Winter garden tasks

Quick, type fast. My hands are freezing. This office is frosty.

We had our first proper snow of the season overnight.

So that means a great walk in the snow. And then after a cup of tea and too many shortbread biscuits it was on with the. main task.

Thwacking snow off the evergreen shrubs.

The snow that fell wasn’t that heavy, but I do like to clear off the branches so the weight doesn’t snap the plants.

Actually if I knew it was going to warm up a bit and thaw I wouldn’t bother. But the forecast is Not Good for the next week. So I took a broom and set to work.

The lavenders and all the Mediterranean perennials were cleared of snow.

Then I moved merrily about the garden bashing and trying to improve my technique. The tip is not to stand underneath the olive when you thwack.

You would think I have learned that lesson after 14 winters. This olive is just emerging from its radical prune thanks to the storm damage a year ago when heavy snow fell and smashed the branches.

The euphorbias are probably fine. But I am curious to see if these fleshy euphorbia rigidas will come through the snow.

They are only just starting to get ‘interesting’ as plants in the Dry Garden, so I’d hate to lose them.

The shrubs elsewhere could probably take the snow. But I have to admit it is rather fun stomping about with a broom.

And just as I had finished my lap Michel came up with the snow plough. Good man. In the old days we would have been fussing about getting the car out and not getting stuck on the farm.

But the car doesn’t go anywhere. Nor do we.

But it’s nice to have my next thaw project. Michel’s plough scalps the road all the way up the drive.

So I have 300 metres of nice soil pushed to the side to pick up and use elsewhere. A nice annual gift. If I don’t pick it up it will be hell on the lawnmower. And on this gardener who likes her tidy edges.