The snow came back and might have killed my plants!

My planned blog post of today has been postponed and hijacked by the vagaries of English weather. Today, after all my talk of "hopefully the frosts are over" etc etc, it snowed.

And not just a light dusting; it was down to -4 and for periods of the day the blizzards were so thick they reduced visibility quite substantially.

Last night I looked outside and thought "I'm going to go out put my cloches back on" but I forgot by the time I got back home. And boy do I wish I hadn't forgotten.

This is what I came home to; these are some new compost bags I bought yesterday (125L each and they weigh a ton!).

The shop bought Coriander, which only a few days ago was looking sprightly and alive, is now hanging over the edge of the pot and looking dead. The leaves feel claggy and sticky and the snow, while only a centimetre or so deep, is sticky as well. This plant is NOT looking very well.

The Chives are not looking much better and also have the limp, sticky unhappy feel when you touch them. This is because, I think, the cells have frozen and burst. I REALLY hope I haven't killed them!

I have brought both the Coriander and the Chives inside to the warm to attempt to revive them. Fingers firmly crossed (from you as well, please!) that they get better. In the background you can see the repotted Geranium - thank goodness I didn't put that outside the other day too...

Just quickly to review the state of the plants which are remaining outside (as they are an experiment in "what happens when...")

The snow very nicely sets off the Broccoli here which appears to be taking the snow in it's stride, but is still looking a little nibbled.

The least successful of all these outside plants remains, as per, the Lettuce. That tiny splash of green is, I promise you, a Lettuce seedling. I will be surprised to get any harvest; I remain hopeful though.

Last but not least the Onion spikes still alive and looking very much the same as they did pre-snow. Onions seem to be REALLY tough!

While I am on the slightly "disaster" themed update, I did stupid last night and managed to knock one of my self watering planters off the windowsill; the one which had a tomato seedling in it. And yes the seedling did fall out onto the floor in a pile of soil :(

Fortunately I was able to pick it up and avoid damaging its roots too much so it is now sat back in place and, about 16 hours after the accident, is still looking healthy and alive. *wipes brow*.

Anyway, the blog I had planned for today (planting Begonias) I will now push out there tomorrow. I can't be doing two blogs in one day now, can I!

Keep growing.

After the snow has melted....

When I went to bed last night the snow was still several inches thick everywhere but, as was forecast, over night the rain came down and this morning all the snow was melted.

Including most of my snow man:

This is all that is left of my gardening snow man; oh well.

Anyway, the exciting part is that I have been out to check on my little seedlings and they (appear) to have survived that icy blast just fine.

The lettuce is looking the worst of the lot; I appear to have lost a couple of the seedlings which had originally sprouted, but I still have 4 little green things sticking out so fingers crossed they will now flourish and I can start eating freshly picked lettuce again - god I miss that taste!

The onions look a little sickly but I am most impressed to see that it seems like one of the plants which missed out on protection from the cloche even survived!!! wow!

The broccoli is the most healthy looking, but it hasn't really changed much in the last 3 weeks. I suppose that is hardly surprising though, considering it has been buried under several inches of snow all that time.

So there you have it, the cloches seem to have done their job (and one seedling survived even without a cloche).  I think I may start another set of each of these off in the next month or so, just see about timings. My feeling at the moment is yes, they have survived, but no they are not far enough along to have justified the expense of cloching them over.

To round this update off, I have pictures of my inside plants.

The Coriander. I have now moved this from the front room up onto the windowsill next to the Citrus tree. I like this picture because it shows how the slightly wonky growth is attempting to grow back towards the light. Incredible.

Citrus tree, complete with very nice looking oranges. I really must try eating them one of these days :) The new growth is really obvious in this picture too. I just hope we can manage to pack this and transport it successfully when we finally emigrate.

Last but not least, the mint. We normally have the blinds drawn behind this and you can again see the imperative that a plant has for the light, as the growth is extending so it can reach the gap between the blinds. This will have to put situated outside as soon as the weather improves. It smells amazing when you just brush a leaf too.

So there you are, the snow does not appear to have killed my outdoor plants, and my indoor ones are going very well indeed.

I hope you enjoyed my update.

Snowy snow man

I built myself a snow man!!!

As you can see it's a gardening snow man, with handy tools for hands. He also supports the Sale Sharks and is wear a communist fur hat because he can tell the direction this country is going on (hehe < /politics>)

Me with my snow man!

I had a lot of fun building this, but I struggled with making the head cos the snow kept sticking to my gloves, and I couldn't really roll the head into a nice round shape.

Oh well.

Anyway, remembering this is a gardening blog, I also took some pictures of the outside plants again.

Oooops I think the cloche isn't really meant to be under THIS much snow (the lettuces are probably growing under there somewhere)

More snow on cloches...

I am glad that I repositioned this cloche over the onions. There is a chance the plants (about 5 or 6) which managed to hide under the cloche will be ok. I very much doubt the seedlings which are now totally covered with snow will survive.

Anyway, that was my attempt to pretend this update is about gardening, and nothing to do with my SNOW MAN!

Icy Update

As we withstand this icy blast I figured I'd pop outside and see how my little plants are doing.

Today is snowy, but it's not as cold as before but everything is still frozen, including the soil which the seedlings are attempting to thrive in. It was so frozen that I could not even put the tent pegs back in to hold down the cloches, so I'll have to hope there is no high winds before the thaw.

Anyway, let's get to the pictures.

The lettuce cloche, doing it's job and keeping the snow and cold off the seedlings.

Little lettuce seedlings; these are struggling particularly if you consider that we would have been eating these by this stage, if they had been planted in summer. They are still going though, bless them.

Broccoli cloche, less snowed on after I moved it to attempt to hang the thai boxing bag.

The Broccoli seems to be doing OK so far; the cloche is perfectly sized for the pot and has really sealed well to keep cold away.

Unfortunately you cannot say the same for the smaller cloche on the Onions, in the triangular pot. This picture was taken after I poured a little bit of water over the frozen soil to try and loosen it a bit.

The Broccoli on the left, and Onion on the right. You can see how the cloche on the onions is too small for the planter. One lesson learned there.

My watering can, totally frozen solid.

The nozzle of the watering can frozen right to the very end. Suffice to say I had to use a receptacle from inside for pouring water on my onions.

Just in case this update has left you feeling cold and icy, I have also seen that the Citrus tree has had a sudden spurt of growth.

Top left is a large amount of new growth from the Citrus Tree. It also has three oranges on it, which I will probably eat this weekend and report back on next time.

So there you have it, the seedlings are not dead (yet) and the cloches appear to be doing their jobs.

Keep growing.