What are we doing in the garden 2025

Edges and hedges, if you keep them trimmed the garden looks neat.
They always say this on the Beechgrove programme so it must be true.

 

The garden looks beautiful, but no hope of any gardening yet as we still have deep snow. I went out for a quick look but on our uneven terrain it was not that easy to walk on. I could get in the greenhouse if I took a shovel to open the doors, but best left alone and enjoyed from indoors. Much safer too.
Our car is currently parked half a mile away, at the top of the farm track. The main road is officially blocked but some of the side roads are accessible for locals who know the ropes and may need to feed livestock. My daughter's partner was horrified yesterday when he spotted a car struggling on our little side road. The driver had come from Manchester with his family 'so the children could enjoy the snow'. When questioned they were completely unequipped, without warm clothing, hot drinks or anything else remotely useful, like a spade. With a bit of help, a push and no doubt a flea in their ear they were pointed in the right direction with no harm done and hopefully a lesson learned. Thankfully Rural Crime Scene police were on hand for the lorry driver who ignored the signs and then jack-knifed his truck across the whole carriage way, potentially blocking emergency workers and putting lives at risk. There is no traffic visible on the road today.

 

The plants I ordered arrived today, rather sooner than I had expected and including 5 bare root raspberries. So I got them straight into the ground this afternoon. I’m hoping it’s not too cold - we’ve got two more nights of -2 or so forecast, but no snow or ice on the ground and warming up at the weekend. I gave them a thick mulch so hopefully they’ll be ok.

 

I'm growing sweet Peas this year, and sowed them last October. Now I'm wondering if I will need to pot them on before they are planted out! Can anyone advise please? With the warm spells we've been having they've just kept growing. They are in an unheated greenhouse.... should I put them outside? Many thanks

 

Hi @Mairi Lindsey - if you just pinch them out that'll help as they'll then bush out more rather than keep growing taller. Once temps are more reliably stable - ie March/April, you can look at potting them on and/or acclimatising them for outside conditions.

It's always a dilemma if you sow in autumn and the weather fluctuates a lot. I rarely sow in autumn because the spring sown ones catch up anyway due to our colder springs holding growth back. Recent years have been more variable though. I did sow a few in autumn which are in my small growhouse, but they're very small compared to yours. They'll just get put out [in large pots] in April or so, and if they've put on a lot of growth by then, I'll pinch them out .

 

Many thanks, I'll keep on pinching out and pot on when weather permits. Maybe try spring sowing in future!

 

Our tree ferns haven't been fleeced as we usually do but they have had leaves put into their crowns and more added. Hope that will suffice this year.

 

Gardening? No way!
It looks really beautiful -intense blue sky, glittering snow and brilliant sunshine, but it is colder than yesterday. The computer overnight forecast said -3%, feels like -7%. I stuck a thermometer in the snow just now and it went to zero straight away. Things are thawing a bit though, there are long, pointy, icicles hanging from some of the gutters. Memo to me - watch where you walk!
We had a lovely 'shepherd"s warning' sunrise, but the big pond is completely frozen over except for a small ripple by the water inlet. I still can't get into the greenhouse, but I can open the door a crack, just enough to see that things seem ok. The salvias in tubs are still green and a couple of fuchsias even have flowers, so temps can't have dropped too low, even without heat. The complete absence of wind today is a definite bonus.
The ducks are fed up. At least yesterday they had a small patch of pond to swim in, even if there was more than usual to sit on, not so today. Only a couple of stalwarts, like Kevin and Deidre remain, the rest have probably taken themselves off to one of the nearby reservoirs.
I can see, with binoc's, that the main road is open, but there are not many more cars than trucks and everyone going fairly slowly, so clearly only 'needs must' usage at present.

 

I went into the garden and checked the tree fern and the fleece “veil“. I do hope it survives.

 

As long as the crown is insulated well it should be fine @simone_in_wiltshire. I’m pretty sure that the fronds on mine will turn black after today’s sub zero temperatures but I’ll just remove them. In previous years it has shown no harm after the fronds have blackened.

 

It just depends how cold you get. We have had -11c, that would probably kill them.

 

Quite likely but I don’t think Wiltshire and the Wirral are likely to experience those sort of temperatures at the moment .

 

Nothing today it's frosty and cold.

 

@Nigel coad and @Plantminded We have currently -3c. That is the coldest night for this time of the night.
The maximum we had was -6c in January 2021.
For some days now, I fall asleep at 7 and wake up at 12 or 1, and go to bed at 2 or 3 again.
That's why I know that until yesterday, the really cold temperatures came in the morning hours, but it was 0c or -1c at 12 or 1 or 2 o'clock.
If it doesn't survive, it is what it is, I couldn't do more, but I can't dig there and plant something new. There is our little darling underneath, buried in 2023. Let's see. I wrapped it so much....