First snow

We’ve had our first snow of the season at Genus HQ.  Cold blustery showers on already very wet ground made gardening virtually impossible.  Standing on the paths to avoid damaging the lawn, we did manage to carry out some work removing old flowered stems from our euphorbias and cutting out  some of the dead and old wood from philadelphus.

Regular advice is to leave snow where it falls to act as an insulating layer.  We have learnt the hard way that this isn’t often appropriate and have found that snow on our hedges and shrubs can cause untold damage misshaping them or breaking branches.  We now try to shake or brush off anything above ground level.

The snow may stop us from working in the garden but at daybreak tracks in the snow have been giving us clues as to some of our nocturnal visitors.  Foxes, crows, and voles are regular visitors along with a beautiful hare that hunkers down on the edge of our copse.  And a few days ago, we saw a stoat scurrying away into the woodland garden.