Seasonal rhythms
It's been cold the last few days, but we're headed back to milder temperatures by the end of the week. It's been an oddly punctuated winter so far, basically mild, with short snaps of cold.
It's been interesting to see early flowers of Japanese apricot, the odd daffodil, and quince -- then the swelling buds of various species in the warm spells.
Then, zap, the temperatures were back to the low 20's (°F), so even the kale froze solidly last weekend and didn't appear to recover in the unprotected mountain beds.
The kale and mustards (under plastic cover over bamboo hoops) in the Piedmont were fine. And the small spinach and lettuce plants in my improvised window box cold frames were doing well, too.
The robins are flocking, too, massing together on lawns and finishing up berries on dogwoods, hollies, and other fruit-producing trees and shrubs. A resident red-bellied woodpecker is taking breaks from poking around the wild cherry bark to snag a few black oil sunflower seeds under the platform feeder, too.
And I have a dining room table covered with seed packets to catalog, before buying the final warm season packets. Here's a photo from a number of years ago. Same idea!
And the post I made then, in August, 2008. It's fun to read it again. Some things stay the same.
It's been interesting to see early flowers of Japanese apricot, the odd daffodil, and quince -- then the swelling buds of various species in the warm spells.
Then, zap, the temperatures were back to the low 20's (°F), so even the kale froze solidly last weekend and didn't appear to recover in the unprotected mountain beds.
The kale and mustards (under plastic cover over bamboo hoops) in the Piedmont were fine. And the small spinach and lettuce plants in my improvised window box cold frames were doing well, too.
The robins are flocking, too, massing together on lawns and finishing up berries on dogwoods, hollies, and other fruit-producing trees and shrubs. A resident red-bellied woodpecker is taking breaks from poking around the wild cherry bark to snag a few black oil sunflower seeds under the platform feeder, too.
And I have a dining room table covered with seed packets to catalog, before buying the final warm season packets. Here's a photo from a number of years ago. Same idea!
And the post I made then, in August, 2008. It's fun to read it again. Some things stay the same.
It has been so mild. I am glad we are getting some rain tonight. So far it is about 4/10" .....my new plants are happy!
ReplyDelete