It’s the third day of frost here. Beautiful clear skies, frosted lawn and no doubt some amazing frosted perennials but I have not been down the path to take a look. I spent ten minutes in the garden yesterday afternoon. It was enough. Two bags of ornamental bark were emptied around the fruit trees and my toes and fingers were frozen. I quickly took my SOS photos and headed back to the warmth. Here’s this week’s six.
One
I’ve gone all abstract for this one. It is the solidly frozen bird bath testifying to the depth of the freeze. There are several more days of this to come. The birds are fluffed up against the cold. I broke the ice on the waterbutts and replenished the feeder. It was the least I could do.
Two
Berries are the order of the day. I hope the larger birds can forage enough to keep them well fed. These are from a cotoneaster that always gets a mention at this time of year.
Three
Cotoneaster horizontalis, the marmite plant. I know some who detest it. I inherited it here and wasn’t a fan, I have pruned it back into some sort of shape and it covers a fence and grows without further nurturing. That’s its clever plan. Keep your head down and I won’t really notice you and you get to stay forever.
Four
Leave your dahlias until they blacken in the frost – that is the oft repeated wisdom. Well here they are, well and truly blackened. I don’t usually lift dahlias. The ground is now frozen so I won’t be lifting these. I will cut them back and cover them with some mulch. Crossing fingers sometimes helps too.
Five
I added a cornus alba Sibirica to the garden last year. It’s had a tough year to deal with and hardly looks as if it has put on any growth at all. But the stems are wonderfully red. I will be patient.
Six
This was taken around 9am on Thursday morning. Thank you to my neighbours for having so many trees that I can borrow from time to time.
The last time I checked the overnight greenhouse temperature it was minus 2.7 degrees. I think it was colder last night. I won’t be doing any gardening this weekend. I might dwell a little on which variety of potato to choose for next year. I will be checking in with Jim at Garden Ruminations, there are beautiful colours on show in his garden and of course all the SOS links to other posts are there too. Wrap up well for the Northern hemisphere, bask in glory for Southern hemisphere.
n20gardener 
I have the same Cornus here in the garden and the red colours are wonderful in winter. You’re right. It grows quite quickly and gives a nice hedge for me . Your patience will be rewarded
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Thanks for showing your dahlias – now I know what to look out for before I cut them down and move the pots to the greenhouse. We also had 3 nights/days of frost but the leaves on mine are merely crisp and brown in places. Love the tree silhouettes in the low sun.
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Time to move those dahlias on I’d say.
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I agree. They look even worse this morning – I’m just trying to summon up the courage to get out there with the secateurs and move the pots.
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What a lovely cotoneaster. Now shall we move on. Lovely tree shot and also the abstract icy one is great. Fingers crossed for the dahlias, there is a lot in the hands of the horti-gods at the moment.
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🙂 moving on no problem!
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Actually you had one of two that I saw on SoS yesterday.
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It certainly doesn’t encourage us to spend long in the garden at the moment. I’m not opening the greenhouse door yet, I’m crossing my fingers that the plants will survive in there.
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Me too.
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That’s a fine skyline of trees but must rob you of quite a bit of sun at this time of year. Not too close though?
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Robs me of sun in the summer too. But hides our neighbours!
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You might not like the Cotoneaster but hopefully the birds will enjoy the berries. It’s even been cold enough in my part of the UK for some frost and hailstones! But the light has been wonderful and I much prefer the cold to the wet.
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Oh my! That is cold! You know though, frost actually happened here before it happened in some other regions. It was not bad of course, but it was weirdly earlier nonetheless. We do not get frost like yours. That is why I do not grow more peonies.
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Staying indoors is my plan for the weekend 🥶The gardening jobs will still be there when it gets a little milder. I too have a cotoneaster which keeps its head down and has escaped the cull.
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Frost certainly does make for some interesting photos.
I’m confused by your cotoneaster marmite reference, it couldn’t be anything to do with the colour!
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Those Dahlias are well and truly blackened. I’m glad I dug mine up last week. Lovely trees to be able to borrow
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