Last year I don't think we had a hard frost all winter so I was really glad last weekend when we woke up and everything was frozen solid. The ground was rock hard and you would have needed a drill to pick any of the leeks and parsnips that are still in the ground. Much to my delight this frosty spell was followed by snow a couple of days later! Snow that has actually stayed on the ground and I can't remember that happening for a long time.
In my day job I do a lot of work with older people and they often talk about the way that our weather has been changing - that we don't get the cold winters that we used to. Beyond a simple sense of nostalgia for icy winters gone by, these changes are really significant for gardeners. A keen frost will break your soil down brilliantly and kill any slug eggs that are near to the surface - we had more slugs than ever last summer and I'm convinced that was a result of a frost free winter followed by a warm and wet summer. Also, it's this kind of weather that will kill off any annual weeds that are left lurking and break down the starch in parsnips to make them sweet and tasty.
The changes in weather that we've been seeing sadly aren't mere coincidence and, in our globally warmed world, we're all going to have to start thinking of new ways of doing things as the weather gets hotter. Maybe I'll have to head further north so that I can still get my fix of this kind of magnificent winter weather?
