Cold Climate Gardening

As I said when I announced the free book, one of the commenters would be chosen randomly to receive a copy of The Truth About Garden Remedies. I took a page from Pioneer Woman’s book and used the generator at random.org. to pick the winning comment. All the comments are numbered as they are received, and comment number 4 was chosen by the random number generator. That was Dee’s comment.

Enjoy, Dee!

Join us tomorrow when Jeff Gillman shows us how to analyze a new gardening gadget for the truth of its claims.

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A couple of days ago, Mr. McGregor’s Daughter was speculating that my snowdrops might be blooming under the snow. I was pretty sure they weren’t, but I took advantage of Monday’s thaw to confirm my suspicions (photo above). There were quite a few more patches of snowdrops visible now, but none are near blooming yet. (For some spectacular snowdrop photos, visit Shirl’s blog.)

But Mr. McGregor’s Daughter wasn’t out of line to suggest that I check.

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There are snowdrops under this snow
Some of you, I am sure, thought I was being overly pessimistic when I said the snowdrops sprouting in January wouldn’t be blooming in a month. As you can see above, my assessment of how things would go was pretty accurate. As a matter of fact, at this point I am not sure I will ever see them.

Yes, I am suffering from WWNE, a delusional malady to which Northerners are particularly vulnerable. WWNE stands for …

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The man who wants a garden fair,
Or small or very big,
With flowers growing here and there,
Must bend his back and dig.

The things are mighty few on earth
That wishes can attain.
Whate’er we want of any worth
We’ve got to work to gain.

It matters not what goals you seek,
Its secret here reposes:
You’ve got to work from week to week
To get Results or Roses.

–Edgar A. Guest

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I did not go outside to look for blooms today. Today looks like this:

Last Friday, on the 11th, it looked like this:

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One nice thing about the GWA Symposium is that most of the meals are donated by various member businesses. But we all know there’s no such thing as a free lunch, or a free breakfast, for that matter, so you probably already guessed that the business that pays for breakfast thereby procures the opportunity to speak to us while we are eating.

On Saturday morning this privilege went to Scotts Miracle Gro. (I can hear some of you booing and hissing already. Will it appease you any to learn that Bradfield Organics and SafeLawns.org got the floor for Sunday’s breakfast? The irony wasn’t lost on some of us. There’s room for all kinds in the GWA, especially if they’re paying for breakfast.) I was surprised at the level of conversation going on around me while the presentation was being conducted. Apparently just because someone gets up to talk, the members don’t feel obligated to listen. Some people claim the microphone wasn’t working. Perhaps the temptation to catch up with long lost friends was too great. Or maybe some people were remembering a certain lawsuit and were deliberately being rude.

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For those of you who think my snowdrops will shortly be rocketing from the earth and bursting into bloom: fear not. The snow came back. More predicted tomorrow.

Happy New Year.

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