Needle ice

When we went into the garden early this morning, the whole of my newly weeded area of the border was covered in a five centimetre growth of needle ice!
The ground was super saturated with water from the deluge of the previous couple of days, and needle ice forms when the ground water is above 0C, and the air temperature at ground level is below 0C. As the surface water freezes more is drawn up by capillary action and this forms a growing needle of ice.
It was interesting that the lawn areas didn’t have the ice needles, I guess because they drained of water more quickly because of the worms and soil structure, whereas the border was damaged by digging. This year I intend to embrace no-dig gardening! 
To that end I have had a bulk bag of composted green waste delivered today, which I am going to use as mulch. There will be no weed seed germination and everything will be wonderful!!
Also, bought and cooked Seville oranges! Marmalade season is here again!