The snow I promised to photograph arrived this past week. Today was a clear and crisp and very brisk -7°C, so I crunched around outside in my biggest pair of boots to show you the current state of the garden.
1. Standard view of the veg garden, winter edition. The ground is frozen and it’s best to avoid disturbing the snow so it insulates what’s under it. If we get a normal to decent amount of snow this year, you will not be able to see the beds by March. I must strap on the snowshoes by that point, to avoid sinking hip-deep with each step. Any crops still out there (just the salsify and experimental lettuce) are on their own until spring melt.
2. The chunky Norway spruce which I would personally like to remove completely because it’s casting an awful lot of shade and most likely killing the nearby fruit trees. It’s not like we don’t have an entire forest of them already. The husband is fond of it, though, and even I must admit that this one has a particularly pleasing shape. Our compromise was that he would keep those bottom boughs trimmed so they allow a bit more light through and don’t keep thwapping everyone who walks past.
3. A limber young birch arching gracefully under its load of snow.
4. And we’re back inside again! I got this little olive tree a couple of years ago and it started putting on a good amount of growth this summer. I was very relieved since it lost a lot of leaves last winter when it came inside. This year, I put the grow lights closer to it and the leaves are looking much perkier. Now I just need to read up on how to prune this thing, since some of the branches are getting long.
5. Pelargoniums got brought in for the winter because I read somewhere they make good houseplants. I always thought of them as needing a lot more sun, but they seem to be growing well enough. With some luck, they will be big by spring and ready to flower when I put them out. Considering how slow they were to start as little plug plants last year, it’s worth a try.
6. Two Camellia sinensis that are overwintering in the kitchen. I hope to eventually plant these outside in a sheltered location with winter protection since they are supposedly hardy to zone 7. They seemed a bit too tiny to try that with this year, though.
Thanks for visiting and please do check out what the other SoSers are doing over at Jim’s page!
Little Blue and White House 
If I were a plant, I think I’d like to be indoors too!
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Hahaha, indeed! As more and more plants start crowding into our living spaces, I’m finding that greenhouse renovation will have to be my big project for the spring. I’ve read all sorts of posts now about using cloches, insulation, and seed warming mats in greenhouses and am well persuaded that it would be very doable to turn it into a winter home… at least for the borderline hardy plants. It’d be nice to have my kitchen table back…
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Tks for sharing the photos of snow coming from the North. Concerning the olive tree, it’s still small and there will not be much to prune. I would just remove a few stems in the middle to aerate and give light. For the camellia sinensis, I tried to plant 2 of mine in the ground and they died with -5°c. Now I keep the other 2 carefully all winter in the frost free greenhouse
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Good to know, I’ll work on cleaning up the tangle in the middle of the olive tree branches and let it do its thing, then. Oh no, your poor cold camellias! The books I read said that they liked cooler weather, but I suppose that was a little too cold. I’m in the early stages of implementing a plan that will hopefully keep my greenhouse at comfortable temperatures too, so if that works out they can move in there next winter…
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I have uplimbed a bald cypress successfully to provide more light for plants underneath and it worked beautifully.
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How far up the trunk did you go? I’d like to take off a few more this year, but they’re so big that it’s a weekend event every time. I suspect I’ll have to keep plants in pots underneath anyway, instead of planting them straight into the ground, since spruces make it so hard for anything to near them :-\
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I removed limbs up to about shoulder height. My hardy chrysanthemums filled in the space with the extra light that was created.
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Lovely snow scenes, we never seem to get such deep snow here in the SW of the UK Your pelargoniums should do well indoors, I always bring mine in for the winter and cut them right back, what I cut off I use as cuttings so have lots more by spring!
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We usually don’t have snow this deep around this time either, maybe once or twice since I moved here over a dozen years ago. Though I’m not complaining because it’s providing excellent insulation and our electricity bills will probably reflect that. It also makes the landscape much more bearable when there’s so little sunlight — the last full moon made everything so bright that I had to draw the curtains to sleep!
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Your garden does look pretty in the snow Angela. We are getting some snow too right now, but it isn’t really cold enough for it to settle…. yet! I’m keeping a couple of Pelargoniums this year too, but gave up taking cuttings as they take so long to get going in spring.
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I got mine as tiny rooted cuttings and they took the longest time to grow this past spring, never did get very big, either. I thought it was due to the dryness, so will try sinking them into the soil in the spring. The slow spring growth is the main reason I brought them in — hopefully by the time I set this lot back out, they’ll be big enough to start flowering instead of dawdling for months on end…
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Great snow scenes. We don’t tend to get much these days in the South West but it is pretty so long as you don’t have to get anywhere!
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No kidding — our infrastructure for dealing with snow is pretty robust when the snow comes at the correct time, but one day early and it’s mayhem. As in, the snow literally fell one day (31/10) before the start of snow tire season and I saw 4 cars stuck on the side of the road whilst inching my way to work that morning…
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So much snow already! It’s interesting to see which plants people chose to bring in to overwinter. I save scented pelagoniums and they line two windowsills, but I am already noticing an increase in fungus gnats in the house 😦
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It is interesting! I love houseplants too, so it can get to be quite the jungle during the cold months. I had some fungus gnats in the beginning with my potted plants, but that problem pretty much went away when I started doing regular neem soil drenches to combat other indoor pests (mostly scale insects).
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Lovely snow – we have only gotten enough to make the lawn look moldy!
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I’m sure it won’t be long now before that changes!
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Love the birch in the snow ❄💞 It’s great to see you indoor plants too! Your pelargonium should be pretty happy indoors, they are pretty hardy. Love your tea Camellias, I tried growing one one year unsuccessfully. I must try again!
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The camellias are definitely on the picky side! Between keeping them in pots and raising them almost completely on artificial lights over the winters, I’m just hoping they hold on until spring when they can go back out. The challenge is part of the fun, though 😀
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