Cold

Gardeners will often tell you that one of the reasons they like to garden so much is that they like the feeling of being close to nature. They like to see the birds, the insects and all the other wildlife, and see the seasons change. It is definitely true that the more you garden, the more you become aware of the seasons, and the natural world. There are occasional days though, usually when my car tells me it’s –3°C, that I start to think maybe my desk is close enough to nature! That feeling does very quickly disappear though when I get outside and start work. It’s hard not to marvel at all these plants, from big old English Oaks down to little Primulas, that sit outside through the whole of the winter – while we’re all snug inside – and take everything the weather can throw at them, then happily grow away again in spring. There are even some plants, for example snowdrops and crocus, which seem to think this is the ideal time for some flowering! Without them, January and February would seem longer than ever.

Unfortunately though, there are some plants we grow that just haven’t evolved to cope with a British winter. We have quite a few of them here at Ryton Gardens, and they are kept in heated glasshouses over winter. One of those glasshouses is in the Vegetable Kingdom, and when I walked in today, I was greeted not with the lovely scent of the heliotropes, but with the smell of decaying vegetation. The heater and the frost had had a fight, and the frost won. The banana is looking very sad indeed, and later today I’m going to wrap it in fleece for some extra protection. Hopefully it works!