[pedro]

Managed to get on my plot early this morning and got some digging done before the sun made too sticky.
Had my thermals on and with the sun shining bright really enjoyed it.
also managed to build a cage for leaf mould.

[new_2_veg]

the ground here has been white all day and not cleared!

its getting worse now as its another hard frost and cant even walk outside without slipping

[DD.]

We could really do with a long, hard cold spell, so that the frost gets deep into the soil & kills off alll those nasties. But I suspect we won't see one.

[pedro]

frost only melted where the sun got to otherwise stayed very white.

[Trillium]

We have hard frost and more in our soils but it doesn't kill the nasties, only puts them into hibernation, drat!

Fast way to clean frost off the outside of windshields - dump a jug of water over the windshield and hit the wiper button. Works a charm. That's how we do it even when temps bottom out at -20C. Doesn't even need to be warm water, just wet.

[Rob the rake]

I tried that once and ended up with a windscreen-shaped icicle. There must be a knack to it.  

[WG.]

There must be a knack to it.  

Yup - more water

[pedro]

Ihave always done that for about fourty years also over the external mirrors and side glasses (i use slightly warmed water) never had a broken glass.

[noshed]

A nice lorry driver is handy though

[Trillium]

I tried that once and ended up with a windscreen-shaped icicle. There must be a knack to it.  

Yes - hit the wiper button soon as you dump the water :!:

[DD.]

We have hard frost and more in our soils but it doesn't kill the nasties, only puts them into hibernation, drat!

Our bugs are not used to it! I don't think once frozen a slug comes back to life! I don't think it's good for their eggs either!

[paintedlady]

Last winter there had been a very hard frost and the next day I went to the allotment to get on with cutting wood and positioning them for the raised beds.  The dirt footpaths in between each bed were rock hard until the sun came out and melted the top surface of the soil - combined with an extra inch of clay clinging to the soles of my boots, it was scary sliding about, often doing windmill impressions for balance!  So if the forecast is icy this weekend, I think I might just stay indoors instead and actually start thinking about getting the house looking more festive

[WG.]

Our bugs are not used to it! I don't think once frozen a slug comes back to life! I don't think it's good for their eggs either!

Sorry but it takes a very hard prolonged frost to go more than an inch into the soil.  The slugs simply go into hiding away from the frost.

[Rob the rake]

What about whitefly, WG?

[gobs]

The frost killing the nasties has been around in print and all so much, that we tend to take it for granted, whereas if you think about it, it cannot be so.

That would mean they materialize out of thin air every spring. They've been hiding all along, I think.

Only adult flies, etc get killed by cold, if they are not dead already as finished their short lives and the species survives in another form, according to their own life cycle, egg, pupae, larvae. Some others hibernate, in wood, crooks, leaves, etc.

Slugs don't get frozen, they are nice and cosy deep down in your carrot or elsewhere, only come out once it thawed. In fact they hibernate both in cold and dry weather.

And the eggs of your green fly are laid, carefully positioned, ready to hatch in the first warm spell of the spring, as sods law would have it, sooner than the ladybirds come out of hibernation and get active. :roll: