Cold is Good!

Here in England we have been below freezing for most of the time for the past few weeks. As gardeners we should be glad of it! Frost and freezing are a crucial part of the gardening calendar and have beneficial results for your plants and your soil. Many British fruit varieties need a period of hard frost in order to develop fruit buds for the following year. At the National Fruit Collection at Brogdale I learnt that apple trees for example need a certain number of days when the temperature falls below freezing in order to properly develop the buds for next year. Raspberries grow best when they are exposed to a hard frost during Winter (just think why they grow so well in Scotland). Blackcurrants are another fruit which needs a good hard frost to develop fruit for next year.

Some of the best strawberries I have ever tasted were from Norway! Strawberry crowns too need to be exposed to the frost, as do rhubarb crowns.

Just think of your soil as well! Water crystals in the soil will expand and break up your clods of earth and hard soil and will vastly improve its texture. You will notice this if you have dug and turned over your soil already and leave it to the elements over Winter.

So enjoy the cold! Wrap up warm and go down the garden and if you are unable to dig or work, then just think of all the good that freezing weather will do to your plants and to your soil. And besides which... it is much easier to see a black dog in the garden when it is covered in snow!