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Sally Nex

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Sally Nex

Tag Archives: snow

End of month view: January

05 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by sallynex in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

end of month view, extreme weather, snow, spring, winter

Always the last one to the party, that’s me. But I didn’t want to wave January goodbye without documenting what has been an extraordinary month – even for this most extreme time of year.

Of course we spent most of the month under deep snow, so for the first couple of weeks there wasn’t much gardening going on. I had a close encounter with a proper bona fide blizzard, in which I discovered that our Toyota Rav 4, previously considered embarrassingly poncy, outperforms a Landrover in a snowdrift, and I lost my precious loquat tree to a heavy snowfall of 8″ in a single night. Note to self: loquat trees have brittle branches and need tying up in snowy weather.

There's a viburnum in full flower under here somewhere

There’s a viburnum in full flower under here somewhere

Once the snow had melted, it was time to assess the damage. The most serious was caused not so much by the snow but by months of wet weather followed by howling gales during that blizzard I was talking about.

An ex-tree, and possibly an ex-ladder too

An ex-tree, and possibly an ex-ladder too

This was previously an unassuming ash tree, some 40ft tall and minding its own business in a corner of our garden. It went largely unnoticed until it crashed down our back slope, its roots terminally loosened in the muddy soil. Thankfully there was nobody around at the time: our ladder copped it though.

Otherwise things have been mostly soldiering on through. I am eternally thankful I managed to remember to cover at least one of my ginger lilies (Hedychium gardnerianum) with a Heath Robinson affair involving cardboard, lots of fleece and some bricks: the other one I didn’t get around to so this is going to turn into an Interesting Experiment. We haven’t had it very cold here, minus 4-5°C at most, but it has been very wet, so if the one survives and the other doesn’t we’ll know what’s to blame.

My little ginger all snug in its fleece jacket

My little ginger all snug in its fleece jacket

And as the snow melted, it revealed all those lovely heart-lifting little jewels from their hiding places under the blanket of white, lifting the cloud just long enough to remind me that spring will arrive again, one day, as inevitable as the turning of the world.

Battered but not beaten: the first daffodils appeared on the slope this month

Battered but not beaten: the first daffodils appeared on the slope this month

It's been a wonderful year for snowdrops: perhaps it's just me but they seem bigger and fatter somehow

It’s been a wonderful year for snowdrops: perhaps it’s just me but they seem bigger and fatter somehow

..and the bulbs are poking through the ground everywhere: a new one appears every day. These are the early tulips, only a couple of months away now.

..and the bulbs are poking through the ground everywhere: a new one appears every day. These are the early tulips, only a couple of months away now.

Snowy day activities

18 Friday Jan 2013

Posted by sallynex in seeds

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Tags

indoor gardening, organising, seed swaps, snow, snowy days, sorting seeds

winter_seeds

Fennel seedheads in snow

It’s snowing.

There are few types of weather which really make gardening impossible. Even when we woke up to a hard frost the other day I was out turning my compost. But this – when it’s six inches and more falling all the time – this is indoor gardening weather.

So today’s housebound horticulture was my annual seed packet clearout.

This is a slightly tedious but nonetheless very necessary part of the beginning of my seed-sowing year. I collect dozens of seed packets over the average gardening season: some given to me by nice PR people, some I buy either for gardening projects I’m working on, or just for fun; others I acquire at seed swaps or in impulse buys at garden shows.

Most of them are opened, which is reassuring. But I tend to sow them and then stuff them back into my seed boxes in a hurry, so that by the end of the year they’re bulging with last year’s seeds, this year’s seeds and who knows what in between.

seeds_packets

The pile of jettisoned out of date packets grows…

So here’s my seed-sowing survival strategy, followed every year to make sure I’m not drowning in unwanted seedlings by June:

  • jettison the old stuff: I really can’t be bothered to sow seeds when only half will germinate anyway, and that’s what happens when you sow old seed. So I chuck out any packets over two years old, plus anything that says ‘carrot’ or ‘parsnip’ on it as these are no good after just one year.
  • weed out the doubles: in 2012 I somehow ended up with three packets of ‘Gardeners’ Delight’ tomatoes. I didn’t even grow any ‘Gardeners’ Delight’ tomatoes. These go on my ‘seed swaps’ pile – unopened seeds I can give away in exchange for something more interesting instead.
  • do a reality check: I team up my now beautifully slimmed-down seed boxes with my veg-planting plan for this year, and make sure I’m only sowing what I have room for. I have thrown too many surplus seedlings on the compost heap to ever want to do it again and have learned a steely discipline on this one.
  • make some hard choices: I want some courgettes to go in the patch by the gate: I have four different courgette varieties in my seed box (round ‘Tondo di Piacenza’, yellow striped ‘Sunstripe’, green striped ‘Safari’ and climbing ‘Black Forest’, since you ask). At least two of them have to go. Apart from not liking yellow courgettes (that was easy) – I have no idea which to choose. Anyone want to make the decision for me?

And finally…

  • make a shopping list: this starts ‘parsnips and carrots’ and goes on to fill in the gaps. All my calabrese was out of date this year, and I could do with some white Swiss chard. And then I get more seeds to stuff my seed boxes with and…

I think I may take up stamp collecting instead.

The Friday photo

26 Friday Nov 2010

Posted by sallynex in Uncategorized

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Friday photo, hedgerows, snow

It has been snowing. In November.


Not much, especially if you’re reading this in Scotland or Northumbria – but enough to make footprints in the road and spangle the cobwebs in the hedgerows with suspended spray.

This is continuing for the next ten days, so they say: and it’s the first time since 1993 it’s snowed this early. At this rate we will lose all concept of what a ‘normal’ winter might be: can you remember the last one?

I interrupt this advent calendar to announce….

16 Wednesday Dec 2009

Posted by sallynex in Uncategorized

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

snow

It’s snowing! It’s actually snowing!

In December! In softy-southerner Surrey!

Apologies for the unseemly excitement here but this is unheard of. I can’t remember the last time it snowed before Christmas here or indeed anywhere south of about Oxford (which is the furthest north I’ve ever lived and where it did, while I was there in the 1980s, snow an awful lot from about October onwards).

This has to be the best chance of a real, bona fide, proper white Christmas in living memory. Right, that’s it – I’m digging out the Frank Sinatra and the sleigh bells. Never mind all that pretending with robins perching on snowy fork’andles on Christmas cards and the like – we might, just, have the real thing just around the corner this year…

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow….

02 Monday Feb 2009

Posted by sallynex in Uncategorized

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

allotment dog, snow

It’s no good – I can’t resist. Gotta show you my snow pictures.

Wisley up the road recorded 12″ last night, and I think we’re up to about 16-18″ now. It’s the most snow we’ve had in 18 years (which explains, to you Yanks who regularly hit the two-metre line, why we’re getting so excited about it).

All the cardoon seedheads are wearing white bearskins.

Underneath here somewhere are my patio pots.

And Bob (our resident Roman Emperor) is wearing some very natty headgear.

The pond has stayed clear – just.

And as you can see, it’s still snowing. Hard. Allotment Dog is not impressed, though he does keep trying to eat it (just in case, you understand) and has a good line in snow somersaults.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

24 Wednesday Jan 2007

Posted by sallynex in Uncategorized

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Tags

gardening, snow, weather

Excuse me for getting excited – but I just love the snow. It’s powdering my garden to a depth of about 2″ this morning – not much to hardened northerners but for us softy southerners here in Surrey it’s unusually thick and a real novelty!

The only trouble is that it’s the one weather condition (with the possible exception of gale-force winds accompanied by driving torrential rain) which will stop me gardening. I’ve had to cancel one garden this morning and it’s probable I’ll be having some forced holiday time tomorrow morning as well.

Not great for the bank balance – one of the rare disadvantages of life as a gardener is that you don’t always choose when you take your (unpaid) holidays, and the weather is always awful. Or at least cold. Never mind – I can always look out of the window!

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