Wot, No Snow...?

With half the country under a white blanket of the cold stuff, my small suburban garden remains unaffected. The sub-zero temperatures have managed to kill off the begonias but I'm not at all bothered. I did toy with the idea of digging them up and over-wintering them again but to be honest they're 80% leaf and they don't attract the bees and butterflies very well. Next spring I shall plant mostly wild-flower seeds in the hope that my bee hotels will once again become popular.

The geraniums, as ever, never cease to amaze and are still in flower. The white jasmine clearly thinks it's spring again as it's in bud (quite mad really). The buddleia has also grown new leaves and my lovely new fuchsia is also showing signs of new flowers.

This time of year, the garden is far from looking its best and all around are soggy brown leaves and dead stems, but the magnolia has also decided to join in with the springtime theme and has produced some furry little buds on it's branches. Will it all end in tears? Only time will tell...

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow...

Despite all the fuss on the news and on social media sites, Colchester seems to have got off rather lightly in this recent snow event (at the moment….!) While other areas appear knee-deep in the white stuff there’s only a light dusting in my small suburban garden, and it’s not even managing to settle in some parts. Looks a bit like someone sprinkling icing sugar on a cake.

However, I won’t be popping to the compost bins anytime soon judging by how slippery the slabs are and a quick prod of the water butt confirms my suspicions that it is, in fact, frozen inside.

I’m hoping my bees are warm and cosy in their baked-bean-can ‘house’ and that they’re managing to cope in the sub-zero temperatures…

JANUARY 20, 2013 

Snow, Snow, Thick, Thick, Snow...

Well, the weather forecast DID say it’d snow last night, and they weren’t wrong. We’ve actually been lucky with a relatively mild winter so far, but this past week we’ve been in the grip of a Siberian weather front and it was only a matter of time before the white stuff fell.

Once it thaws I shall have the miserable task of digging up dead geraniums. Oh well….they had a good innings…

FEBRUARY 5, 2012 

Wot, No Birds?...

There’s a distinct lack of feathery things in my small suburban garden, and I’m left wondering why?
I accept that the winter snow, frost, ice and so on would’ve seen numbers fall dramatically, but since we’ve recently been experiencing ‘scorchingly hot’ daytime temperatures of 2-3 degrees above zero I’d have thought that they’d have returned.

I deliberately put nice small chunks of bread on the paving slabs, and hung fancy red plastic seed nets in my currently leafless forsythia, but even the coconut shell filled with fat hasn’t tempted them from their hiding places.

I’ve been on ‘cat watch’ and have shooed away any felines daring to poke their whiskers over my fence, but still nothing.

Hmmm…. the plot thickens………..


JANUARY 7, 2011 

The Thaw...

As I intend to blog about my small suburban garden throughout the year, I felt that as part of the preparation I should actually take a peek out of the lounge window to see what the recent thaw has exposed.

Prior to the rather unwelcome snow, my garden had been neatly swept of all leaves and there were still a few geraniums and lobelias hanging on in there. The bird feeder had been topped up with seeds and pink and yellow primulas added some much needed colour to the far border.

For the past two weeks or more the entire area has been covered in a thick white blanket, but today the full horror was revealed. The bread I had been casting out for the birds remains uneaten, and even the seagulls swooping overhead are showing no interest in the thick white (albeit soggy) crusts. Half  the contents of the bird feeder has been emptied onto the paving slabs below, although I can’t be sure if it was birds who scattered them or simply a result of the wind. The once bright and cheery geraniums and lobelias are decidedly limp and rotting, while the lavender and thyme (in terracotta pots) seem to have been the hardiest of all the plants, along with the jasmine which is clinging to the fence in defiance of the recent sub-zero temperatures.

It seems that I have very little choice other than to put on my thermals and make some sort of effort to rectify things asap…!

DECEMBER 28, 2010