Kitchen Garden Forum

Grandsons afternoon effort of snowman and snow dog

Snowmans nose was made out of broccoli so he didn't think he'd have to eat it tomorrow , love him

Sounds as if he is going to grow up as cunning as me...

Slight, fine, but steady snow here now.

Love that snowman and his dog and got to love the thinking behind the nose

Still hardly any snow here other than what arrived the other day. Roads and paths are a wee bit on the icy side though. Our weather station thingy bob is reading outside temp of 2.7 and humidity of only 82% so not looking like snow any time soon I'd prefer snow to ice.

Forecast is for 7pm onwards - we shall see what transpires

VPM
x

Well we have proper snow as promised and so himself has gone of to bed to dream of taking Annie for a drive up the tops first thing .

Me? I'm contemplating digging some of my leek 'propagators' (old Persil washing capsule boxes) out of the greenhouses (if I can get to them tomorrow) and sowing the first seeds of the year.

Itching to get going on the growing. Another couple of weeks and it'll be peppers, tomatoes and chillis in the window sill propagators and then I'll be sowing cabbages and leeks with the school ....... can't wait

VPM
x

There is a funny red thing low on the horizon.

Springlike here today - snow gone - just slight frost this morning. More sun promised for tomorrow. I'll plant out the overwintered pricked-out lettuce in the polytunnel and get the shallots into trays to get them started. Forecast from Monday onwards - rain but milder

We had a blizzard of very sticky snow last evening so I have had a pretty depressing walk round the garden this morning. It has badly damaged lots of things and seems to have picked on slow growing trees and shrubs that have taken 25 years to grow. Most upsetting are a Pinus Mugo, Camellias, Rhododendrons and Bay with odd branches out of several other conifers. Took the dog for a walk and found out why I had been hearing chainsaws all morning, several trees down across the road below us.

All this lot of snow has certainly been heavy damaging snow. Around the work gardens it has really weighted things down more than I have seen in 21 years there. The Lavender in the formal front garden is flat....

We had another 2 inches snow last night..on top of all remaining from earlier...
I left the all white car at home this morning and walked up town...that's twice in a week now....doing me good no doubt.!

Clive.

Someone rang into the radio show I was listening to today - said clocks change in just 8 weeks! Cheered me up as now have a target! Heated propagator will be out asap - just need some sun as light levels are a bit low still & not sure how much my grow light costs to run? Anyone got any idea? My gas bill is going to be enormous so don't want a big elec bill as well?

Westi

Lots of snow here during last night which looked very pretty in this morning's sunshine but, by golly, it was heavy stuff. The 6 to 8 inch layer on the greenhouse roof hit the ground with a thud when I pulled it down with a brush. Quite a few bushes are damaged and, as I have mentioned before, the brassica net cage has been completely pushed down, we'll just have to see what we can salvage.

Hopefully, next week's warmer weather won't be TOO wet to work outside.

My lights are 2 x 125W and I use them for 11 hours a day at first, my unit cost is 12.842 so I reckon about 35p a day. But I don't know how much the soil warming cables cost to run, bought them too long ago to remember the wattage then there is the thermostat. Planned switch on 11th February.

After the snow we emptied 32mm out of the rain gauge...and another 8.5mm this morning.

Plenty windy this morning but it has some drying to do...

Good to see blue sky and sunshine.

Clive.

The snow has pretty much gone from here overnight. I'll go survey the vegetable plot shortly and see if there is any damage - just got to get up the enthusiasm for going out into the chill

Would like to start sowing some seeds soon - might get my parsnip seeds onto the kitchen towel and then at least I'll feel like I've 'sown' something

VPM
x

Dear VPM, I have sown 50 pots of broad beans and 50 pots of peas, then there are the sweet peas i have sown, and nearly forgot, a tray of early cauliflowers. But i'm sure you will catch up....