I have been guilty of minimizing the cold weather woes of gardeners in warmer climates. I apologize for my insensitivity, and promise never to use terms like "wimp" again, or make comments such as "You think that's cold? You should come to Chicago in January."
This change of heart occurred yesterday morning, when I was shocked to awaken to -2F/-19C. That's ice on my window.
I'm wearing two pairs of socks, leggings under my jeans and a wool sweater with a turtleneck underneath. That's in the house.
I'm wearing two pairs of socks, leggings under my jeans and a wool sweater with a turtleneck underneath. That's in the house.
A little over a week ago, it was 55F/13C and the low was above freezing. The human body (at least this human's body) has difficulty adapting to such sudden temperature shifts. This made me realize that colder than normal feels mighty cold regardless of what one's normal is. Hearing about the damage caused by the cold and snow in Texas last week (see, e.g., From My Corner of Katy, Digging, and Zanthan Gardens), I also realized that a plant killed by 28F/-2C temperatures is just as dead as one killed by -20F/-29C. So if you need to commiserate, I'll be happy to listen. I will be sympathetic. I will be understanding. I will virtually pat your hand. I will be shivering. Leave me a comment or a link to a post about your bitter experiences.
I don't know what happened, this was supposed to be an El Nino winter, which are warmer and drier than normal around here, but it sure doesn't feel like one. Imagine me (or Rosemary Clooney and Bing Crosby if you prefer) singing to the tune of White Christmas:
I'm dreaming of an El Nino winter,
Just like the ones I used to know.
Where the Pansies flowered
under rain showers,
and I didn't have to shovel any snow.
hardly any snow
I'm dreaming of an El Nino winter,
one where my down coat won't be seen.
May your temperatures never be mean,
and may this year's Christmas be green.
43 comments:
A new christmas classic for Gardeners. Now would be a good time to be welding statues for the garden. At least you would have flashes of warmth.
We have had similar here in UK. Woke to -1 degrees this morning but at the weekend it was around 13 degrees. Bit of a shock especially the freezing fog
That first picture is really neat! I think you're right hat it is the temperature difference more than anything that gets us here in the south. Although it's 8.1 degrees here now...that's pretty cold!
It got gold here very suddenly! It takes me a good month to get used to cold weather....I am not ready for it. Today it's 15, a little warmer in the city then where Dave is out there in the country...gail
Your sensitivity is heart warming--too bad it doesn't warm the rest of my parts! You are right about cold being relative--my mother, who lives in the Quad-Cities, says she gets just as cold here in Austin, because it is a different cold. Whatever kind of cold it is, I get tired of family member's complaining of being cold, dressed in their shortsleeves and flip-flops. My mantra these days is, " Go put on a sweater, I am not turning up the heat so you can wear shorts!"
p.s. those icey shots are awesome! Brrrrrrrrrrrrr!
Oh woe to all the plants, whatever the zone, MMD! And woe to the gardeners too. We just went outside to fill the birdfeeder, the birds are extra hungry when it stays below freezing for so long and the water dishes are frozen solid. We may need to look into those birdbath heater thingeys, although the pond pump keeps that water from freezing. We wear the cuddleduds day and night underneath pjs and clothing. Thank you for the song, I can imagine your clear voice belting it out! :-)
Frances
Your photos of the red berries are stunning. I lost probably a quarter of my garden over the last 2 weeks here in Austin and it is devisatating. But, I used to garden on the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska, so I hear ya...I've become acclamated to Texas, yes I'm a wimp...I want my sunshine back!
Cold and very beatiful!
Have a great weekend!
Linda
I'm singing along with you, MMD! I agree I've been jealous of Southern gardeners showing off their blooms in February when we're shoveling snow and trying to stay warm. But after seeing posts the past few weeks of frozen gardens in Texas, Mississippi and Tennessee, I feel so sorry for those who don't usually experience this. At least here in the Midwest, our plants are used to this.
Oh I love that photo! It was artic!
Love the last line of your song, "and may this year's Christmas be green."
You are absolutely right, a plant or tree that dies from temperatures below freezing is just as dead as one that dies from temperatures below zero. In fact since I've stopped supplemental watering, I'm more likely to lose plants from drought and extreme heat than from extreme cold.
Marnie
Oh, yes, MMD, we're enjoying that Great Lakes cold (as only the land so close to our great inland seas can be) out our way, too. Brrrrr.
This is the first time I've had the chance to visit your blog since you've changed your look. Very, very nice. Seems everyone's going for a makeover lately. Yours is very effective.
My Frigid Friday was a week ago today, and it was quite the experience. As you learned to your chagrin, those sudden drops in temperature are a little hard for people AND plants to process! The day before our Frigid Friday, the sun was shining and it was a perfect fall day. I worked outside all day in lightweight jeans and a 3/4 sleeve t-shirt!
Here's a link to my post about it: http://www.mycornerofkaty.com/2009/12/walking-in-winter-wonderland.html
We all seem to be suffering through extremely cold temps. Most of them in the house. I am wearing almost as much as you are inside, and I am still cold.
Poor little plants, this is terrible weather for them.
Jen
I got mine up MMD. So glad we could share this frozen time together. :) ~~Dee
Your clothing sounds like mine inside. It seems we all were a bit relaxed and enjoyed the warmer temps, when all of a sudden really we got hit by frigid winter. I was caught off guard and I imagine plant where the cold came fast were too. Terrific song!
OMG, your photos are gorgeous. How did you manage to push the shutter button wearing thick gloves? I'm a warm-climate gardener who is on the cusp of freezing temps every winter. So I'm continually trying wonderful exotics that get zapped to jelly every other year or so, and am obsessed with microclimates. Appreciate your insight that a plant is just as dead at 30 degrees as it is at 3 degrees, and thin-blooded gardeners mourn just as much.
You're right, we should be more sensitive to those in warmer climates! After suffering through this cold all last winter I thought we'd at least get a reprieve until January, but no such luck.
The low was 14F this morning. Which is cold, but not unusually cold, for my area. And it was warmer than lots of places that are normally warmer than here. Strange.
You are right--dead plants are dead no matter what temperature kills them. And cold gardeners are cold no matter what constitutes cold for them! I'm wearing a scarf and jacket in my house right now, but of course our low-40s are nothing compared to your window-icing temps. Brrr!
Eating humble pie, eh? You're very sweet about it. I've never tasted the stuff. LOL [Sarcasm alert.] It's all subjective isn't it? I heard that it was 32 degrees in Los Angeles the other day...cold for them. And 14 degrees where I live, very cold for me. My sister lives in Zone 5 and I honestly cannot comprehend how she can take that kind of a winter. I don't really have a problem commiserating about weather woes because I'm the biggest wuss of them all. I understand. Weather whining is fair game.
Beautiful photos. I love the icy dangling berries. Or, wait. Crabapples?
I too have been guilty of such insensitivity to those in warmer climes. Two below is truly cold though, you have me beat by a good 15 degrees and I'm in Alaska. Hope some warmer weather blows your way....
Christine at Last Frontier Garden
Lisa - I wish I was welding now. I tried to signup for the next class, but it's already filled.
PG - Freezing fog sound creepy. That 14 degree drop is a shock to the system. I hope you had things covered.
Dave - Thanks! 8F is cold by any measure.
Gail - I wish the weather would cooperate and give us a month of gradually dropping temperatures.
MGRR - My sympathy doesn't quite extend to those refusing to put on a sweater and socks. In October, my kids were bugging me to turn on the heat because it was 69F in the house.
Frances - I'd like a heated birdbath too. I should look into cuddleduds. I'm not crazy about the yoga pants underneath jeans.
Conscious Gardener - that's terrible! It's hard to sit back and watch things freeze when there's nothing you can do about it. I wouldn't want to live in Alaska, not so much because of the cold as the dark. I need sunshine too.
Linda - thanks!
Rose - and we are sort of used to it too.
Suz - thanks, it felt arctic while I was taking it. (I love the pun.)
Helen - thank goodness for the Great Lakes, or we'd be as cold as North Dakota. And thanks!
Cindy - I linked to that post directly. It made quite an impression on me.
MBD - At least while we're shivering inside, we can console ourselves with the thought that we're saving energy by having a cold house.
Dee - I prefer our pleasant spring times together.
Carol - thanks, sometimes these things just come to me.
Debra - I wasn't wearing gloves, I was wearing mittens, and it wasn't easy. I took several shots with different attempts at focusing because I was too cold to try to get the focus right.
ROR - we deserve a reprieve! Where's our reprieve?
Pam - wow, you sound like you feel colder than I do. I have yet to resort to a scarf or hat in the house, but I do wear a polartec jacket inside.
Grace - Somehow, we all make it through the cold, and if whining helps, whine away. Those are Crabapples. The squirrels are started to forage on them, so I don't expect them to last much longer. The squirrels can have them now, they need them more than I do.
Hi, Christine - it always gets me when I see that it's warmer in Alaska than Chicago. But then I remind myself that parts of Alaska are Zone 6. And it's dark. We're supposed to warm up this weekend just enough to get freezing rain. Yippee. :-(
It's frigid here too! I wouldn't mind if the wind would just slack off, but it's been screaming since Wednesday so it's getting a bit old. Your photos, however, warmed me right up.
Sleet, freezing rain, ice pellets, snow, squalls, flurries, hoar frost or lake effect it's all part of life here and part of gardening....no matter...it comes and chills me to the core...I'm never really ready to accept it and it takes a good few months to aclimatize...then a seed catalog arrives in the mail and it's all good again! Oh yeah...and misery loves company!
Jackie from The Great White North
Now that is real cold! I don't think we ever get that kind of cold here in Wales. Today has been clear and sunny and about 10 degrees Celsius, just perfect but the chances of it lasting are zero!
I love your icy photos though, some small consolation.
Thanks for the shout out. I can't begin to imagine how cold you are. I start shivering in sympathy looking at your photos.
We've had a week of gray weather with highs in the 40s which is unusually bleak for Austin. Usually we get a couple of days of so-called winter and then it's sunny and warmer again.
Woke up to sun today and a itch to get back in the garden. I could never survive your extended, cold winters.
Mr D and I use to be subject to all the shock and awe with our AF moves. It would be ND one yr and TX the next. No time to adjust---just move and freeze or burn up. I have experienced a 120 degree difference in one yr. Went from 120 on Arizona flight-line where I worked to -100 with wind chill on flight-line in ND. You talk about a shock to the system, it was almost more than a body could handle.
Everything is relative, weatherwise. I wish we had more snow, for example! But colder than normal temps are weird for everyone, even if for us northerners some lows don't seem so low (one has to remind oneself!). It's so interesting learning about temps and whatnot in blogs. For example I recently learned that flowers that make it through the winter no problem here (gaillardia for example), sometimes die due to rot in the rainy Pacific Northwest. I never would have thought anything that survived winter here couldn't do it in warmer temps. Blogs are so illuminating!
Love your photos, MMD! You are too cute! I don't know, though. I really love the snowy beauty throughout the Winter (nothing dangerous, mind you), just the beauty. :-)
Jodi - I'm glad the photos warmed you, they make me shiver.
Hi, Jackie - I agree, those seed catalogues transport me to summer too. I just wish they'd send me more of them.
Elizabeth M - thanks for visiting! Sunny & clear is good, but from what I understand it's mostly dreary & rainy in Wales all winter. That sounds like a real downer.
MSS - I could never survive one of your summers. Believe it or not, I'll take -5 over 105 any day. You've all in Austin have been on quite the temperature rollercoaster this year. I hope things get back to what approximates normal.
FGG - you deserve an award for dealing with that.
Monica - yes they are! I've also been hearing from gardeners in TN that they can't grow Hakonechloa. I guess that sort of makes up for no Camellias for us.
Shady - there is a beauty to a fresh snowfall, but I find it hard to appreciate dirty snow in March.
What a wonderful image. I've been obsessed with ice and snow for several days now, since before the new contest was announced.
It has been darn cold here in the Ozarks too, we are wearing layers in the house, and I discovered my little camera does not like being cold. Too bad for it.
The weather rarely listens to what the Almanacs and the weather forecasters and the meteorologists say it is "supposed" to do. It is what it is, and we are loving it, right????
Gorgeous shot!
I've been complaining about the weather here in Albuquerque, and it is *only* going down to 12F. That's still way too cold for this California boy. If it's too cold for camellias to bloom, I shouldn't be living there!
Lovely images and a prize-winning entry! Good luck for the competition! Jack
Those are some very beautiful images!
HMH - I've been obsessed with ice & snow because there's nothing else to see. (Until I became obsessed with Paperwhite roots.) When it gets too cold for the camera, I run in & out of the house. Snap, dash back in & let the camera warm, dash back out, snap, repeat.
Forest - 12 is cold for NM. It's cold here too, but at least by now we're used to it in Chicagoland.
Jack & Nicole - thanks!
Gorgeous photo, as always! The little 'stars' along the left are a wonderful bonus and I love the blue background.
What a gorgeous photo this is, MMD...how did you manage to capture the sparkles shaped like stars? It's amazing!
Great shot for Picture This! Our Toronto weather has gone from unseasonably cold to unseasonably mild. Go figure!
Thanks, AAG, the snow adds a blue tone to most of my winter shots whether I want it to or not.
Jan - The star burst sparkles are the result of the low angle of the sun hitting the ice.
Helen - I keep waiting for the thaw, but it keeps getting delayed.
CONGRATULATIONS on being a Silver Winner in the GGW photo contest! I love your photo!
And this time I'm back to say congratulations! Great shot -- nicely captured. And a nifty badge for your blog.
Congratulations on your silver medal!
I will whine about our bitterly cold weather. After having some warmer temps and melted snow, we have gotten more snow, and the temps are back to being cold, although not as cold as they had been. This morning, as I was walking gingerly on the snow/ice covered sidewalk at work, the wind was whipping the cold right through my winter coat.
I guess I should suck it up and be glad spring will be here soon, and hope that once it gets here, the winter weather will be finished.
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