Quality Garden Tools Blog

Snow Place Like Home

Posted on 06/01/10 | Posted by The Fat Gardener

Its days like this when you start to wonder whether the whole ‘global warming’ community have been playing a huge practical joke on us all. If you look at my garden this morning you may have just cause in worrying more about the coming of the next ice age rather than the popular theory that southern England will soon be enjoying the climate of the Mediterranean!

This is certainly not the time for me to be writing about spades, forks, secateurs or indeed any other types of garden tools – although a garden shovel would be useful for clearing snow from doors, gates, driveways and paths.

We all either enjoy the snow or loathe it, but what does it mean for our gardens? Much of the damage done to plants in this weather is mechanical – the weight of the snow can break the limbs of plants, even trees and large shrubs which can accumulate quite a lot of weight on their branches. Frost damage is another problem, with new buds and foliage being worst affected as they tend to be located on the top or on the outer margins of plants, where it is colder.

This snowy weather is not all bad for the garden with much needed moisture being added to the soil as thawing comes into effect. There are also many plants and seeds that require the changes in temperature to trigger growth from the soil in Spring, with many native seeds actually needing the frost for their germination.

I always try to take a photograph of the garden when there is fresh snowfall. I think the garden gets a fairytale quality with the structural plants giving just a hint of the garden’s shape beneath the pristine white blanket of snow. This year’s photograph is attached (taken this morning) it shows the cottage garden almost completely covered and was taken from almost the same position as the photo in an earlier posting here.

Hopefully you can enjoy your garden, even in the current snowy conditions either from the heated safety of the indoors or by building a snowman with the children outside!

The bulldog garden shovel can be found at: www.qualitygardentools.com/hand-tools/cultivation-tools/other-cultivation-tools/id-BUL-7120772890/view

Any comments? Please email us at info@qualitygardentools.com

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