Sacha gave a warning about excessive snow on poly tunnels, but what I
for one forgot about was snow on my fruit cage, I am going to have to do
a big rebuild when the snow goes, it is so easy to forget that snow can
accumulate on netting, and it did.
Here we had around 4 inches of snow, down in the village about 300 ft
lower they had less than 2 inches, yesterday there was little snow to
see down there, whilst here it's still sitting on the trees and bushes
despite the temp. yesterday going up to a blistering 35f at its peak.
I will have to think how I can put a cover on the cage; 20ft X 40ft
approx; that can be opened in the winter.
David @ the snow covered area above Swansea Bay.

On 2013-01-20 14:16:58 +0000, David Hill said:

Sacha gave a warning about excessive snow on poly tunnels, but what I
for one forgot about was snow on my fruit cage, I am going to have to
do a big rebuild when the snow goes, it is so easy to forget that snow
can accumulate on netting, and it did.
Here we had around 4 inches of snow, down in the village about 300 ft
lower they had less than 2 inches, yesterday there was little snow to
see down there, whilst here it's still sitting on the trees and bushes
despite the temp. yesterday going up to a blistering 35f at its peak.
I will have to think how I can put a cover on the cage; 20ft X 40ft
approx; that can be opened in the winter.
David @ the snow covered area above Swansea Bay.

I'm sorry to hear about that, David. I think many of us just don't
think of snow as being 'heavy' in the first place! We have some white
fields facing north, which I can see from my window but that's frost.
The fields facing south are green and there's no snow at all left,
other than one very narrow stretch clinging to a greenhouse roof and
frozen overnight. Ray said the hens' drinking water was frozen this
morning, too. So far, the snow has pretty much ignored us but
Dartmoor, seen from the top of our hill, is white, so the A38 appears
to be the barrier again! I just wonder if David Poole has had any
frost in Torquay?
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk

On 20/01/2013 14:43, Sacha wrote:
We have some white fields
facing north, which I can see from my window but that's frost.
Snowing here since about 8.30am, not let up yet though very fine stuff.
Soons builds up though! Having to now go out and knock stuff off
branches of shrubs twice a day!

--
Janet T.
Amersham

In article ,
says...

Sacha gave a warning about excessive snow on poly tunnels, but what I
for one forgot about was snow on my fruit cage, I am going to have to do
a big rebuild when the snow goes, it is so easy to forget that snow can
accumulate on netting, and it did.
Here we had around 4 inches of snow, down in the village about 300 ft
lower they had less than 2 inches, yesterday there was little snow to
see down there, whilst here it's still sitting on the trees and bushes
despite the temp. yesterday going up to a blistering 35f at its peak.
I will have to think how I can put a cover on the cage; 20ft X 40ft
approx; that can be opened in the winter.
David @ the snow covered area above Swansea Bay.

I always remove oof netting once the raspberries have
finnished. Mind you my cage is a lot smaler than yous,
so it is relatively easy (but gets more difficult each
year!). I would have thought, if you've got plenty of
croo members, you could net in small areas. tying the
ends of the sections together over and around a cross
member, could be quite fiddly but should work, unless
of course your cage is too high to reach from the
gound, then you'll be moving ladders all day!

Still got a fair bit of snow here, although it has
thawed out quite a bit, probably about 3-4 inches.
Problem is, as it thawed if wet the ground and that
has now frozen, so we have a layer of snow covering
ice! Roads are pretty clear however - they keep the
road from Brecon north to the Epynt ranges clear for
the army!


--
Roger T

700 ft up in Mid-Wales

On 2013-01-20 14:53:10 +0000, Janet Tweedy said:

On 20/01/2013 14:43, Sacha wrote:
We have some white fields
facing north, which I can see from my window but that's frost.
Snowing here since about 8.30am, not let up yet though very fine stuff.
Soons builds up though! Having to now go out and knock stuff off
branches of shrubs twice a day!

Crumbs! I must have seen all of 5 flakes this afternoon. I don't think
anyone else noticed them!
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk

"David Hill" wrote

Sacha gave a warning about excessive snow on poly tunnels, but what I for
one forgot about was snow on my fruit cage, I am going to have to do a big
rebuild when the snow goes, it is so easy to forget that snow can
accumulate on netting, and it did.
Here we had around 4 inches of snow, down in the village about 300 ft lower
they had less than 2 inches, yesterday there was little snow to see down
there, whilst here it's still sitting on the trees and bushes despite the
temp. yesterday going up to a blistering 35f at its peak.
I will have to think how I can put a cover on the cage; 20ft X 40ft approx;
that can be opened in the winter.


Funny enough I got the old 90 out and trundled down to the allotment to get
the snow off our fruit cage, it's 6m by 6m, on Saturday morning. Whilst we
had about 4 inches, 10cm of snow, when we got to the plot there was non on
the cage and non on next doors cage either. First thought was that our
neighbour had already been down, but no, there were no other footprints than
mine in the snow or other tyre tracks. Two other cages on the other side of
the site had been seriously distorted with the weight of snow. Can only have
been the wind direction that saved ours, stopped it settling on the netting
and letting it simply fall through.
Very strange.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

"Janet Tweedy" wrote ...

Sacha wrote:
We have some white fields
facing north, which I can see from my window but that's frost.

Snowing here since about 8.30am, not let up yet though very fine stuff.
Soons builds up though! Having to now go out and knock stuff off branches
of shrubs twice a day!


Same here, snowed all day but very fine powdery stuff this time so not so
deep, probably another 3cm.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

Luckily, weve had no snow at all here nr Falmouth but we did have 2 degrees of frost last night, the first frost since 'your' cold snap.

Bob Hobden wrote:
Snowing here since about 8.30am, not let up yet though very fine stuff.
Soons builds up though! Having to now go out and knock stuff off branches
of shrubs twice a day!

Same here, snowed all day but very fine powdery stuff this time so not so
deep, probably another 3cm.

We got the fine powdery stuff too, but /loads/ of it. Thing is, it's
rubbish for making snowmen! It just doesn't stick. :-(

"Roger Tonkin" wrote ...

says...

Sacha gave a warning about excessive snow on poly tunnels, but what I
for one forgot about was snow on my fruit cage, I am going to have to do
a big rebuild when the snow goes, it is so easy to forget that snow can
accumulate on netting, and it did.
Here we had around 4 inches of snow, down in the village about 300 ft
lower they had less than 2 inches, yesterday there was little snow to
see down there, whilst here it's still sitting on the trees and bushes
despite the temp. yesterday going up to a blistering 35f at its peak.
I will have to think how I can put a cover on the cage; 20ft X 40ft
approx; that can be opened in the winter.
David @ the snow covered area above Swansea Bay.

I always remove oof netting once the raspberries have
finnished. Mind you my cage is a lot smaler than yous,
so it is relatively easy (but gets more difficult each
year!). I would have thought, if you've got plenty of
croo members, you could net in small areas. tying the
ends of the sections together over and around a cross
member, could be quite fiddly but should work, unless
of course your cage is too high to reach from the
gound, then you'll be moving ladders all day!

Still got a fair bit of snow here, although it has
thawed out quite a bit, probably about 3-4 inches.
Problem is, as it thawed if wet the ground and that
has now frozen, so we have a layer of snow covering
ice! Roads are pretty clear however - they keep the
road from Brecon north to the Epynt ranges clear for
the army!

The problem with us is that our fruit cage is actually a brassica cage to
keep the pigeons off so winter is the very time the roof etc is needed.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

We had 6 inches last night, on top of what had already accumulated, so we're now up to 12 inches in places. It's proper snow at last! Schools closed, sledges out in force. Main roads are clear, but not side roads. It's beautiful out there, temperatures hovering around zero, so warm enough to enjoy, but snow still on all the tree branches - I've been out for a couple of hours this morning (to dentist the scenic route), and will be out again this afternoon. And to cap it all - a really close look at the waxwings.

In article ,
says...
The problem with us is that our fruit cage is
actually a brassica cage to
keep the pigeons off so winter is the very time the roof etc is needed.

But in that case couldn't you use a wide gauge mesh
where the snow won't stick?

Erm, not sure if gauge is the right word, what I mean
is bigger holes!

--
Roger T

700 ft up in Mid-Wales

"Roger Tonkin" wrote...

says...
The problem with us is that our fruit cage is
actually a brassica cage to
keep the pigeons off so winter is the very time the roof etc is needed.

But in that case couldn't you use a wide gauge mesh
where the snow won't stick?

Erm, not sure if gauge is the right word, what I mean
is bigger holes!


Yes I could, and will, when the netting it came with finally gives up the
ghost.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

On 2013-01-20 22:16:11 +0000, lannerman said:

'Sacha[_10_ Wrote:
snipRay said the hens' drinking water was frozen this
morning, too. So far, the snow has pretty much ignored us but
Dartmoor, seen from the top of our hill, is white, so the A38 appears
to be the barrier again! I just wonder if David Poole has had any
frost in Torquay?
--

Sacha
'Buy plants online, including rare and popular plant varieties from Hill
House Nursery, mail order plant specialist'
(http://www.hillhousenursery.com)
South Devon
'Help for Heroes' (http://www.helpforheroes.org.uk)

Luckily, weve had no snow at all here nr Falmouth but we did have 2
degrees of frost last night, the first frost since 'your' cold snap.

And last night we had thunder and a lot of rain. More rain today -
we'd almost forgotten what it looks like. Ha!!
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk