Gardening in a winter wonderland

I managed to get a few hours in the garden on Sunday, on a cold and frosty morning as they say, undertaking the usual winter tidy jobs and, as it happens, it was just in time. 

Having cleared the greenhouse the non-hardy plants in pots such as the numerous Agapanthus and the French Lavender are all now tucked up in the relative warmth under the glass. An hour or so was spent raking leaves from around the garden, all added to the leaf mould bin, and a general tidy of the veg beds and flower beds was done. The entire garden was covered in frost and looked quite beautiful so wrapped-up nice warm in several layers it was actually quite an enjoyable few hours and in the crisp clean winter air certainly it certainly cleared the hangover from the football the night before. Within a couple of hours of me finishing the snow arrived, see below, and boy did it arrive with around four-inches falling in total overnight. 

A few of the plants have probably suffered, the Salvia Hot Lips for example look to have been battered and look somewhat flat which is a worry whilst the Canary Island Phoenix Palm and Olive both look somewhat strange covered in snow but hopefully are okay; they will get a brush down later. 

I mentioned in a previous post that I was hoping to test the winter hardiness of the Eskimo Carrots but at the time they were more likely to float off into next doors garden than become frozen in the ground with all the rain we ere getting. How things change, This weather, if nothing else, will put their winter hardiness to the test and I shall discover if they truly live up to the name Eskimo!