January visits to the garden aren’t something we do here. The garden is usually covered in snow, or completely frozen. It’s hard to even get to the garden if the weather isn’t sunny but cold.

The past couple of days have been dry but cold, so I decided it was safe to go and check the garden. Although the soil is a bit slippery, it is actually completely frozen. Most of the plants are also frozen, except for the perennials and some bulbs, like tulips and hyacinths, that are starting to grow even with the freezing mornings. 

I didn’t get the chance to empty the barrel and gather up the tools earlier, so I wanted to do it while I was there, but that was a bit impossible. The water in the barrel is completely frozen and I can’t move it, we can hope the ice won’t break the barrel. I managed to take the spades and watering cans(which were also frozen) and took them to the basement to prevent cracking and rusting. Plastic cans tend to crack and crumble if left in the garden over the winter, and shovels and hoes rust and turn blunt. 

Orchard is doing ok, we didn’t have any damaging winds, so there aren’t any broken branches for now, but there are dozens of suckers that I’ll have to remove. I’ll wait for the middle of February to do this if we don’t get lots of snow.