Kitchen Garden Forum

It is minus 5 in our garden at the moment I think I will retire to bed with my electric blanket and my OH . Hope it does not get much colder.

Good morning Catherine, everything is frozen solid here this morning.
There sould be some good seed beds about this year, as long as we don't get a very wet Spring.

It's perishing out here this morning. I'm going to dig my thermometer out of the greenhouse and put it out so I can find out just how cold it is. The TV is saying -10C and it feels like it, but who knows.

I must go and buy a sack of chicken feed and leave it in the back of the car; it helps her stick to the road when it's slippery out there.

Dear Chantal, does it have to be [chicken feed] to add extra weight.

Nah, a dead body would do just as well OH

- 7 degrees here this morning and it never got higher than - 2 during the day. But what a lovely sunny day! I walked nearly 2 miles into town this afternoon at a fair pelt and gave my half litre of 'red juice' now that they want it again from those over a certain age. And it flowed like a tap after that exercise!

Hi Monika It was a really lovely day today here as we're not far from you and a lovely sunset. But this morning I took the cover off my car windscreen and started the car up and my wash wipe had frozen as I tried to clear my screen I had to sit for several minutes waiting for it to clear of frost, so much for the cover. (I forgot to add more screen wash to the bottle when I filled it at the weekend) The in car temperature showed -9 which dropped to -7 as I got moving then back up to -8 when I got to the top of Nelson this morning. I believe that we are to have snow tomorrow.

Chilly here too in Cornwall but not as cold as Catherine & Monika's areas, we have - 4 C. Water all frozen so have put water out for the birds.

I really feel for all you disadvantaged souls north of Watford. Just been out and trimmed our palm trees, picked up a few nuts I'd missed earlier. Oh, sorry my mistake, they were from my little golden monkeys.
Happy New Year to you all and great cropping.

Yesterday was extremely cold here, and yet because the sun was shining brightly most of the day through our windows and warming up our rooms, we were able to have the central heating switched off until around 3.30 p.m. Today all the frost has melted and it's much warmer, but because the sky is grey and there's no sun, the house feels like an icebox. Surprising how much a little sunshine can save on the heating bills!

We got up to about an inch of snow this morning and very cold again but not as cold as yesterday. It has been sleeting most of the day and very foggy but suprisingly the snow has not gone from my garden tonight. It is supposed to get warmer towards the weekend. We shall see.

Positively balmy here today: only -4 last night compared with -8 the night before. Daytime temperature a warm +1

-8 is pretty rare here, only a mile from the sea.

But perhaps it's a good sign; Welsh proverb says Gaeaf glas a wna fynwent fras (A green winter makes a full graveyard)

It's another -7 here this morning, i was just wondering if it will have much of an effect, on all the pests and diseases that a lot of people have been suffering from over the last couple of years.
I suppose with the insects though, as many good, as bad, end up dying.

I have a rain water tank on the back of the house that's been frozen for over a week now, even though we've had sunshine. My water butts are solid ice too.

Pretty cold out there again this morning.

If this cold weather kills the cabbage white flies, I'd be a happy bunny.

I had a lie in this morning wonderful. I have just got up and the sunrise is beautiful I was sure the weather forecast was for gales. Must have been dreaming as it is a lovely day and only -4.5 deg. Might get a sun tan today with it getting warmer. I want to build a wild life area in my garden this year to try and protect some of the small animals and bugs that need something like that to survive the winter. I thought about it last year but with one thing and another it did not get done. But this year it is on my list of jobs to do and it has got almost to the top. Any suggestions anyone as to how big an area etc I need to do. I have got a few ideas but would like some more.