Yesterday’s daylong snow brought a substantial amount of moisture to the garden, however it could certainly have been worse.  The precipitation (rain) which started on Tuesday evening, was forecasted to change over to snow sometime in the early morning hours.  That transformation didn’t occur until 8-8:30 Wednesday morning.  By sometime close to 12 noon, I went out to make the first pass with the snow shovel as there was about 3” on the ground (the bottom inch of which was a very heavy slush).
By 5:00 pm  another 2-3 inches of snow had accumulated and it was time to go out and shovel again.

This morning, after my breakfast it was time to head back out to clear away the snow that fell overnight (there was another 2-3” of new snow to move), and get all of the bird feeders topped off.

By clearing away the snow on the first pass yesterday, the exposed ground had frozen, making this mornings shoveling a lot easier.

It was obvious that a lot of the woody plants were in need of getting the heavy snow shaken off them, their branches were bending to the breaking point.

The ditch, down in the lower garden, holding about 2ft of water.

Many of the older conifers have branches that are too dense to clear the snow from, they will simply have to wait for the snow to evaporate or melt away.

Despite all of the snow load I’d only found 2 branches that had snapped due to the excess weight.

I’m not sure what to make of this one.  This Thuja is not a weeping cultivar, and it doesn’t appear to have snapped. But I am not going to risk trying to raise it up right now.  It may require removal next summer if I cannot straighten it up enough. Today’s forecast is for another inch or so of snow, and a low of 9 degrees!

The rest of my day will be spent tending the fire and looking out the windows!