Oh no, snow!

The snow has arrived. Friday lunchtime time the snow started to fall in Cardiff and within a few hours a good few inches had settled. So begins the big freeze.

Earlier in the week the days had been getting chillier with morning frosts damaging the still flowering Cosmos and Rudbeckia. The weight of the snow finally crushed the life from them and all that remains of the Cosmos is withered and broken stems. Surprisingly some of the Rudbeckia might still survive.




Since the snow arrived its been more important to feed and water the birds. The bird bath must now be defrosted each morning with hot water replacing the thick layer of ice. This morning I filled the bird bath with freshly boiled water. With the temperature at -2 the water had started to freeze again by the afternoon. Within minutes of going back into the house the Robin had arrived at the bird bath for a drink. It would have found the water too warm and drank from the cooler spillage on the floor.

Peanuts and seed is already hanging in the garden. Muesli, dried fruit, mixed nuts, meal worms and biscuits are put out each morning. Today these foods attracted the robin, magpies, a group of 8 starlings, a pair of collared dove and 5 or 6 blackbird. Interesting, and worryingly no sparrows have been seen in the garden for some days. Hopefully they have found a better food source.

There is very little to do in the garden for the next few months apart from harvest the Brussels and parsnip later in the year and plan for next year. Ive not really thought too much about the year to come apart from controlling the spread of the hostas and day lilies. These two plants have been most successful but do cover a lot of space when fully grown that other plants struggle to compete. The evergreen shrubs that should be providing winter colour and interest are disappointing as a result.

The last blooms of 2010

November has been an interesting month and its only half way through. The weather has brought the challenges of frost, strong winds and heavy rain. The perennials including hostas, marigolds and fern have completely died away leaving large and muddy gaps in the border.

The winners this month are the Cosmos and Rudbeckia. These were sown late in the year and then planted late into the borders and pots. I didn't expect them to do much this year because they were grown so late. However I have been very surprised as both have bloomed beautifully with the Rudbeckia giving a very strong display.




The apples have been removed from the tree to allow it to concentrate its energy on itself during the winter and spring months.

Autumn takes over

Its November and autumn has definitely arrived, first with warmth and wonderful colours in the trees and bushes, and now with strong winds and rain. Once these winds die down there wont be many leaves on the trees and the arrival of autumn and darkness with the clocks going back makes it all seem to happen so much more abruptly. Never mind, its still a great time of year and so much is changing so quickly.



Way back in august the day lilies were finishing. Since then they have completely died away and their spiky leaves have dried and been cut back. Schizostylis fenland daybreak then took over the boarder. Now even their vibrant but delicate pink flowers have lost a bit of their punch.

Hosta's have all but gone but still strong are the Brussels. Ive had a difficult time controlling the caterpillar populations on these plants. As there are mixed in with the flowers and shrubs of the border I have not been able to net them, hence a variety of caterpillars have enjoyed a feast. Between the thick stalked leaves are small round Brussels that should provide a good accompaniment to Christmas dinner.

The parsnips have also been doing well and it will be interesting to see how large they become when harvested. The leeks are looking good and seem to have survived the attentions of what might have been leek moth. At one stage the drooping and damaged leaves looked terminal. However in recent weeks they have all bulked up.

The apple tree is starting to shed its leaves. The apples are still on the tree and have grown to about 3cm's in diameter, not big enough to eat. I shall leave them on the tree for a while but I cant see them growing much more now. I expect that a leafless tree will be putting its energies into surviving the winter, not growing more fruit.

Lastly the runner beans have been the biggest success of the year, with much eaten and still more in the freezer. I have kept some back to dry out and provide seed for next year. Only a handful of carrots made it through the season which was disappointing. However the size of some of them has been incredible. It certainly helped growing them direct into the border and not into pots as in previous years.