WOW!! - Wintry Wales
Sunday, December 5, 2010
After "basking" in mild and gentle weather for most of
November (OK this is Wales so there was some rain and gales
too) the last week of the month turned overnight on 23 November and
it's been mighty cold and snowy ever since. It brought an abrupt
end to the wonderful late autumn colour in the gardens and
surrounding countryside. Fortunately I had done most of my
autumn jobs with just a few clumps of herbaceous plants to dig up
but that can be done later. Much of my time now is spent cutting
firewood and keeping the 2 woodburners stocked, and my much admired
woodpile is going down fast!
It is costing us a fortune for gas and electricity to heat the
tunnels and glasshouses but so far there have been no obvious
losses although time will tell. I have every length of
horticultural fleece I own covering plants under cover - it really
does make a difference.
Weather
This has been the coldest end to November I can remember - a
frost every night from 23 November onwards with a minimum of -16.2C
on the evening of Saturday 27 November. The 28 November 1947 was
the coldest previous November day I remember - I was only a day old
then but a tremendously gifted child for my age! I don't know what
has happened to me ever since!!
Garden update
Very quiet now with little time in the day to do much but potter
around. I never managed to get the autumn feed on the lawns or to
do much spiking. Hey ho! It probably won't matter that much but it
would have been nice to have done it. I have my lists and try to
stick with them.
All plants except the hardiest are now under cover of some sort
and the cuttings I took in September and October are growing away
strongly. I at last managed to dry off and store seed from over 60
varieties of plants from the garden. I am particularly pleased with
the quantity of lily seed produced from a few seed heads of
martagon, pardilinum, pumilum, regale and priceii lilies. A little
while to wait between sowing and flowering but well worth the
effort. I have some large clumps of lilium martagon album growing
away well at the back of the paddock pond in some fairly deep shade
and this year they blessed us with the first really good flush of
flowers after 5 years. The cost of flowering sized bulbs of this
lily if you can get them is fairly astronomic!!
I still find jobs to do in the tunnels and glasshouses on cold
or wet days and a few DIY jobs to do when the weather warms up will
keep me out of mischief over the next few months . Incredible to
think that in about 6 weeks time I will start sowing again for the
next gardening year! And in only 3 weeks time the nights will start
to get lighter again. I can feel the sap rising already in my
veins!
What's looking good?
NOTHING!! The cold weather has put paid to the odd roses,
violas, verbenas, sedums and saxifrages that were soldiering on
earlier in the month. There were also some good flowers on 2
outdoor cyclamen, intaminatum and mirablie under the shade of the
large beech tree by the polytunnels. Not as frequently encountered
as hederifolium or coum but good and reliable additions to
the autumn garden.The vegetables to look pretty sick but
fortunately I managed to get all the carrots up and stored before
the weather turned. If you can think that far ahead, a winter savoy
cabbage picked now might just have thawed in the stone shed in time
for next weekend's roast! We hate buying veg but have had to resort
to this over the last couple of weeks.
I was looking at some old garden records for 2002 and it's
incredible to recall that in November of that year I counted over
30 plants still in flower after only 2 mild frosts! How times have
changed!!
Wildlife
The owls are still active at night, the kites are everywhere
looking for food and woodcock and snipe are regularly put up on
walks at dusk along the river. It's usually too dark to identify
them positively but I know from their flight and previous
encounters that both are active in the area. My best garden pals
the robins follow me around the garden looking for a chance snack
and the wrens and blue tits think the polytunnels are the best
place on earth on a cold winter night. How they get in is a mystery
but there they are bright and bushy tailed next moring when I open
up the tunnels. Nice to be able to help them through the winter.
Plenty of foxes sighted too after dark in the torch or car
headlights.
Visitors and talks
On the day of the heavy snow at dusk 2 cars came very slowly up
the lane by the house and ground to halt up the hill, one of them
unable to go any further. The occupants, 6 young ladies were
looking for a holiday complex 10 miles from us but had lost their
way. We do have some unusual visits but never one like this. All
ended well and we were soon able to get them safely to their
destination. Hopefully they will come to see us next year when the
weather is kinder and there is more to see in the garden!
The talks season continues with just one in December at Brecon
and District Horticultural Society for their Christmas meeting.
Hope the weather improves by then for us and for all visitors to
this site. Keep warm!!