Cold Climate Gardening » Alice Nelson

Deep in snow

Alice Nelson — Tue, 08 Mar 2005 02:49:15 +0000

Up here in the U.P. we are still deep in snow, about 2-3 feet of it in my back yard. My windows are filled with plants - geraniums, aparagas ferns that were removed from planters and starts that need planting. Under lights in the basement are any number of ivy plants, also taken from client planters and being carried over. I have any number of babies from those, some still in water.
Last fall I had a bit of a puzzle - had ordered lilies bulbs and iris rhizomes for a client and then, the area that they were to be planted in did not get prepared before snow (required heavier equipment than I work with) so I’ve experimented. I planted the bulbs in indiviual paper pots and kept themin my 45 degree basement for a few months, then out on my glassed in porch that freezes and then dug a hole in the snow and put them down there. Hopefully I will have viable bulbs in the spring. In the ground they would have frozen anyway. I did the same with 3 pots of irises. Two pots had dried out so they have been watered and kept in my very cool back stariway, and are now sprouting. I may do the same with them or I may just wait until spring is really here. I’ll let you know how this all turns out. By the way, these were all from Von Bourgondien, and in good condition. Temperature wise, we will be in the teens for highs the rest of the week. My grown children, those who are mushers, are happy!

Update from the Upper Peninsula

Alice Nelson — Thu, 16 Sep 2004 13:50:22 +0000

First, some more plants in lawns: tansy, yarrow, prickly lettuce and a green flowered knotweed. Also, in Peterson’s Field Guide to Wildflowers, pigweed and lamb’s quarters are interchangeable common names. That’s the joy of common names. The scientific name is Chenopodium album.

We’re still having a slow year. Usually the leaves are well on their way to coloring up, but only a few have any color, and I think that may be due to them being stressed in some way. Perhaps the extra amount of rain has kept the trees green longer.

More lawn “plants”

Alice Nelson — Sun, 22 Aug 2004 22:55:40 +0000

Here are some additional plants in our lawns that are not lawns. Some I had forgotten and some I hadn’t identified. Wild chamomile (pineapple plant), lambs quarters or pig weed (can be cookied and eaten;tastes like spinach), chickweed, rose mallow, butter and eggs, and sand spurrey. There are probably more!

Really coldclimate

Alice Nelson — Wed, 18 Aug 2004 02:47:40 +0000

Ever been to a county fair where the only tomato entries were green tomatoes? Noone had ripe ones up here. I’m not sure mine will ever get riipe. We’re due for another cold spell. And some of the potatoes at the fair were the size of golf balls. My flowers are blooming beautifully, though! And speaking of lawns that aren’t lawns. We live in town, but a botanist would have a field day in the mown “grass” in our alley, and the back yards there. A partial list: Heal All, Shepherd’s Purse, plaintain, dandelions (of course), Bellflowered Bedstraw, a tiny Forget-me-not, sheep sorrel, a tiny crucifer, horseweed, and others I have either forgotten or haven’t identified. Some would be taller if they weren’t mowed. So taking the dogs for their morning walk becomes an interesting botanical study! Wonder if there would be any green left if someone used weed and feed on them. May your lawn be thick and wonderful.

Tools of choice

Alice Nelson — Sun, 18 Jul 2004 19:39:22 +0000

What’s your favorite tool? I’ve found that I can’t garden without a garden fork. It is absolutely indispensable. It goes into the ground much more easily than a spade or shovel, though a small spade is handy for digging out plants for trans-planting. Now I’ve found a hand fork is almost as indispensable. Mixing soil, digging weeks, spreading mulch - all kinds of things. My son, who works with me, finds my sharp square spade works best to dig the holes for planting shrubs. We have a lot of stony ground up here along with sand and silt.

Cold

Alice Nelson — Sat, 19 Jun 2004 14:13:44 +0000

If you think you live in a cold climate, you should live here. We are at least 2 weeks behind our usual temp. My late tulips are still in bloom, and irises are just beginning to open, with peonies in tight bud. Last night it was in the 40’s.
We are also 4 inches above normal rainfall. This has had an unfortunate effect on my tomatoes in their walls o’ water: not the cold, but the moisture. Too wet.
This has all put me very much behind in the planting I do in my business and with our short season getting the hundreds of annuals in and the planters planted is of prime imprtance. We had frost the first week in June.

One advantage of all this is that we have had few wildfires, which, in a dry spring, are abundant here in the Upper Peninsula ( of Michigan) where we have a lot of forest. However, we don’t have much hail, and have no earthquakes, very few tornadoes and no hurricanes any year. We do have lots of snow, but it is well used in all kinds of sports and it insulates the plants for the winter!
We so have quick changes in temperature. A couple of weeks ago it was up to 90 for two days, and the next day was in the 40’s. Wind direction! Plants have to be tough along with the people.

At my back door I have a white lilac and Miss Kim lilac blloming. what a nice combination.

Roses in the U.P.

Alice Nelson — Sat, 22 May 2004 01:18:39 +0000

This is in the “what’s up” category. Out of eleven rose bushes planted (eight last year) all but one made it through our U.P. winter - zone 4 - and are leafing out nicely. John Cabot and William Baffin are climbers that can be left on the trellis, White Meidiland and Fire Meidiland are ground cover roses. All came from Jung. I have to replace one that didn’t look good last year, but Jung is good at replacement My method is to pot them up as soon as I get them and grow them on awhile before planting out. Can baby them a bit that way.

Really cold

Alice Nelson — Sat, 22 May 2004 00:55:45 +0000

It seems here in the U.P. it can’t get warm. Had a couple of days in the 60’s, but it looks like next week will be in the 50’s again with 40’s at night. Well, it is a nice long season for the tulips which are just beginning to blossom, and the daffodils are still doing their thing. The lilacs are just beginning to show flower buds. We’re about 2 weeks later than normal. And it looks like it will be mostly cloudy for the next week with some showers. My tomato plants are tucked into their wals o’ water, and a lot of other things in my new little greenhouse. One way to look at it is that it has given me time to keep up with my own flower garden as well as prepare for a bunch of others. Hopefully I can keep ahead of my own weeds, and get some perennials divided!

Cold Spring

Alice Nelson — Wed, 05 May 2004 15:27:33 +0000

Well, I did get my walls o’ water up, 6 of them, but haven’t put the tomato plants in yet. Still down to the 30’s here at night in the U.P. We put up a small collapsible greenhouse, and I’ve started putting my geraniums out, as well as the peonies on the front porch. I hope to put in a number of pots of other perennials that haven’t started to grow yet due to the cold weather. We’re actually getting some daffodills starting to bloom, and some early tulips are in bud. The chiondoxa and crocuses are still in bloom. And the grass has finally turned green - where it isn’t damaged by plowed up snow and dogs having to do their thing ( we have two). Now I need to prick out my flowering kale and the rest of the tomatoes.

snow

Alice Nelson — Sat, 10 Apr 2004 21:19:06 +0000

Here we go again. It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas - about an inch of snow, not much by U.P. standards, but more than we like in April. It won’t hurt the bulbs that are on their way up (about 2-3 inches). Got my seedlings that I planted in vermiculite pricked out into better soil - have to go on an emergency trip to California, and the vermiculite dries out too fast. Someone will water for me. Geraniums doing fine on the glassed in porch even though one night it was in the single digits. They do pretty well if they don’t get wet as with rain or dew. At least we got the lawn raked before it snowed.