portion of part of Italy continue below freezing for two day this weekend as a frigid wave came down from Russia .
Friday and Saturday were occupy with snow in Liguria and the mountains above us are all wrap up in white . We even got a sprinkling of coke down here at ocean degree , and the garden is pretty well icy .
The fava dome are all a spot wilted and a few of the pinnace plants like the hibiscus are gravely burn , but most everything else look fine . The cabbage and Brassica oleracea italica were all well - mulch and look as if they enjoy the abbreviated freeze . The New Zealander vine are finally shedding their leaf , but the Malus pumila trees still have their leaves ! The orangish trees and the lemons are doing fine and show no sign of frost damage .
I did have the good fortune to find some splendid folio collect spot up on the mountain a few weeks ago , so all the bed are mulched with thick layers of oak foliage .
I ’m not exactly sure of the scientific ground , but I ’m of the opinion that oak leaves are the good leaves one can find for mulching manipulation .
Somebody else must share this judgment , because I remember when I worked in the nurseries when I was younger , the unmarried most apprehended bagged mulch merchandise was always oak folio mould . Even though oak tree leaf mold be three meter as much as the other mulching products , we would always betray a pile of it .
The photo for this week was taken by my friend Juliette Hargreaves . They live luxuriously up on a ridge of Mount Portofino and their localization is usually colder than ours down at ocean - level .
I ’ve been in Liguria for nine years now , and I ’ve only seen it snow in Rapallo three times . It commonly snows up on the pile behind us every class , but C. P. Snow on our street is somewhat rare .
The weather predictions call for a thaw in the next few day as a storm system is coming up from Africa , so I expect that we ’ll have a wet Christmas rather than a livid one . If we are in the mood for C , we ’re only about a twenty - moment drive from the hills above where we can find all the snowfall we want .
Even with all the snow , I can already feel the inevitableness of spring , and I ’ll accept that I get pretty excited .
I particularly enjoy the winter solstice in a few twenty-four hours , which mean that the days will finally begin getting long . I ’m quick for fountain . I have a novel coldframe for growing seeds , a new terrace ready for planting , and three of the biggest beds resting under a wooden-headed cover of compost , all ready for the spring crops .
The big bazaar in Chiavari is in less than a calendar month , and I ’m really glad to be ready for a newfangled orchard apple tree tree and two Modern citrus . The holes are already travail and filled with compost , so I ’ll be able-bodied to imbed the Modern trees in late January without call for to dig in the clay .
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