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Spent Saturday Christmas shopping and getting ready for our office Christmas do. Spent Sunday indoors recovering... Oh well, it was fun at the time. Apparently Sunday was a perfect day for gardening. I didn't quite make it downstairs, let alone outdoors. Spotted our neighbours' gardener today having
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It's just two weeks until the shortest day, and the gardening year will start a few days later as the hamamellis mollis breaks into flower. But this year still has a little further to go. The copper beech is still carrying most of its canopy, and the Sorbus
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But until then it's a question of taking my chances on 2 out of 7. Since I wrote off Saturday shopping for a fetching outfit for our neighbours' same sex wedding, aka civil partnership ceremony, in December, that left Sunday for gardening. Which was fine until midday
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Today was evil. The thermometer stalled at 2C all day, we had thick fog that didn't lift an inch and not a breath of wind. A pervasive, icy, damp chilliness gripped the day and for once made me glad of an indoor job. But a glance at the
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I'm up, dressed, breakfasted and sturdy-booted, ready for a serious session outside. But, it's thick fog, -1C and so very still that it's scary - like the world's stopped turning and the weather is no more. Call me a nesh wimp but
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An update on today and some observations for future reference: - Gladiolus calianthus (Acidanthera)- no sign of frost damage in shade tunnel, but plainly frost bitten under the bell cloche (I left the top vent open). - Thalictrum delaveyi seedlings are hardy as anything - pricked them out today
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...it was exactly the same. Barometer still rising, no wind, temp dipping overnight to below zero and lifting with the sunrise. High pressure is settled over the UK and is set to stay for another week. It's easier to read the weather station graph if you click to
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Last night was a record low for 2005, at -3.8C, beating the record for Jan 2005. The chocolate cosmos is still in the shade tunnel and the pots they are in seem frozen - I'll move them into the polytunnel at the weekend - if it'
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The garden themometer dropped to minus 2.2C overnight - it was still only 0C at 10am. We brought the Dicksonia in last night and I covered some of the marginal plants with plastic bell cloches just in time. Beautiful day today - makes winter almost enjoyable when it'
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With lunch booked at Haigh Hall with our great friends and neighbours,I squeezed in a quick spot of digging in the morning sunshine. This was the pumpkin patch and will become the new prairie garden. First it needed digging over and weeding. Next job - removing six inches of
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before... an hour's sprint digging later
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The product of a full day's leaf collecting. I should shred it really, but it's hard enough work collecting them. However, it's all worth it because.. ..this is what it makes. The first bucket of home brew compost, 50/50 sieved garden compost and