What's happening in your garden today?

[Sean Regan]

We're up to +4c today, the snow is beginning to melt, but it will take some time, as the ground is still frozen.

The birds and squirrels have been fed.

One of my concerns is our tall mimosa, I hope it has survived. The previous one we had didn't, a few years ago when we had just as cold weather, but that was in a tub.
This one is planted in the ground so should have a good root system.
The other concern is water.
The main feed to the taps, basin and water heater in the garden and garage, is off at the supply on the back wall of the kitchen and all the taps are open but obviously frozen.
The supply to the garage is via alkathene 25mm plastic pipe. There's a bit of insulated 15mm copper pipe in the "freezer room" in the back of the garage. The exterior supply to the tap on the side of the fence from there is "speed-fit" plastic pipe, so should be OK.
There is a further supply to my "leaky hose system" that runs along the length of the side bed and turns to feed plants and the bamboo along the back fence. But again, that is all plastic and should be OK.It's very rarely used.

So without the radiators under the window the hot air rises and the cold air from the window falls. The top half of the room gets warm and your feet and legs get cold.

That would be true if you had no radiator.
Ours is on the opposite wall to the bay window. It's half the length of the old one. So we get both radiated and convected heat. The thick curtains which are thermal lined finish six inches below the windowsill. When closed, they actually brush against the sill and prevent some cold air from the windows falling below them.

 

[Tetters]

But, boys. when the heating is spread evenly across all downstairs floors, and there is no radiator in sight, you can sling your slippers and have warm toes and a rosy glow all over - it's lovely.
The problems will only arise when the gas supply fails - then we'll all end up cold, because everyone will turn to electricity including all the EV drivers, who will end up on Shank's pony!!

 

[Anniekay]

But, boys. when the heating is spread evenly across all downstairs floors, and there is no radiator in sight, you can sling your slippers and have warm toes and a rosy glow all over - it's lovely.
The problems will only arise when the gas supply fails - then we'll all end up cold, because everyone will turn to electricity including all the EV drivers, who will end up on Shank's pony!!

I'd love if we all had horses for transportation. All I need is a good Quarter horse and a pack mule to haul my groceries home. Just think of all the free manure we'd have for our gardens !!

 

[Tetters]

I'd love if we all had horses for transportation. All I need is a good Quarter horse and a pack mule to haul my groceries home. Just think of all the free manure we'd have for our gardens !!

Yeah, but Shanks didn't have a pony though...

 

[Sean Regan]

We're up to +5c today and the lawns now, are only half-covered with melting snow.

I checked the water supply to the garden and garage as the taps are no longer frozen.
Despite my best efforts, I still had a "burst" in the room in the back of the back of the garage. I say burst, but when I turned on the supply very low I could see water coming out of one of the pipes under the basin, so turned it off again.
The problem was with the horizontal pipe under it. Although it was insulated and all taps left open, the water in part of the system, if it expands before freezing, has nowhere to go. You can get a burst anywhere, when it's freezing, it just finds the weakest point.

Anyway, it wasn't a problem, I just turned it all off again and removed the damaged length of pipe, measured and cut a new length, (I'm always prepared) then with a couple of olives and a bit of ptf tape, it was all done and dusted with the insulation replaced, in ten minutes.




I checked the water heater, that's working fine as it was ptretected as I always leave it on the frost stat setting, as were the basin tap and the tap on the side of the shed. So everything is back to normal.

But I turned the supply off and opened all the taps, in case it freezes again.
No gardening of course, but there's been plenty of tennis, from Australia on Eurosport. They are 11 hours ahead of us, so there were several live matches to watch, as their night games don't finish until at least 1.00pm here.

 

[big rockpile]

Repotted bunch of Snake Plants. Repotted some Spider Plants. Repotted some vines that were left in my Greenhouse going wild some did not make it.

Watered bunch of stuff in the Greenhouse.

Wanting to have only maybe half a dozen of each Plant but seems they have other ideas.

Put bunch extra bedding in my Worm Bin getting ready for New Arrivals.

big rockpile

 

[Tetters]

Repotted bunch of Snake Plants. Repotted some Spider Plants. Repotted some vines that were left in my Greenhouse going wild some did not make it.

Watered bunch of stuff in the Greenhouse.

Wanting to have only maybe half a dozen of each Plant but seems they have other ideas.

Put bunch extra bedding in my Worm Bin getting ready for New Arrivals.

big rockpile

It seems to me that you have a bad case of green fingers!! It's a real bonus having a garden to spend time in - good for you

 

[Sean Regan]

The snow has all gone. Temperature up to +8c. I've had an e-mail from my golf club that they'll have 10 holes open by mid-day. This will mean that by tomorrow morning, at least 15 holes will be open, so I'll be playing in the competition as it will be "on."
I've not touched a golf club, neither will have many, for a month. So it'll be interesting.

Nothing to do in the garden. I won't know for a few days whether the tall mimosa has survived.

 

[big rockpile]

Planted Petunias and Chrysanthemums. Repotted Snake Plants and Repotted Juniper Trees.

Looked at some Geranium Cuttings in water and they are rooting.

big rockpile

 

[blenor 2]

Another dark and dank day in SE Blighty. About 3 degrees C. Just going to collect some wood for kindling from the veg plot. This is mostly last years' prunings from the fruit trees which have dried out and some old chopped up pallets. We still keep a real fire for the evenings (smokeless fuel) as a back up for the central heating. Will also take a bucket of kitchen scraps to put in compost bin. I have often thought that a small pony and trap would be useful for these kind of tasks. I have seen a few of these around - mostly for weddings - being very wary of the overtaking cars.

 

[Anniekay]

Another dark and dank day in SE Blighty. About 3 degrees C. Just going to collect some wood for kindling from the veg plot. This is mostly last years' prunings from the fruit trees which have dried out and some old chopped up pallets. We still keep a real fire for the evenings (smokeless fuel) as a back up for the central heating. Will also take a bucket of kitchen scraps to put in compost bin. I have often thought that a small pony and trap would be useful for these kind of tasks. I have seen a few of these around - mostly for weddings - being very wary of the overtaking cars.

I can train ya a small pony!! That's what I did for a living: trained horses to harness. Maybe a good sized mini horse would do the trick and one I trained gets trained to traffic passing by from the start !!

 

[Sean Regan]

Just a general check around it's sunny and +10c.

My only concern is our one resident hedgehog and whether it survived the very low temperatures last week.
Its house is protects by the fence surounding the azaleas to the side of the main patio. Only small birds and hedgehogs can get through it.
The house is up on small feet on a paving slab and there's a block of polystyrene under the floor to provide some insulation. It had plenty of hay in the sleeping area.
There's an extra oversize roof on top which protects the entrance from rain.





There's hay that's blocking the inner doorway, which will prevent draughts. That's all we can do.
It would be unwise to check on it. We'll just have to wait until late March to know if it survived. There's always peanuts and suet pellets I leave for the birds and squirrels in a big plastic saucer a couple of yards away, so if it comes out fo a short time as they sometimes do in the winter, it'll find it.

 

[blenor 2]

Yes it's a balmy 9 degrees here today. Not at all bad. No rain but the grass is wet from dew and mist.

 

[Tetters]

Just a general check around it's sunny and +10c.

My only concern is our one resident hedgehog and whether it survived the very low temperatures last week.
Its house is protects by the fence surounding the azaleas to the side of the main patio. Only small birds and hedgehogs can get through it.
The house is up on small feet on a paving slab and there's a block of polystyrene under the floor to provide some insulation. It had plenty of hay in the sleeping area.
There's an extra oversize roof on top which protects the entrance from rain.


View attachment 2671


There's hay that's blocking the inner doorway, which will prevent draughts. That's all we can do.
It would be unwise to check on it. We'll just have to wait until late March to know if it survived. There's always peanuts and suet pellets I leave for the birds and squirrels in a big plastic saucer a couple of yards away, so if it comes out fo a short time as they sometimes do in the winter, it'll find it.


View attachment 2672

Your hog will be fine in there - stop worrying. Quite a lot of others will have far less protection, and will have to cope with just a pile of sticks and leaves - they don't all get as lucky as yours do.

 

[Sheal]

I have often thought that a small pony and trap would be useful for these kind of tasks.

I've said in the past that with the state that Britain's in now we could well find ourselves going back to those blenor 2.

 

[Sheal]

With the snow gone earlier in the week summer appeared today. The sun shone from late morning and the temperature was up to 15C/59F, unheard of in January.

Back to re-organising the shed in my new garden of five months. There's some fixed units and shelves to come out and of course some of the screws didn't want to budge. A lot of persuasion was necessary by my other half as my dodgy shoulder wasn't having any of it. Two now done and two to go.

 

[big rockpile]

Got bunch more cuttings. Mixed up some soil and started turning Compost .

big rockpile

 

[Anniekay]

I had visitors today who stayed for quite some time and I needed to go grocery shopping so I'll wait til tomorrow to plant my potatoes and onions.

I plan on planting 50 red onions, 25 in each raised bed, with my brassicas and 4 potatoes, two Red norland and 2 Yukon gold, with my snow peas. We'll see how that goes !!

 

[big rockpile]

Turning Compost again.

Cut some Begonias way back got pretty New Growth.

Seen my first Dandelion Blooming. My wife said well Winter is over . Yea Right! Think it is just a tease.

big rockpile

 

[Anniekay]

Got my potatoes and onions planted, weeded, and pulled out two broccoli plants that never gave me a decent broccoli, just thin little flower heads that immediately bolted. Not worth bothering with.