Ice, Ice Baby!

I have just got back in after a very cold morning on the plot.

Where my plot is situated I get no direct sun on 90% of my land at all during the winter as the sun is so low in the sky, so any frost that appears does not melt but gets built up over any subsequent frosty days.

Frosty Savoy Cabbages

Today has been the third or fourth consecutive frosty day with the result that everything is covered with a thick layer of frost.  It all looks quite beautiful really, but I wanted to harvest a few spring green leaves and in the end I didn't as I wasn't sure how the plants would fare with an open wound in these temperatures.

Perpetual spinach just about survuving the cold

I realise that some vegetables need a really cold snap to jolt them into production, and that plenty of the brassicas I already have in the ground can cope with these temperatures, but I can't help looking forwards to Spring and the new growing season when everything becomes alive and vibrant again.

Brussels with a halo of frost



Drainage ditch completely iced up

Despite the cold I took the opportunity to finish digging bed 7 today.  We had originally started it last weekend, but ran out of good weather before we had got much more than half way through.

This morning it was pretty hard going to start, with the frost penetrating to about 3 inches below ground, but once I had taken out the first spades-width and moved back from the edge this reduced to just over an inch so I was able to make some good progress.

The manure pile had also frozen solid, despite there being some heat generated from the rotting process below the surface.

It looks like the heavy rain that we had last Thursday had pooled on every surface and then frozen quickly to create an icy coating which subsequent frosts have thickened. 

The piles of earth that we dug out last week were literally frozen solid - I tried to break them up with the mattock, but just succeeded in spraying myself with loads of ice chips mixed with frozen soil - not nice.

I will have to wait for some nicer weather to arrive before this bed is finished, but on the positive side I have now moved enough manure from the pile to leave space for bed 9 to be created there, but that too is a job for another, warmer day.