DEATH AND DESTRUCTION

The Siberian wind whips in wrenching twigs from the trees, whipping up leaf litter and heaping it into corners.  It seems we are all victims of stuff from Russia at the moment!? The cold is back and finishing off the destruction of any half hardy plants like the osteospermums, the aeoniums and so on. This begonia was left out and has not survived. Many plants have been burned by the cold wind, their leaves brown and brittle. 

So all the talk is of the Beast from the East but whether they are talking of weather or something more Putinesque - ?

Having lived through the Cold War I am not a fan of doing it all again - Brexit, Trump, Putin, Johnson - time to disappear into the garden.

Mind you, if you leave a marrow out over the winter it can end up looking like this - a shadow of its former self! The daffodils are struggling forth, though delayed, and the snowdrops are all but over - soon to be divided and replanted in any bare patches so we can have a greater carpet of white next year. It is best to do this when they are "in the green" after flowers.

To the left a hebe burned and blowing in the icy gale. To the right the fatsia near the back door, surviving but a bit scorched.


The flowering currant has gone into suspended growth, buds waiting to open, waiting for a little warmth.

There is some colour around though, some unexpected - I had forgotten I had planted tete-a-tete daffodils in this pot with the box ball and up they have come albeit struggling with the competition. The box will need transplanting when the daffs are done.

Other colour includes acer twigs, and hamamelis flowers plus the male skimmia well in bud. I shall have to check on its partner up by the gate but I think she will be all right through the wicked wintry weather. (Mm! A bit of alliteration going on there.)

So to thoughts of the new rose bed, of no dig gardening and out with Charles Dowding's book on Organic Gardening. 
I have been surprised at the depth of soil in the old bed but that will be useful, good soil is always useful. 

And so to a video of our wild wood pigeon with a bad leg - too many pigeons around - twenty in the field below the house this morning - but I feel somewhat sorry for this one.