Six on Saturday: Like a Thief in the Night

25.11.2023 - 23:22 / ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com / Cathy

After a few days of clear sunny days and blue skies, even with a hint of warmth in the sun on Thursday, it was almost inevitable that we would soon be seeing our first frost of the season – and so it was, arriving like a thief in the night. Temperatures dipped to -2°C in the early hours, and haven’t risen above 5°C for the rest of the day, finally putting paid to autumn for this year.

It is too soon to see the effects of the frost on the garden – my dahlias, usually the first to display frostbite, were lifted in another burst of enthusiastic garden activity this week, and stored in the sitooterie to dry off, having deduced that no more buds would be opening.

Just like the previous week, it has been another most satisfactory week with everything garden-related, boosted by a message from Anna of Green Tapestry, informing me that amaryllis/hippeastrum were currently available in Lidl, an occurrence that ground to a halt after Brexit, with bulbs in both Aldi and Lidl severely restricted. Not surprisingly, I have taken advantage of this knowledge!

Following progress with the leaf mould last week, once the cage was emptied I moved on to emptying the 2022 compost heap, a task that is easily put off – last year till after Christmas, even though the active heap had been all but overflowing for a few months. This year, however, having polished the job off in just 3 or 4 hours, I have realised how much easier the job is when done in more clement weather, and it seemed a minor miracle to have an empty bin so quickly!

The compost was spread around roses, hellebores and rhododendrons and would normally be spread on the cutting beds too; however, we have plans to ‘rearrange’ this area (an idea that, unusually, came from the Golfer but