Well temperature hit -3 last night and my garden pond was frozen over! So it was up to the plot today, after the sun had warmed up the ground somewhat, to see what the damage had been. There still areas of ground still with ice on them and a certain ‘crunch’ as I walked along some of the grass paths but.......by and large there was little damage seen. 
Cold and crisp but with the sun shining through the trees it was a magical site. On some plots the broad beans planted in the autumn were standing tall and firm, my Swiss chard was looking limp but I know from experience that it takes more than a temp of -3 to kill them off. That the main reason I grow them because whatever the weather I’ll have greens throughout the winter. Having had a bad season with my Glen Moy raspberry plants for the past two years I’ve taken drastic action and pulled the whole lot out! Breaks my heart to rip up plants but, despite lots of TLC, they didn’t live up to expectations and they had very little root growth considering they had been in 2 years. I took advice from various experts even spoke to the RHS gardeners at Rosemoor, did what they said but to no avail.
So ground was dug over today and hopefully the frost tonight will kill any pests in the soil, ready to replace the plants probably with Glen Moy as they get good write ups from the people who are supposed to know. One thing I will do this time is to place a soaker hose along the bed, poor root growth may be due to the lack of water at root level. Who knows? Like all gardeners I must wait and see what the season brings.
Don’t forget that Matt & Rebecca from the National Trust are coming to our next meeting, a good chance to meet them and ask lots of questions.........so don’t miss it!
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