We’re having a really nice day here, cold in the morning but the sun has shined all day so the temperature rose rather rapidly, not quite 10C (50F) but close enough. The sun is still not strong enough to get the ground to thaw and in some places the ground is still so cold that frost stays on the grass all day long.

That is the annoying part, the ground still being frozen. I really can’t do much but I’ve tried to see what trees and bushes might have survived those really cold and windy days. The Pawpaws has been beaten rough but looks like they might survive after all, the big ones that is, the seedlings might not see another day I’m afraid. The English walnut however looks really healthy, a bit odd since they aren’t the hardiest of trees. The red and the white mulberry trees I have seems to have been lost but I still have a black mulberry tree (called Mille) still looks really well.

Most apricots looks untouched by the cold winter, then again apricots are hardy but the problem with them is that they tend to flower so early in spring that there’s almost no bees out and about to pollinate them and if they are the frost will most likely kill any coming fruit anyway 🙂 🙂 🙂 It is the same with the peach but I still haven’t given up on them. It also looks like the real Quince trees I have have managed to go through winter fairly well. Still too early to say really but all the mentioned trees have been green beneath the bark. My Himalayan cedar tree is more tricky to guess, all needles have turned brown but the one is also green beneath the bark. I do hope the ground will thaw soon so that it can get some water to drink and manage to see another summer. One that I was a bit surprised about though, the tiny Giant sequoia still looks really well. It has on the other hand been covered by snow when it was as coldest.

I planted dome bulbs that were on sale late autumn and had them in my cool cellar. It has been down to 0C (32F) down there so I figured they’ll manage cold nights pretty well so they are now standing in the greenhouse. I just heard a mouse in the walls so I better start checking that box trap from now on. I hope this is the last one before real spring arrives. I’ll keep the trap down there all summer though, just in case. I’ve brought up all the cacti I’ve had down there and even though they look as if they just have a few minutes left they’ll soon be back to normal. I can’t start watering them too much because during the winter when they’ve had little to no water the roots sort of have wilted, so if they get too much water they’ll start to rot and the cacti will die. This year I’ll place them outside in full sunshine and I hope that perhaps at least one will award me with some flowers 🙂

It is time to make a pot of tea, later on there will be Biathlon to watch on tv, the only sport I actually like to watch 🙂 Until then I might sow something, is it too early to sow melon seeds now?

Have a great day!