The thermometer was gladly telling me that the high for the week had been 0c while the low was -2c. To have hard frost in the morning it something we don’t get that often, so to have it every day for a week has been a bit unusual. Even so, while the rest of the world it seemed were posting pictures of snow outside their window, we got a light dusting and that was it.

The garlic and herb plants in the garden didn’t look like they were liking it, although I’m sure the garlic was secretly loving it giving it chance to split into separate cloves. The herbs looked like they would never recover, although they did within a couple of days of the cold spell ending.

At the plot I thought the broad beans would stick it out and the October sown ones did mostly. They look a bit battered but they will stay dormant until mid March I’m sure. The early sown beans, sown in September, had suffered a lot. I was slightly concerned as they had grown tall with flowers and the prolonged cold has turned a lot of them black and killed them off. I tidied up what I could and time will tell if they recover and/or re-grown from their base. It was a bit of a trial sowing so early and it would had payed off if it had not been for the long freezing week.

Not a problem, the other over wintered beans should spring back and I do have the option for sowing some more in March.

The cold had affected the wildlife too, birds obviously hunting for food had stripped the leaves off of the turnips that were still in the ground. Not a problem as they were due to be pulled up before the end of the month. The leeks are looking stronger and I started to pull some and will continue to do so regularly now. I’ve left it quite long to start harvesting and it has paid off it maybe not the biggest leeks but certainly viable ones. I had dibbed them in quite deep I remember and it has been worth while as although small, they do have a nice long white bit.

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