cold_climate

Drowning in Snow?

– Posted in: Weather

It seems the snow will never stop. We haven't had the huge accumulations that parts of New England have seen, just another couple of inches one day, another couple of inches a few days after that. After a while it does amount to a whole bunch. The sun has been shining more (when it's not [...]

Plants grow under the snow

– Posted in: Weather, What's up/blooming

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. [...]

What is a cold climate?

– Posted in: FAQ

This photo was taken two days before the digital thermometer bottomed out in January 2005Quite a while ago, someone emailed me, asking what was a cold climate. I never did answer them, because I thought it was obvious. A cold climate is any climate too cold to grow the plants you really want to grow. [...]

I live in a cold climate

– Posted in: Miscellaneous

What I saw this morning [Photographer: Kathy Purdy]Just in case there's anyone reading this who doesn't yet understand what a cold climate is (I've had Australian searchers looking for "hardy plants" arrive at this site), I thought I'd give an illustration. When I got up about an hour earlier, the outdoor temperature was 36 degrees [...]

The Intimate Garden: Book Review

– Posted in: Book reviews, Design

The Intimate Garden: Twenty Years and Four Seasons in Our Garden by Gordon and Mary Hayward belongs to the rare breed of landscape design book that is actually helpful: One private residential garden--not little glimpses of a dozen gardens The garden was developed over many years. (They figured it out as they went along) They [...]

Spring is just around the corner

– Posted in: Meditations, Mud Season

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 [...]

Eighteen inches of snow on the ground

– Posted in: Weather

I don't have any bare ground for crocus to be poking up through--we have at least 18 inches of snow on the ground. Is it because the crocus are near the heated greenhouse that they are coming up? I hope some time this winter you and Judy both can tell us what size and type [...]

Weather variations or climate change?

– Posted in: Weather

I had always thought you were in Zone 4, Ro, but when I consult my most detailed copy of the USDA Hardiness Zone map (which I got in an old issue of Fine Gardening) I see you actually are listed as Zone 5. Not that the map is the last word on what zone you [...]