After a really rough week, we finally got some calm weather and this gave me a chance to see what my orchard looks like after a snow and wind storm.
It’s not as bad as I thought it would be. There is a clearly visible difference in trees based on their position in the orchard. My garden is located next to the woods and the closer to the woods we get the shade is bigger and the colder the soil gets. The best way to show this is on my red currants. I have 2 big bushes of currants. The one that is closer to the woods is barely starting to grow leaves and the ones closer to the west are already blooming. The space between them is less than a meter. 

Even with this small difference in space the difference in temperature was clearly very high. The plum flowers on a tree close to the woods have been completely frozen, there are even some branches that have been frozen and are basically dead while the plum that is in the middle of the orchard is blooming like we didn’t have any frost temperatures, all the flowers are healthy and blooming.

Luckily most of the trees on the side of the woods like apples and walnuts didn’t start blooming at all so they have been spared. 

The elderberry bushes that I have next to my orchard have also been completely frozen. There is a chance the ones that are at the end of the garden will still give some flowers but the ones on the top are frozen completely. Flowerheads are already black and leaves look burned. 

The two big roses that I have in the garden are also frozen. The one that is near the entrance has burned and wilted leaves while the one in the garden near the orchard has black tips of the branches. 

The good thing is that I managed to cover my spring flowers and they are all ok. There aren’t any damaged bulbs or frozen flowers. 

Another bad thing is that the amount of snow and rain we got was really not enough to water the garden so the soil is still really really dry.

So I guess I can say that we survived with 50:50 damage. I’d be thrilled if we manage to stay like this, but of course, we’re getting a new frost wave in a couple of days, and again who knows what will survive the new hit. I’m hoping the temperatures this time will be similar to the ones we had last week because if they drop for a single celsius there’s no way any of the flowers that are alive now will survive the next wave.