Winter is coming!

It's a good thing I got the greenhouse heater connected and the glass and bubble wrap in last week. The first frost of the year arrived last Tuesday night. Crispy white grass, brrrrrrrrrr. We really must get the wee greenhouse up so I can get the rest of the borderline plants under cover. The wee greenhouse doesn't get heated, just bubble wrapped, but that is usually enough.

Autumn colour on the Blueberries

I also need to get or make new cloches for the alpine troughs.

Later in the week after that frost the night temperatures were up to 13 C at midnight. Hello? This is Scotland at the end of October? Confused? The plants are, and so are we. Now the early nights are here I don't see home in the daylight until the weekend. This limits what gets done outside and being able to see the seasonal changes in our new place. This will all change in a couple of weeks: big changes are afoot but more on that in another blog.

The new heater in place

Equisetum hyemale in a pot on the patio

At the weekend I also spotted the top of a Heuchera blowing across the patio like tumble weed across the desert! It will need rescued and re potted: definitely vine weevils at work, as with the last blog, see here.

A bee enjoying the late flowering Sedum 'Autumn Joy'

It's Saturday and a day at home when it's dry, the first one for a while. With selling my photographs at craft and art markets, Venice and wet weather, its been a while. Although it was windy today it was dry so we wrapped up and went out into the garden to get on with building the wee greenhouse. Like the big greenhouse, its really just meccano for gardeners. Once we figured it out it was easy, especially using photos I took back in June when we took the greenhouse down.

Willing and not so willing helpers, I'll let you work out which is which.
Bolting the frame together on the wee greenhouse

We encouraged Daniel and Adam out to help, as we needed a person on each corner until we could get the bracing and cross pieces attached. As before with the big greenhouse I washed everything down before we put it together. this was not easy as the water pressure was awful. By the end of the day it was almost non existent and by the evening the water was off altogether.

Frame up and bolted to the slabs

This coming weekend we hope to get the glass in and bubble wrap on, and then its a case of filling up the greenhouse and making another cosy place for my plants through the winter.

Abutilon 'Kentish Belle' heading to the greenhouse
for winter

Acer 'Crimson King'