Ed wrote:
But this is exactly what we need. Deep, deep cold for weeks and weeks.
If you have dug your soil over in November and left in in clods , then
it will break down beautifully in the Spring when you start to till it.
I don't deny it's what we may need. In fact, I'm releived that we are
finally getting a really cold winter again. Unfortunately, I didn't get
a great deal of digging done last year. We bought the house and moved in
at the end of March. The house, with large garden, had previously been
rented for 10 years and neither the tenants nor, apparently, the
landlord, cared much for gardening. Which borders on the criminal with a
1600mē garden (that's a sixth of a hectare). So we spent a large part of
the summer and autumn filling 5 or 6 skips with rubble and assorted
garden waste. We've still got a bit of each left. The 'lawn' was a foot
long, there were trees sprouting up everywhere (everything from a
quarter of an inch to 5-6 inches thick). We discovered many, many yards
of pathways after clearing away moss and grass. We cleared away a couple
of tree stumps where somebody had cut down trees about a foot above the
ground and then just left the stumps in place, planting ivy around them
to cover them up. We felled about a dozen other trees, including four
enormous fir trees, one with a diameter of about three feet. Etc. So no,
we didn't do much digging. :-) That'll start in earnest this year.
Also , the deep frozen ground will kill loads of slugs (so, they tell me) .
That's why I'm releived that we are getting a really cold winter. It
puts paid to alsorts of nasty beasties, especially that particular pest
in German forests, the bark beetle. A hard winter like this also tends
to reduce the mosquito plague in the summer.
I hope it stays frozen for a few more weeks yet despite the problems.
Nah, I think it's time for thaw now. Don't like this excessive cold.
In the meantime, wear woolly hats and gloves and thermal vests and
pants. Don't let your body get cold if you are working outdoors!
At these temperatures, I ain't working out of doors, believe me.
Regards
--
Alan Johnson, Geotr@ns
www.geotrans-online.de
German-English, Geosciences/Technical
http://geotransblog.blogspot.com/
Terminus Est