Winter is not the season we knew. My latest column: https://t.co/XLGPz0kgzI
— Adrian Higgins (@adrian_higgins) January 8, 2021
Since it’s the Washington Post, this is about the DC area, but many of us are feeling the less-than-salubrious effects of warmer winters:
… The year 2020 was so abnormal, so disconnected, that it was easy to forget that the weather was strange, too. Last winter was almost nonexistent, even if we had a cruel late freeze. In February, in one of my last professional outings before the pandemic shutdown, I was in Maryland listening to emerging tree frogs, spring peepers, filling the air with a wall of croaking sound. From Texas to coastal New England, spring arrived as much as a month early, according to the USA National Phenology Network…
This induced plants into bloom or precocious development. In my neighborhood, autumn-flowering cherry trees, which normally bloom sporadically from November to February, bloomed in a single cloudburst of white-pink blossoms. The autumn-flowering sasanqua camellias enjoyed a long and unmolested season that continues, and they have been joined now by the earliest of the Camellia japonica varieties, normally seen in late winter. The winter jasmine, with its yellow bells, erupted, an event that leads many to think the forsythias are abloom. But this winter, the forsythias were also in flower, or at least a couple of shrubs in a protected corner that I saw…
All this misalignment might be a lovely distraction, except there is a price to be paid. April-flowering trees and shrubs need their winter chilling to remain cyclical and healthy. Prolonged mildness allows insect pests to survive and multiply. Winter weeds, such as chickweed, are deeply entrenched and spreading. This year, if you wait until April to tackle your winter weeds, you will be doomed…
Need this be stated? The elephant in the room is climate change, and with its effects come an altered appearance of winter and, for us, an altered consciousness of winter.
The changes foster ambivalence in gardeners. Suddenly, the once-fringe idea of planting a garden (or a corner of it) for offseason interest, with such plants as winter aconite, witch hazels and wintersweet, becomes a much more mainstream notion.
As the pandemic has proved, we are adaptable creatures, though I still feel the loss of a landscape rendered drab but predictable by brown earth and gray forest. The bleakness had its appeal, a place and a season away from the sapping power of life without rest.
There were a lot of perennials in my neglected garden that didn’t seem to have made it through the last abnormally mild winter, even before summer’s heinous drought. Now I’m getting bombarded with the usual winter plethora of gardening catalogs, but… for the first time, I’m actually reluctant to place any orders. Maybe (probably) this will change by the end of January, but there’s plenty of work I need to do cleaning up and transplanting in the existing beds, and right now it feels like dumping more money into wishbook plants that won’t survive is just wasteful.
Even my beloved (annual) tomato plants! I cut back to a mere 18 rootpouches last year, which meant we could have not enough homegrown tomatoes with a lot less effort on my part, and now I’m having trouble assembling a list of even a dozen varieties that I know will be rewarding, or at least craved (Chocolate Sprinkles, Cherokee Purple, Chocolate Stripes, Ramapo, Tati’s Wedding, Bear Claw, Sungold… ) I mean, both the Spousal Unit & I adore the Paul Robeson heirlooms, but we’ve never gotten more than three or four ripe PR tomatoes even when I had multiple plants…
Also, in case it wasn’t obvious: I’m out of photos from you guys. You want your Sunday photo fix, you gotta step up & send me some!
What’s going on in your gardens (planning / tropical / indoor), this week?
OzarkHillbilly
I’m working on putting my seed orders together now, well step one anyway: Bookmarking everything that looks interesting. Next will be the winnowing (my least favorite part of the process), then the actual ordering. Got to have my mater, eggplant and pepper seeds by 2/15. I’m looking at 3 hot peppers that will be new to me:
Fish Pepper, An African-American heirloom popular in the Philadelphia/Baltimore region. A chili pepper notable for its unique history. Fish pepper plants are like no other, with striated and speckled white and green leaves; the compact 2 foot tall plants stand out, even for their small stature. The peppers themselves are a feast for the eyes. Starting as a solid creamy white, they develop into a light green with dark green striations, turning orange with dark brown striations until they finally mature into solid red peppers of flavorful culinary fire.
Buena Mulata Pepper, A chameleon-like pepper that undergoes color changes during ripening; violet to pinkish-flesh color, then orange changing to brown, and eventually to a deep red. The long, round pods reach 6 to 7 inches in length and undergo a unique flavor change as they ripen, with the reds being more sweet and meatier than the violet. The stunning plants also make wonderful potted specimens.
and Black Hungarian Pepper Unique, black-colored fruit that is the shape of a jalapeño. It is mildly hot and has a delicious flavor. The tall plants have beautiful purple flowers that make this variety very ornamental.
With that foliage, I’m definitely doing the fish pepper, 2 plants in pots anyway in the Zen garden. Probably the Hungarian instead of jalapenos. I have to raise some poblanos so I can have ancho peppers. After those, I’m not sure I have room for the Buena Mulata, but when did that ever stop me?
Decisions decisions…
mrmoshpotato
Mmmmmm chocolate-striped bear claw with chocolate sprinkles.
wvng
Beyond the issue of climactic change in gardens, the far more important issue is the decoupling of linked sprouting, emerging, reproducing, and migratory patterns of pretty much every living thing. Plants bud at the wrong time for insects, insect populations swell at the wrong time for foraging for baby birds. Also the severe stress on plants that bud in response to warm weather that arrives a month or more early, even leaf out entirely, only to be knocked way back by the last freeze that still arrives on the old schedule. All those stored nutrients wasted.
Viva BrisVegas
I wouldn’t get used to the warmer weather just yet. There are reports that the North Polar Vortex is destabilizing due to stratospheric warming. If this occurs it could push very cold air into the lower latitudes of North America, Europe or Siberia over the next few weeks.
mrmoshpotato
@Viva BrisVegas: Another polar vortex like several years ago?
Jeffery
More than a decade ago I became aware there was no way to know what to plant for the summer. Now I plant for hot & dry, hot & wet, cool & wet. Something might work.
Chickweed is edible. It’s bitter but not overwhelmingly so. Look up recipes online. One sure way to make a plant disappear in my garden is find a use for it.
Brought two of the large pots of clivias up from the cold room in the basement. Put them down there mid September. They need a three month cool dry period to flower. The room faces south and has two small windows in it. They are a low light plant and do fine in this room.
I have the two pots soaking to start the rehydration. Being in a heated area and watered I am hoping to get them to flower a little earlier this year. They usually flower in March. I would like to have them flower mid February. We’ll see.
debbie
@Viva BrisVegas:
The weatherman predicted it could arrive in Ohio late this week. He said it wouldn’t be as cold as previous vortexes, and the 7-day forecast showed nothing lower than the low 30s. ??
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
satby
Not just the DC area, that happened to me last year. Tackled the beginning weed cleanout in early March, then work and rain kept me away from the backyard raised bed until early April, and it was a lost cause. This year to seize the beds back, I’ll have to dig out all the daffs and surviving iris, probably solarize the soil all summer, and then try replanting the whole thing in the fall. Not looking forward to that.
NotMax
To-may-to, to-mah-to.
grandmaBear
@debbie: It was predicted to be down to 24 last night and was actually at 19 when I just let the dog out. Predicted to be up to 37 today, but we’ll see.
eta: near Dayton
satby
@rikyrah: @Baud: Good morning ?
debbie
@grandmaBear:
About the same here in Columbus. I couldn’t get over the sun finally appearing yesterday after about a month of cloudiness! I was stupid enough to pull a Trump and look up at it.
Caracal
I have a bitter orange – forgot the name – in a pot that stayed out all last winter and was quite happy. I’m sure it will be fine again this year. I used to keep it in the garage during Jan and Feb. It’s probably good down to the mid 20s for a day or so. The fruit (small, round and bitter) makes great marmalade. FYI I’m in Atlanta.
another Mary G
Good morning all. My first post so introductions are in order. I garden in the Virginia piedmont uplands, zone 7a. In addition to the crazy weather and multitude of insect pests, I have a constant battle with deer, rabbits, moles/voles, groundhogs, and squirrels. Through the 15 seasons I’ve been here, once I tackle one of these pest problems, another reared its voracious head.
Chickweed was a welcome staple in my garden up until 2019, the first season after having the last of our poultry retired to the freezer. Up until then, it was a spring (or late winter) tonic for the girls. Now, I do need to thwart it or it will take over. I covered most of my raised beds with tarps to discourage weeds this year. The perennial beds are another story. @satby – I need to develop a plan of attack.
Having to sit on the sidelines of gardening for a chunk of 2020 due to a broken elbow, I dove right in and placed my seed orders for 2021. I have to be optimistic.
And today, off to beef up the rabbit/groundhog barriers.
Immanentize
Nights in high twenties, days in the low forties all week near Boston. Warm for January!
I got a great tip from a neighbor! Save your toilet paper rolls (and paper towel rolls). Cut them to desired lengths around 2 inches. Fill them with soil and use them as your peat pots for seedlings. Seemed so obvious once Gary said it.
Maybe not as good as a Satby Box, but very good!
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: I got my first shipment of seeds that I ordered already. Two kinds of sunflowers that will produce seed for the birds and three varieties of wave petunias for the front bed and hanging baskets. Petunia seeds are microscopic, and so these are pelleted, but still tiny. And reading the directions, they need to be sown on top of the seed starting medium and not covered at all, so this will be new.
satby
@Immanentize: That is good! And recycling, nice! This year’s satby box is a huge one that I turned into a compost box. It’ll disintegrate while the leaves and coffee grounds compost, but it will keep everything in a contained pile for the time I need it to, plus I’m using it to smother the weedpatch under it.
O. Felix Culpa
@satby:
Yikes! I don’t blame you. Sounds like a ton of unpleasant, albeit necessary work.
O. Felix Culpa
@another Mary G: Welcome! So glad you’re here. I used to have to do battle with deer, rabbits and possums, and in my new-ish home on the high desert, my garden nemeses are pocket gophers, ground squirrels, and rabbits. I’ve placed my seed orders and told myself that there will be no more. Until the next catalog comes, that is. :)
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: Yep, the smaller the seed the closer to the surface with the tiniest on the surface. I think it is universal as a rule but am not sure so I always read the directions to confirm.
another Mary G
@O. Felix Culpa: Yes, I too am an addict when it comes to seed catalogs!
Marigold
I’m also in Ohio, but up along the lakeshore where we’re supposed to be Zone 6B. The new climate seems to be a mild winter, heavy precipitation/flooding in spring, and then a blazing hot and dry summer. I am so tempted to push my limits when I’m planting! But a polar vertex wiped out the holly bushes in the first winter we lived here, so it can only be something that I can temporarily insulate.
I have been gathering clear plastic containers to try winter sowing this year. Now to whittle down the circled plants in my catalogs to a more practical list. Has anyone grown fennel before? I tried it for the first time this winter and wouldn’t mind having more on hand…
kindness
We’ve gotten hardly any rain out here in California. I know that seems to happen all the time these last couple decades, but still…I remember normal and high rain years too. We just seem to only get those every blue moon now.
Reboot
Just saw the first daffodil pushing its way up in the front yard two days ago.
Chris T.
Global heating is why—well, part of why—I picked northwestern Washington for retirement. Still a maritime climate (like the SFBayArea as long as you’re on the right side of the coastal hills) but not turning into burning desert. Well, not yet.
StringOnAStick
We moved from CO to the other CO (central Oregon) this fall, and our new home has a fairly neglected yard and a pretty trashed drip system (parts blown completely apart) so I think this year is all about planning and repair, though I’ve got the urge to dive into hardscaping a large rock garden in the front yard. I eliminated all the grass for plants and shrubs at our old house so the same will happen here but it’s going to be a multi year process. This supposed to be 1 zone warmer here but one nursery owner told me to stick with zone 5b plants; I suspect drainage is why since it’s much wetter here in the winter than the Denver area is.
I will admit to some ostrich behaviour to spare my emotions; seeing how bad the drought was/is getting where we used to live is a small part of why we left. I don’t know any patterns or weather history here so I don’t have the low level constant fear I had there, but I know it will be back once we get rid of tRump and the seditionists.
Geminid
@another Mary G: Ah. Another upland Piedmont gardener. I live in western Greene County, NW of Charlottesville. I’ve been here a year and a half (I lived some years in Augusta County before I moved). So far I have only grown some peppers, but there is a good amount of garden space if I’ll I dig it. A fence provides a good place for peas, so my goal is to get some in by March 1.
The property I caretake provides a good example of climate change. My landlord planted a good sized apple orchard in the late 1970s. He and subsequent tenants were able to get good production into the 90s. But then warm winters induced early blooming, and subsequent frosts suppressed production to the the point the orchard was no longer commercially viable. He now has time to plant different apples this spring, and has them on order.
BruceFromOhio
NE Ohio has been hovering at freezing (just above during the day, just below at night) under a grey dome since before Christmas, yesterday and today’s sunshine bringing a welcome break. Still freezing, though the heavy snowfall from Christmas is long gone. The temptation to ride was exhibited by putting the motorcycle battery on the charger, because why not. A quick tour of the grounds yesterday shows everything in its proper state, dead or inactive, the exception being the Gaia-damned grass – I fed it after its last shave in early November, and the stupid stuff is growing. The combination of just enough water, lack of snow cover, and the late round of fertilizer are keeping it looking green, if a bit shaggy. MrsFromOhio and I were talking about seed catalogs and planning the gardens, owing to the new terraces I put in early last summer. This may be the first time I try to grow something from seeds started inside, rather than putting stuff right in the ground or the pots & planters. The new fence around the back forty and the netting around the front garden have kept deer damage at zero thus far, though the wasting disease that wiped out the local herds last year is the larger factor. Every two or three days or so I see one lonely wandering buck (8 point) trudging across the front yards towards the creek in the back or the wooded lots down at the end. He’s truly stag at this party.
The squirrels have been digging all over the place, too, the furry little bastards leaving holes everywhere. Nothing destructive, just unsightly.
BruceFromOhio
@StringOnAStick: YoungAdultFromOhio, aka YAFO, my youngest daughter, lives with her park ranger boyfriend. He’s in school to collect his masters, and when she was visiting recently I asked her what she thought she would do when he graduates. She said it depends on where he gets a job, or if he goes for more schooling. I asked her if she would consider moving out west because that’s where the big sexy national parks are, and her immediate and forceful response was NO. Why?
Water. She “does not want to move into a drought zone.” I said that limits a lot of your choices then. She said, between the Great Lakes and the upper northeast (Maine, mostly) there were plenty of places to live that had mountains, national parks, and plenty of water.