Ellen Wallace
Winter is always a guessing time for me: will the plants I’ve left on the veranda survive this year? I bring some indoors and leave the hardier ones outside.
Photos: a small Swiss Army shovel is perfect for shoveling snow from the garden onto plants wintering on the veranda, where it takes days to melt.
Some plants, which according to all the books and garden store tags say will not survive below -5C, always do. Others that should survive don’t. The sunny but cold Alpine climate at 1,100 metres seems to follow its own whims.
I help the plants along by covering them with evergreen branches and I regularly shovel snow onto them so they get a nice, slow watering from the solid stuff. It’s the best drip system around.
The newly chopped Christmas tree in early January always offers a welcome boost of evergreen protection to plants that are looking a bit too exposed for comfort, not to mention survival.
The dismal site of the tree in a sawed heap, on a foggy wintry day is not cheering until I consider how cozy some of my flowers will be, snug under their new winter coat.
GenevaLunch, 9 January 2008.
Filed under: Garden
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