A snowy Spring

 February and we are open.

 

We actually had a couple of hardy souls visiting the garden today…but the snow showers beat them

Of course it is magic and tomorrow we are promised winter sunshine. We have the first of the snow drops and Aconites out for sale, even though they have a thin crust of snow on their pots.

Activity levels are pretty high. Hamish has been cutting down and chipping trees, in preparation for the start of the new hydroelectric scheme that will be installed by Dulas. All rather exciting and I will tell that story soon.  Donald has been tidying and burning (always favourite) and moving dead and fallen shrubs. 
 

 

Considering the post-Christmas gales we got off lightly……a lilac and a shallow rooted oak tree, and lots of branches.  

So we came back from New Zealand and have adjusted remarkably fast to cold and snow. Just so long as it does not go on too long! 

 

A walk through the garden shows the spears of snowdrops pushing through everywhere. The witch hazels are wonderful and the evergreens are looking splendid as they always do in mid-winter.

And me, I am finishing the catalogue…..Cat has done a great cover and we are almost go for 2015

Margaret Davidson

 

The Turning of the Season

It’s cold now. A depression roared in from the Atlantic last week and we still have blustery showers, and the first snow on the tops.  When I say snow on the tops I don’t mean Ben Nevis, the Ben has had snow for some weeks now, but snow on the hills opposite us on south Loch Ness…...hills around 200ft

The mornings have become dark and I have become very sluggish getting out to the garden. In less than a week the clocks will go back and we will have some brighter mornings, though colder of course.
No frost yet, but raw, wet mornings. I keep glancing at the met office forecasts looking for a mild settled spell to see out the last of the autumn colour. No luck that I can see.

The colour is still wonderful and now that the flashy early reds of Acers and Horse Chestnuts and Geans are through, the colours are taking on russet depths that clothe and pillow the hills in birch and oak.

A bright sunny day would be food for the soul.

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Will it ever thaw?

We are back from New Zealand full of the joys of life and ready to enter the Spring madhouse of seed planting, catalogue requests and garden maintenance.

Instead we were met with iron hard ground, minus 10 to minus 15 degrees C night temperatures. Then several inches of snow just to round things of - oh and our domestic water froze up for 5 days. So all systems have slowed down, but now on the 4th of March there are the glimmerings of hope that thaw and spring are on there way.

Gardening tasks that can still be done in all this snow

The best laid Plans o' Mice an' Men, gang aft agley

Well the weather of the last three weeks couldn't have upset my garden plans much more.

Winter is when I get caught up with the garden, gather leaves, clean out streams, make new garden beds, remove old and dead branches from trees and shrubs..... but with at least a foot of hard snow over everything and glazed ice on the branches its no-go, so what can you do!!

Inside, the first seeds can be sown, onions and parsley need an early start in a heated propagater, and there are a number of seeds that benefit from a period of cold to get them to germinate.

You can also write the labels for all the other things you will be sowing when spring comes along, that will be a time consuming chore done, as long as you remember where you've put them.

Outside, after every new snowfall, gently shake the snow of your favourite shrubs and small trees so that