Yeah, I think it just might be. I was out today raking leaves, first in the sun, then in the snow, then in an absolute blizzard of fluries, and then in the snow while the sun was shining. Weird. The good thing was that that wicked wind was at least blowing in the same direction as I was raking, lol!

Got 15 lilies planted today too, as well as some allium and mini irises. Those darn 40% off sales late in the season...

I think I've finally accepted the fact that I have to wear my winter coat now. I wore it tonight - and was darn glad I did!

I just hope the snow holds off long enough for me to finish raking and to let the leaves dry out so I can shred them.

:)
Dee

It's definitely here. I was ready, except that I left several of my big terra cotta pots out. A couple of them are cracked pretty badly already, it must have been a combination of wet and cold that got to them so fast. There are about 10 of them in the garage and I'm just about out of space, and some of those that are still on the deck have plants that look quite good, so I'm reluctant to overturn them yet. Curry plant and slightly-tender lavendar are at their best now, but I guess today's the day to toss them and save the pots.

Boo hoo.

On Thanksgiving we got about 4 inches of snow, which my six nieces and nephews, being up from balmy New Jersey, loved. It was my third snowfall this year, but the others were pretty minor. That weekend it got down to 12F/-11C, again, which pretty much did in anything still blooming, except for some volunteer violas. Then, the temp went up to 60 earlier this week. Go figure. I do have a scabiosa that is valiantly trying to open a bud. I am rooting for it, since it is clearly in an underdog situation. Surprisingly, many plants are still green and some appear to be putting out new growth, probably in response to all the rain and the warmer temps.

Tomorrow I will bring in my remaining potted plants, one standard rosemary, which seems quite happy with this cold weather (but I think I'm pushing it these days), a Blue Boy prostrate rosemary (same), some Grolau chives, which have died back, but which will send up new growth within a week of coming inside, and my lemon verbena. I think I left the verbena out too long to knock off all the leaves and get its cold rest, and it may be toast, but time will tell if it will come back from the roots. Would have brought everything in today, but ended up cleaning out the chicken coop and getting it ready for winter, which killed the afternoon.

All of my other potted herbs that I brought in over a month ago seem to be doing great, and the holy basil and African blue basils, regular and variegated, are even blooming, which surprised me.

yup... the ground is mostly frozen here. I put down mulch on selected plants today. Got all the dead mums out. Last of the pots are finally in the garage. Well, except there's one I'm going to see how it does outside cuz it was too heavy to lift. I even had my last bbq and moved the grill out of the way. All the patio furn is in the garage. Put some berries and other decorations in the whiskey barrel of greens.

let it snow... I've got plenty of wrapping to do :-)

Everything here is put to bed. Knew it was time to seriously mulch when the frozen birdbath water was dumped and stayed in a perfect frozen circle for several days :-) Quick walk yesterday showed that the plants are beginning their hibernation.

Last of the pots are in. All tenders have been repotted and are starting their winter bloom cycle. Area downstairs is ready for when they are done.

Must admit that it feels weird to have "finished my list." SayPoint can probably concur that first year gardens are something like the first child, they get a ton of attention until the second shows up. Next year when I'm going nuts trying to get everything done, remind me of this :-)

Martie

Snowing hard here this morning and the ground was frozen when I walked across the lawn for the paper. Not so sure about those bulbs I planted the other day. I may be in the minority but I love snow. It is a magical transformation of the landscape. I am sorry for the commuters tho. I'm not sure I'd like snow so much if I had to drive miles on the interstate every day.

Snowing here in southern Plymouth too. A ring-necked pheasant strolled under the feeder this morning, delaying my trip out to get the paper. When he left, I felt free to go out, got the paper, refilled the bird feeder, and broke the ice in the birdbaths (I have several kinds out, testing the freezing patterns). Has anybody tried the "solar sipper" which supposedly stays unfrozen down to 20 degrees F?

There are birds all over the place and they seem to be in serious eating mode. None of the summer leisurely browsing routine.

I've got to figure out what all of the small brown ones are.

I finished wrapping the new shrubs yesterday and put the good wheelbarrows under the deck, so, like Martie, my first-year garden is ready for winter.

Claire

Ginny, your bulbs will be just fine. Its snowing here (Peabody)and they just plowed.
I put down 5 yds. of mulch last week, just in time. And I planted an acer griseum after I removed a 25 year old plum tree.

I think were going to have a lot of snow this winter.

Snowing here too. Not a whole heck of a lot,- maybe 2 inches - but icy, slippery snow. Had to bring my daughter to her hockey game early this morning, and another this afternoon. Luckily they're both local, although the hard part is driving within 2 miles of my house. Once I get past there I'm okay, but I always worry about getting back up the "mountain" as we call it, lol!

I don't have anything put away!! :( I only put some ceramic and terracotta pots away last week. I have not finished raking leaves, have approximately 100 potted perennials waiting to go in the garage, have the cushions still on my patio furniture, and my pumpkins still on my front steps, lol! In my defense, though, the potted perennials were left out intentionally. The weather has been so varied here - 67 degrees on Monday, 40 degrees on Wednesday - that most of the plants were not dormant.

I've come to detest snow since I moved up into "the hills". I'm a snow-driving wimp, and I get nervous every time I see a snowflake if I have to drive anywhere.

:)
Dee

It is snowing like crazy here in the Merrimack Valley. Hard to tell how much yet but it looks as if we'll be snowblowing in the dark. It started around 5am here and slowed down a bit in the late morning but is making up for it now. Hope everyone on the roads stays safe. I cancelled my trip into Boston. Not worth it. Got caught in a snow squall out of nowhere Wednesday evening, coming home from Newburyport. Don't want to go thru that again.

I'm sitting in my cube at work in Boston, and there has been a big snow squall with thunder and lightning outside for the past hour. This is tooooo strange.

Wow, thunder and lightning during a snow storm? That actually sounds kind of cool.

We got about 8 inches here. This morning woke up at 6AM to check if the kiddies had school, and when I found out they didn't, fell back into bed. Kind of nice, for a change.

Luckily, today was my day off, so I didn't have to worry about driving into work. My DH was supposed to fly out of Hartford on business, but the trip got postponed - not because of our weather, but because of a business-related event halfway around the world. But I was glad. I hate flying, and was nervous about him taking off in this weather, especially after hearing about a plane running off the runway in Chicago.

By midday, I was wishing he had gone, lol! I was expecting a nice, lazy day with the kids, but DH paced all day and was on the phone and computer rearranging business plans. So I went out and shoveled my 80-foot driveway by hand - with a kiddie shovel, no less, lol! Now I'm sitting here stiff as a board and all sore, but eagerly awaiting the chicken cacciatore DH is cooking. I guess role reversal isn't all that bad, lol! I shovel, he cooks. Works for me! Especially since it actually ended up being a beautiful sunny day with not a cloud in the sky.

Hope everyone stays safe and warm!
:)
Dee

Oh my aching back!I just loooove to shovel the sidewalks and the greenhouse roof. I'd soak in the spa if I had the energy to shovel it off. I think a few cups of hot chocolate and a warm bed is about it for the night. I'm definately not ready for this yet. My tree protectors are not on my orchard trees yet and my hose is still snaked out to the greenhouse, now very frozen. I'll have to drag it into the garage and hope it thaws soon. And I need to get the roses mulched. I'm not being so caring of them this year after the poor perfomance out the most of them. I busted my butt protecting them last year and they were a big disappointment this year. So only a prized few will get protected this year and the rest are on their own. Whatever makes it stays-the rest get shovel pruned.

We only had about 1-2 inches down here on the south coast. By 2:00 PM yesterday, the temperature at my house was up to 45 degrees with VERY heavy rain. And then all hell broke loose as the back lash from the ocean storm hit. The winds shifted into the North, gusting to 75 mph, the colder air rushed in and the rain changed to snow. But with only about 1-2 inches, snow was not the problem. The wind, however, fell a number of large trees and we lost power, but all is well with the world again this morning!

Well...let's compare if we come close to the balmy fall of 2005.

Hey, I was wearing shorts a few days ago... planting bulbs wearing shorts.

The garden is still a jungle, so I can't really imagine snow yet.

Claire

You are right winter is here. The snow birds are clogging the roads and filling up the hospitals. The land of the grey hairs have come south again. It will now take forever to find a parking spot at the store and end up not getting anything cause it's been brought. We need to gate the roads and sent them packing

Another forgotten thread but with a topic that's timely every year. Actually, it has been pretty mild here. Yesterday morning, I woke up to 34 degrees, enough to kill tender plants in the ground but not those in containers. Even the ones in the ground had not turned to mush. We're about to finish painting the house so my fingers are crossed for mild weather awhile longer. We're pushing the envelope on that one.

What a strange fall! It was so warm and balmy most of October, huh? Our impatiens, marigolds, and petunias (some in the ground, some in containers) are still in full bloom, despite the fact that the temps fall pretty low at night. Last fall they all turned into a mush by early October (but later got so warm in December that the snowdrops started blooming around Christmas!). Makes me wonder how long more the annuals can last...

Some frost on the grass this morning, but no ice in the birdbath yet. We'll probably get a real frost within the next two nights.

The Knockout roses are still blooming, but the ornamental grasses and berries (winterberry and cotoneasters) are now dominating the garden. The Itea virginica leaves are turning burgundy, as are the blue billow hydrangea leaves.

It's a beautiful clear sunny day today.

Claire

Same here, Claire. Only my impatiens and tomatoes have bowed out. They don't like temps in the mid-30s even though it's not freezing. The "Blush" Knockout rose is still in bloom. My Iteas' leaves haven't colored yet, however. But the witch hazel bloomed and it's leaves are turning a clear yellow.

I just ran my October weather numbers and they were a bit surprising. Here, in Mystic, October's daytime highs were 4.32 degrees above normal which is a lot. But, once again, it's the night lows that continue to amaze me. In October, we were 9.58 degrees ABOVE normal! I've been keeping these numbers now for exactly two years & all but one of those months has shown the same trend towards warmer nights. We had our first freeze on November 8 this year & October 27 last year. So far, we've had 3 freezes in Mystic.

/tricia

triciae..that is so organized of you! lol I keep wanting to keep track of the weather but I just keep forgetting to check the temperature and/or forget to write it down. I keep a journal so it should be fairly easy to just add that to what I already do but maybe next year. That much of a higher temperature change is a little scary, don't you think?

pm2

pm2,

I kept hearing about global warming & wanted to see if I could document anything on my little piece of dirt. It's been an interesting exercise. I only got one measly bloom on the north side of my lilac spring '07. I don't think our location met the lilac's dormancy requirement. Except for 3 nights, we had a zone 8 winter. I'm rethinking what I plant...so, yes, it's a little frightening.

As I type this, my rhoddies are blooming in the front gardens. Yep, I've got 8 open flowers on a 25-year + purple & 4 open flowers on about a 15-year white of unknown variety. All of the buds are very swollen & dozens are showing color. I also had open flowers on my Shasta viburnum at Halloween. Whatssup with that? It has to be confusion due to changing temperatures...my guess is that the much warmer nights means something significant?

/tricia

tricia...

I was noticing my Sambucus 'Sutherland's Gold' also has swollen buds on it and a couple of them look as though they were about to open, but I haven't noticed anything actually flowering. We had such drought this summer and the Sambucus was looking pretty awful by the end of the summer, so I was thinking that once we started to get a little more rain, it probably just didn't know if it was coming or going.

I do remember that last year I was out in the yard taking photos of green plants in January which has never happened before in my lifetime. Here they are taken on January 4th of 2007 in zone 6....

Hopefully we won't have a repeat of that this year. At least it sounds as if we are in for a cold enough change this weekend. We'll see how long it lasts.

pm2

I loved last year's milder winter in Connecticut. HOWEVER, I lost several of my hardier plants. I blame the mild temps in January and February and the sudden freeze in March! (I think that is the way it went.)

evonne...it really was very enjoyable, wasn't it? I also lost all my foxglove over the winter last year. Not one left in the yard and I had to winter sow more. I replanted about 10 containers of foxglove over the summer so I hope I can keep them this year. It would be nice if we were to have a good snow cover this year. We could certainly use the water.

pm2

OK, NOW I believe winter is finally here!

We're in the "Wintry Mix" stage now, snow turned to sleet turned to rain - more than 7 inches of snow shriveling down, then 3 inches more added, and that's melting too. Wind has died down a bit, but expecting more this afternoon. I have several pots of coffee in the refrigerator in case there's a power outage.

These shots were taken through rain-splattered windows.

Everybody OK out there?

Claire

We are spending the afternoon having the Great Debate - to clear or not to clear the driveway. There is about 3" of snow out there, and sleet coming down. If we clear, then the sleet will hit bare madacam, and freeze into a skating rink. If we don't clear, then we'll have crunchy but driveable snow, but a real mess if we get more snow on top. The current decision is to do nothing, and see if it stops precipitating later in the afternoon. It's long past what the snowblower can deal with, so anything will have to be done by shovel. For a big storm, this one is a little pussycat.

We aren't having power outage weather, unless somebody slides into a pole. The roads were jammed yesterday, but everybody seems to be staying home today. I'm trying to get a baby afghan finished before Christmas

LOL, MG!, We were having the same Great Debate here! My son just went out to attempt to shovel a path down the steps and out the sidewalk to the driveway. He just reported back that it is raining lightly.

Personally, I'm a bit disappointed. I was hoping for more snow. I was looking forward to a snow day for the kids tomorrow - because that means a snow day for me too! Oh sure, I'd still have to go to work in the afternoon, but that's *all* I'd have to do. No driving this one to school, that one to practice (at 4:30AM!) and then the other to practice later, etc.

So, since no snow day seems to be in sight, we're starting to dig out today to prepare for tomorrow morning.

Hope everyone else is doing okay and that it's not too bad for others!

Dee

We have had five significant snow or ice storms in ten days. I have spent lots of time and money trying to keep things clear. Despite best efforts yesterday, my driveway and walk are solid ice, several inches thick. I don't see any chance of it melting soon.

And all those oak leaves that came down after the snow/ice began are clogging the gutters and blowing around the garden so we don't even have the pleasure of the beauty of the pristine snowy landscape.

This is not whining! It's a good loud VENT.

I hear ya, ginny! Solid ice here too! I just know this will be the day that all my Christmas packages will come, and the poor deliverymen will have to try to walk the icy driveway and steps. It's so darn cold even the sun is not doing anything to help.

Snow is one thing, but I'm really getting tired of this freezing rain baloney. And I don't care if anyone thinks I'm whining, lol! I'm tired of this weather and it's not even officially winter yet!

:)
Dee

I just got back from a week in San Francisco. There was a huge lavender hedge in full bloom outside the convention center, and it made me wonder what the heck I'm thinking living in New England. When I got home, the solid ice (3 inches thick) on the back deck confirmed my hunch that we are all nuts to be living here in the frigid North.

The fact that it's not winter yet is certainly not helping my attitude. Grrr, and brrr.

It's warm enough (barely) and sunny enough here, that if I clear down to macadam in the driveway, I'll probably pick up some bare spots. It will probably take a pickax to get to the mailbox, though. And with the wind, I'm really not going to spend a lot of time out there.

For entertainment purposes only, we get NYC weather. The weatheridiots always talk about how great it is that it will warm up, and change the snow to freezing rain. After 15 years, I'm still trying to figure out on what planet this is supposed to be an improvement. It certainly isn't in the one I've always lived on.

I am reading everyone's message about the ice in the driveway. I was happy that yesterday, it was sunny and just warm enough to melt the driveway ice. BUT just in time for this next snow.

Back when we had that ice, all the stores were out of melting compound. Lowe's finally got their shipment in yesterday. Home Depot had no idea when there shipment was arriving.

I just told my friend in Northern VT, that it looks like Northern VT here in the West of Boston area.

Someone did give me an amaryllis as a present. The Christmas cactus look beautiful. It is going to be a long winter I think.