Still horrible weather here

10 years ago

In case any of you should have been wondering why I haven't been posting--whether I died or was hit by a car or had a massive heart attack--it's none of the above. It's still winter here, still gray and cold and very, very wet, and there's just nothing to say about the garden or the roses. I hear things are the same, only worse, as you go further north in Europe. And I gather things are not sweet in considerable parts of the U.S. as well.
This is the coldest March here in fifty years, and it's as water-saturated as can be. I'm looking forward to having things to say about my plants, once they start growing!
All of you who are in spring, good for you! I look forward to joining your company in time.
Melissa

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Comments (6)

rosefolly
10 years ago
Keep warm and safe, Melissa. Spring will come eventually, and you will rejoice all the more from having the long wait.

Rosefolly
catsrose
10 years ago
Know the feeling. My first order from VG arrives today or tomorrow and there is still snow on the ground!!! And I'm in VA, not Maine.
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Horrible Weather continues.
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We are supposed to be in winter here. It was okay before Christmas with just below freezing temps. It would have been nice to have some more snow cover but at least it was consistent and not too too cold. But then we got this thaw late last week. Up to 65 on the weekend with pouring rain. My husband noticed on Sunday that many of the markers in my rows of seedlings (cut up window blinds) had popped out of the ground when it thawed so I ventured out in the mud to push them back in before they got mixed up or blew away. Good thing because by yesterday morning things had froze up again and I would never have gotten them back in the ground. Why can't we just get winter like in the good old days with lots of snow to insulate the ground, sunshine to perk us all up and cold temps to kill all the germs? If this is global warming I really don't like it! Debbie
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Susan, The nice thing is that she can be whatever she wants to be as long as she's willing to work for it. When my now 24-year-old niece was 3-years-old, Tim asked her "What do you want to be when you grow up?" and she replied "Barbie!" Well, she didn't grow up to be a Barbie doll after all, but she is a mom herself now and that was her real dream all along. Chipotle heat varies depending on which kind of jalapenos you use to make them. Chipotles are just roasted jalapenos and you can roast them in the oven or on the grill. I freeze them but they also can be canned in adobo sauce. It sounds like you had an amazingly successful butterfly year. After having very low butterfly numbers in 2008, everything seemed to return to normal this year, and I still have tons of butterflies here in the first week of November. There are all kinds, but especially the sulphurs. In August and September, it was mostly swallowtails. If I pay attention to what is going on around me, I'll see butterflies here almost every month of the year....although not too many in January and early February. I am not sure about the grasshopppers for 2010. We saw their population make a strong resurgence all over Oklahoma this year but we won't know for 2-4 more months if their numbers will climb higher and peak in 2010 (likely) or if 2009 was a peak. A very cold and very wet winter works against them, so let's hope for 'cold', since the El Nino pattern more or less guarantees 'wet'. For us here in southern OK, there are years we start seeing grasshoppers hatching out at the very end of January or in earliest February. In a year when that happens, I make a mental note to buy one of the natural baits with nosema locuste (Grasshopper Attack or Semaspore or Nolo Bait) in it and scatter some once the hoppers are 1/4 to 1/2" long. It kills them quickly when they are in the younger instars. I only put out a little if I am seeing early hatchings, but I put out more every couple of weeks through about early May. If you can catch them early, they are easy to deal with. If I don't see a lot of grasshoppers hatching out until March or early April, that's a good sign and likely we'll have lower populations. So, by mid-Spring, we'll know for sure. And, of course, it goes without saying that there's not much we can do about the other grasshoppers that migrate into our yards during the summer since they grew up elsewhere, but I do think it helps if you've been able to keep the native population very low before the migrating ones arrive. Because grasshoppers were bad, blister beetles were bad too, although they were bad late. The blister beetles eat a lot of things, and I believe grasshopper eggs are one of their food sources. So, if we are seeing lots of hoppers, we'll have to brace ourselves for lots of blister beetles. We had prolonged heat in part of July and part of August which did make those water bills pretty high, but the rest of the year the water bill was just a dream. The important thing was that the rain came along every so often and kept the garden in heavy production a lot longer than normal. I can justify the high water bill if I'm harvesting oodles of produce, which I was. For once, I didn't have to just give up on watering and walk away and let the drought take the garden from me, so it was very nice. The amazing thing about our rain, Susan.....here in Love County we had 23" in 2008 and, so far, about 48" in 2009. I guess you can see where our average annual rainfall (36-38") comes from. I have to say that I prefer the 48" years to the 23" years. Grandkids are fun. We just should have had them first! Dawn
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Campanula UK Z8
10 years ago
Yeah, demoralising. Too cold to start seeds (although I am carrying on as normal and will probably rue the day) and when I do get down the allotment (where most of my time is spent on my knees) it is much too cold to stand still and concentrate so I have been wafting around with my loppers, poking and snipping at stray branches, in a vaguely meaningful way. As for the horsebox - have ripped most of the cladding so we are basically standing around in the open air, attempting to build window linings. The wood may as well be a million miles away and it is hard to imagine that things are ever going to be any different.
If I manage one task a day, I feel vindicated in going back into hibernation mode (yesterday, it was propping the sweet peas with the snipped salvia branches and popping some primrose offsets in new pots). I did dig out a Penny Lane rose and give it to an allotmenteer who is leaving (my friend, Keith, who I have gardened alongside for the last 10 years - seed sharer and fellow bindweed battler who converted me to potato leaved tomatoes and cavolo nero kale).
My home garden, while tiny, is looking rather well - the high brick walls protect my plants and the new rose growth is a source of constant joy while the white narcissi are taking over where snowdrops left off. Hellebores, chaenomeles and evergreen ferns and epimediums and various spring ephemerals keep up with the greening of the earth while many perennials have lush (if short) growth, waiting to burst forth. Not as bleak as it could be, by a long way....and the greenhouse staging, inside and outside, is filled with seedlings (echinacea, glaucidium, foxgloves, epilobium, cenolophium, peucedanum, thalictrum, chaerophyllum, mimulus, aquilegias, delphiniums, geraniums, aconitum, leeks, and hopeful tomato seedlings still in the propagators). Another desperate year for butterflies (hence the array of larval food plants) - hoping the swallowtails cling on a bit longer (my wood and surrounding fen is one of the last UK sanctuaries for our swallowtails)
Certainly, my day starts later and later (and having never been an early morning type, I am beginning to count a noon rising as almost good enough)
Still got a couple of chunky sci-fi books to take me away from it all.
mendocino_rose
10 years ago
You are having the March that I had last year. It rained almost every day. This year is the mildest I've seen for many years. I think my white Banksia will bloom well for the first time in ten years. There are a number of buds on other roses which is almost unheard of for March. Because of the dry weather I've gotten more done than I think I ever have by this time of the year. I just hope it doesn't mean a hot summer.
floridarosez9 Morgan
10 years ago
This has been a very schizophrenic winter, more so than usual. We ran ten degrees above normal for much ot it, interspersed with periods of freezing weather. Right now, we have two days of freezing overnight temps. Last year this time we were in the eighties during the day, not sixties. Blooms were close to a month early this year and got wiped out by a freeze. The annuals and perennials don't seem to know what to do. Most of them would be in bloom right now, but they're just sitting there doing nothing. The only ones that don't seem confused are the catchfly and larkspur. We will probably go from this to extremely hot temps, which will do in the annuals. This will be the second spring in a row where the garden was less than successful if that happens.
ingrid_vc so. CA zone 9
10 years ago
I wonder (and fear) whether these are the predicted sequelae of global warming where Europe is expected to become colder and wetter and other areas, such as the interior of much of the U.S., hotter and drier. It's beginning to be difficult to keep a positive outlook, although at least it seems that governments are starting to realize that this is a looming and terrifying prospect. There are still measures that can be taken to somewhat mitigate the effect of what is to come, and that's what we need to concentrate on now as much as possible. Meanwhile I do hope that some sunshine will enter your life, Melissa, in the very near future, and that you and your garden will get a much-needed break.

Ingrid

Still horrible weather here

Comments (6)

rosefolly

catsrose

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