Garden Centre

Friday, February 1, 2008

Deep mid-winter

The season’s are definitely becoming less predictable – and it’s not just British gardeners saying it! We’ve always been subject to our variable weather, that’s why it’s such a topic of conversation across the UK, but in the past ten days we’ve had the full range of winter in a little more than a week.

It started with unseasonably warm weather, which led to frogs, in the south of England at least, getting frisky. Clothes could be dried on the line in gardens bathed in cool but definite sunshine, and crocus began to open. The first frogspawn appeared, and it will definitely disappear again, as the clement spell was followed in short order by gale force winds and driving rain. Then we had a sudden cold snap which brought snow and frost, and we’re still wrestling with that one.

What it means for gardeners, of course, is more work at the least enjoyable time of the year. It means that we run around covering up, and uncovering, tender plants, wanting to protect them from bitter weather, but also wanting them to make the most of warmth, and well aware (as we all are) that as soon as the ground warms, diseases and rots begin to fester inside coverings that have been protecting plants during the cold, and that air circulation is necessary if plants are not to develop moulds as a result of sudden warm, wet air conditions. It’s a complete nuisance, but there’s nothing to be done but run in and out with horticultural fleece and old newspapers, if we want to conserve our tender plants.

Labels: protecting plants, winter plants, winter shelter

The All Seasons Gardener at 10:13 AM

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