difference this makes when hardening off plants or starting plants in.

HereÂs to a long warm Fall! Cheers!

Sharon

THE FIVE DAY FORECAST FOR EDMONTON:

YET ANOTHER COOL WET STRETCH AS THE JET STREAM CONTINUES TO DIVE DOWN BELOW THE PROVINCE!

CraisyDaisy, indeed things just donÂt want to improve for us! Looks like it could be yet another dismal harvest season for the farmers! Recall last September and October with all that SNOW and COLD, which had totally flattened the crops  conditions were AWFUL! Thankfully, November was a beauty allowing most farmers to gather up their weather damaged crops. Then we had gone onto ENJOY one of most pleasant winters I can recall! Other than one cold month thrown in there, the winter was so pleasant and MILD! The warmest temperature recorded here being a very balmy +14C  while southern parts had went off the thermometer rictor scale! Just too bad that when the growing season rolls around  things so very often just go into the tank  and stay there! Yes, there are GOOD things about all this moisture, though some HEAT and SUN sure would have been so very appreciated!

Seems parts of Saskatchewan and Manitoba take the cake for having received one of the best growing seasons! Today at 30c the good weather continues for Winnipeg!

Terry

Terry, I'm totally with ya! This has been such a strange weather year and since I've been growing mostly annuals from seed it hasn't been the best year for them at all.

On the other hand I've got lots of perennials that were winter sown this spring SOOOO I'm hoping for lots more colour/interesting things next season.

I just planted up some sweet little pansies for some extra colour! It will be fun to see if they make the winter this year and bloom in the spring. Just for experiement sake! They are basically just the "regular" pansies and not the winter pansies so we will see.

I'm trying to think what i would rate our summer. Probably a 7 or 8.

Plus points for the great April, minus some for the lousy May and June, but plus because our last frost was May 16th. Plus and minus equally for the rain in June - it rained too much, but we needed it. Minus for the tornado at the end of June, plus for the heat in July and August but minus for the lack of rain. A definite plus for September so far - i went swimming today! Can't do that too often in September.

I'm also hoping for a long fall and a milder winter than last! No -43s this year, please!

The spring was a barely 3 with the early melt then cold weather killing so many roses and stuff.

But summer itself was about a 7 1/2 since we did our first veggie garden and that excitement was a +13 but our mistakes adding a -6...

Had a pretty display of bulbs that I had planted in the spring, so pretty!

I must have planted my tulips too deep since only 1 bloomed, sigh!

I have so many plans for next year that I can hardly wait for it!

All in all a nice summer with hot days and rainy days but turning cold, ack!

Maria

This was my first summer gardening.. I have to say that it was a +9 or +10. Not only did I not kill anything, but my plants grew faster than I could keep up with (especially the basil and the tomatoes)! I kept waiting for the disaster to hit...but I was unscathed throughout the summer. I had some pest problems (aphids, leaf-rollers and slugs), not to mention the mozzies at the beginning of the year, but they brought the beautiful dragon and damsel-flies.
Wow, at the summer's end, I think I might say that I have a greener thumb than I thought.

Here in Calgary I'd give it a 7 or so. Our bulbs were 'so-so' but alpines and natives thrived. Heat loving plants weren't too happy but our garden is 'jammed packed' so there's always something of interest blooming throughout the garden. Clematises were late but spectacular. Roses liked the cooler weather. Moisture was much higher than ever so plants will get good root development.

We haven't had a ground frost yet and none in the forecast so I'm still holding off harvesting our corn (all 7 ears). Our annuals are still thriving and keeping the color going.

It was also a great year for visitors to the garden. Never seen so many bees, butterflies and other welcome guests.