Cold Climate Gardening

This was the view out my kitchen door yesterday morning. We had rain which changed to snow as the day progressed. Because everything was wet, the heavy snow stuck to everything. When the wind picked up, the snow didn’t blow off the branches but added weight to the force of the wind. Consequently branches were falling everywhere.

We were without power for twelve hours. The “nice” thing about a snowstorm at this time of the year is you know it won’t stay around. Although the roads were snow covered …

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I took this photo yesterday, a day ahead of Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. I knew that rain was predicted for Wednesday afternoon and throughout today, but late yesterday morning it was merely overcast and quite mild, and I thought, “Go looking for flowers now, or forget about it.”

So I went galomphing about in the nearly slushy snow, and took photos of snowdrops in various stages of bud. These were the closest to blooming.

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The trouble with that platitude is that Spring is so erratic around here that we often don’t recognize it when it comes. For the next eight weeks or so, every time we hit a spell of bad weather, we will repeat to ourselves, and each other, “Well, spring is right around the corner.” But we’re never quite sure which corner is the corner.

We all think we recognize Spring when we encounter it.

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Not the Valentines Day love-in I was expecting, this was a storm for the record books. Under a state of emergency all day and through the night, my county was closed down and everyone was told to stay off the roads. When it was over the snow totals came in. My little, almost unknown, town of Roseboom “won” the snow total race with an “official” 38 inches.

“Yeah, right,” I thought while looking out the window. Maybe if you were lucky to only have that much. Many of my neighbors and myself had more and it depended on which side of the street you were living. It is days later and I’m still trying to clear away some areas and, of course, the daily wind blow. And don’t even ask about getting my truck stuck.

But I was fully informed for a storm of this size because I have a secret weapon: weather radio.

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By 9 a.m. this morning about 8 inches of snow had fallen, and the weather service predicts

Snow will continue right into this evening… heavy at times.

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The proverbial (and over used) saying is that March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. In truth March is a fickle beast and comes in as it wishes and goes out as it wishes. Some years you might have the bliss of March both coming and going like a lamb . . . other years March is the raging lion all month long. I think the one thing that can be safely said for March is that it is a fickle month.

However it shall leave, March has come in this year like a lion. Snow and more snow. Wind and cold. And more snow. Had enough? March is still not half over yet. March is fickle, but perhaps the second thing this month is known for is the number of people who finally crack and go insane from the length and madness of winter. By March a person is inclined to believe that they deserve spring and are inclined to grow increasingly irrational and unreasonable when this supposed right is thwarted.

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I can tell by the dirty footprints leading from the front door to the bathroom. All the compacted snow is off our driveway, which used to be a gravel driveway but is now a dirt driveway, due to all the snow shoveling over the years, which throws both snow and gravel onto the lawn. You try to rake it back into the driveway, but you never get it all. And a dirt driveway this time of year is a mud driveway. Well, the birthday garden, which has a southern exposure and borders the driveway, has lost three-fourths of its snow cover, and I can definitely see some snowdrops! Not the ‘S. Arnott’ ones, but some smaller ones that I just poked into the ground when I unearthed them somewhere else and promptly forgot about. No telling if they’ll have enough oomph to bloom this year. But it’s definitely encouraging. More encouragement: it’s not even supposed to get below freezing tonight, and it’s supposed to rain. Nothing like a good steady rain to melt the snow and drive the frost out of the ground. Last week we had gloriously sunny days but very cold nights, often below zero. That did melt the snow some, but also put a glaze of ice over everything in the morning. This whole week promises to be milder at night, and rain is predicted for several of those days. Most of our snow should be gone by the end of the week, I’m thinking.

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