Winter returned with a vengeance to my area when an Arctic cold front slammed into another moisture laden front that came in from the southwest, leading to fairly heavy snows and way below average temperatures here in Colorado. This was followed two days later by yet another cold front that dropped more frozen moisture. Parts of the state have seen almost two feet of snow over the past week. I estimate that I got about 5-6 inches total from the two storms.
The next two pictures were taken 24 hours apart:
We’ve seen the temperatures hit the low teens several times this week. Needless to say, this has not been healthy for some of the plants that have already leafed out.
Fortunately, this damage is most likely just temporary. As long as the roots didn’t get zapped by the cold the plants should bounce back shortly.
My big concern was the Brunneras I rescued from the bird bath overhaul. While turning over the soil in that section, I came across a few Brunneras that I decided to save, so I temporarily transplanted to them into containers. They will be re-located elsewhere in the garden later in the year.
My worry about these foundlings was not what the snow would do to them, but the bitter cold. The roots of the plants still in the ground are insulated by the soil and mulch. The containers are located above ground, so there is not nearly as much insulation for the roots. Kill the top growth and the plants should grow back. Kill the roots and the plant is a goner.
So the night before the first storm hit, I covered the containers with towels to help insulate the roots.
As you can see below, it looks like the plants came through unharmed.
This past week has not been all wintery gloom. I managed to get the lawn aerated and fertilized between the storms. When the snow from the second storm melted, I started putting some compost top-dressing down on the grass, with an emphasis on the areas that burned so badly last summer. Hopefully this will help prevent such burning this summer.
I’ve also started top-dressing the garden beds with cotton-burr compost and some organic fertilizer. This is a fairly labor intensive project, as I have to rake the mulch back to get access to the soil, throw down the compost and then rake the mulch back into place. So I have just been doing small sections at a time.
Unfortunately, this week I don’t have any photos of plants in bloom to show you, because the deep freeze zapped all the blooms.
I recently heard a saying that I had never heard before – “when the forsythia bloom, expect 3 more snows”. When MrsVintage and I moved into our place oh-so-many years ago there used to be quite a lot of forsythias in the neighborhood, including one in our yard. I was not too impressed with this shrub. It only blooms for a few days in early spring and the rest of the year it looks like a giant weed and it tends to spread everywhere. So I yanked it out.
I bring this up because I don’t see forsythias blooming much anymore in my neck of the woods. I think a lot of people felt the way I do about the shrub and pulled theirs out as well. So I have no idea if the forsythias have bloomed yet in the Denver metro area. But if they have, that means there may only be one more snow in my area this spring. I certainly hope so!
How fares your garden this spring?
