themagnoliatreeblog

After a long warm autumn, with plants getting out of sync. and not knowing if they are coming or going, the frost has arrived and a beautiful begonia which had taken up residence amongst the sweet potatoes is now frost bitten and mushy. The achochas have also fallen foul of the frost and the new fruits are rendered inedible.

Now that the frost has got to the Oca, it should be ready to harvest soon. I have some growing in a potato bag and there is an abundance of leaves, I’ve had a quick look and there was one little pink grub-like tuber just under the soil. It will be fine if there’s a lot more like it.

The snowball turnip I planted out in containers is still disappearing again and judging from the teeth marks on the leaves I suspect slugs and snails are to blame. However, the Chioggia beetroot is still there, they may not care for that so much.

I’ve discarded a lot of the end of the line greenhouse plants to make some more room to overwinter plants I don’t want to take the risk of losing. No matter how you understand that they have to die back over winter, it’s still a worry that they might not return in spring. Most of my plants have to be hardy though, there’s no room for mollycoddling, even if they are given the comfort of the greenhouse.

I also need to think about my little workers in the wormery. They may not like heat but I need to protect them from freezing, so have added some more shredded newspaper and coir to keep them cosy and covered the wormery to protect them from the worst of the weather. I would normally just move them into the greenhouse but I doubt there will be much room. However, once I get the greenhouse organised for winter I will see if there is some space for them.

Once everything else is tucked up for the winter, it doesn’t mean to say I can too. I will still need to keep an eye on things and already I’m sorting out seeds and planting plans for next year. I’ve always described myself as a fair weather gardener but I suppose that’s not strictly true, there is always something garden-related needing doing. You can always brighten a dull December garden with Christmas lights and it’s not long after mid-winter, the first signs of life burst through the snow and frozen ground.

There is a lot to look forward to in the spring, the water lily needs splitting as well as some of the other garden plants. It’s a never-ending task keeping the enthusiastic growth of some plants to a minimum. Some of them will need to be content with being restricted to pots next year. In a tiny garden, keeping them in pots makes them easier to move around without having to disturb their roots. As always, my plans and ideas are always subject to change.

Why not visit my other blog Grannysattic