• my place
  • the rural story
  • gardening tips
  • using garden tools
  • Privacy Policy
  • Join Me

    • Facebook
    • Pinterest
    • RSS
    • Twitter
    • YouTube

Home Garden Companion

Ilona's Garden Journal

  • Plant Library On The Journal
    • All Season Garden Color
    • Sitemap
  • Garden chores
    • Essential Garden Tools For Beginners
    • Garden Tips and Advice
  • Ilona’s Garden Home
    • Old House Blog
    • Garden Librarian
  • Ilona’s Garden Flavor Shop

Garden blogs winter

Gardening, Global Warming, and El Nino

I was reading over @ Hanna‘s ‘This Garden Is Illegal’, and in one of her posts Black Swamp Girl,Kim, remarked in the comments about the effect of all this mild weather on plants. We are all Ohioans, “Buckeyes”.
There are ideas that global warming is actually a natural phenomenon, etc. and while many can argue their views well, I tend to think we can’t really know at this point and that it just generally makes sense to try to follow the best policies for the overall environment. IOW, act as if we might have global warming and be able to do something about it.

But the question wasn’t on that- it was how does this warming in winter effect your plants in the garden for the coming season?

What you have to watch for is the damage that comes from such things as breaking dormancy too soon and getting caught by later (yes, I bet it is coming) freezing weather damage, plants heaving out of the ground and leaving the roots exposed to drying winds, and things like that. If your trees bud they will have some damage. I saw some of this last year. It doesn’t matter when the warming/chilling takes place, but if it does, you find tree damage of some sort. There isn’t anything the normal gardener can do about it, that I know of. In Citrus country they spray down their trees with coatings of ice, but we wouldn’t ever be able to do that on any widespread scale here. Don’t be fooled by trees looking fine in April. They have to make it through July- then you know the full extent of the damage. I had a sweet gum that looked fine while I made late spring rounds, but died. I cut it down to the a little above the ground,and am nurturing a few of the sprouts, culling all but the tallest at some point this coming year. The other three gum trees made it through.

Bulbs are usually OK if they are mulched, but we didn’t get much cold and no snow in the Central part of our state. I checked on some of the viburnums, but my garden is so wet right now I haven’t been out in it to see what is going on. Things look different from afar sometimes.

One nice thing about the warmth is the amount of Spring-like singing the birds are doing around here. I have noticed that.

The Farmers Almanac did not predict this, but that prediction about lots of snow for the more western part of the US was right-on…it just seems somewhat more west than their forecast. When I wrote on “Winter’s Blast I was fooled by the prospect of an actual winter…. and by the idea that “we do expect this to be the coldest winter we’ve seen for quite a few years.”. Not this year, boys.

Technorati Tags: ,

Share this:

  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

Related


« The Winter That Wasn’t
Seed-starting, January thoughts »

Oh, hi there!

I was a garden blog pioneer, and began writing on this blog in 2003. Before that I had begun a garden website that has been at its own domain since 2006, Ilona's Garden.

I still love writing, gardening, and art after all these years, although travel and grandchildren have become a big part of my life, now.

Mission

Finding your way home via the garden path

Portrait of a Gardener

gardener musings

Musings

What’s Wrong With Today’s Gardening?

Modern gardening

What Is Wrong?

Garden Journal

fine garden journal

Journal, Planner and Log Book

Newest Postings Here

  • Deals from Amazon
  • Hawaiian Flower Arrangements
  • HELLLOOOO, From The Other Side
  • February Gardening, Last of Winter in the Flower Garden
  • Compilation of Past Mini-Posts of 2003
buy quality plants

On Facebook

On Facebook

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Standouts

10 Useful Gardening Tips For Spring

You might also like

seeds

National Seed Swap Day in January

Garden advice

What Makes a Low Maintenance Garden?

Create A Child’s Garden, Grow Love For Nature

Growing Indoor Flowers In December

I Found Out About “She Sheds” And Coincidentally, About Friends

Top Posts & Pages

  • Flowers that Monet Grew In Giverny
  • Grandma Can Make Fairy Houses From Forest Finds
  • A Little Something For You: Garden Journal Template
  • Mugo Pines: When to Trim and Prune
  • Scrapbooking Garden Journal
  • Garden Logistics
  • Characteristics of a Gardener
  • Gardening Column by Brian Minter
  • A few notes on nothing particular
  • How To Grow Lavender For Its Heavenly Scent

Past Posts

ilonagarden

Instagram post 17959863785360234 Instagram post 17959863785360234
Instagram post 17989258745013455 Instagram post 17989258745013455
Instagram post 17976222752103831 Instagram post 17976222752103831
Instagram post 18056018824416584 Instagram post 18056018824416584
Instagram post 18335731483076224 Instagram post 18335731483076224
Instagram post 17977547744261532 Instagram post 17977547744261532
#atlanta #beautiful day☀️ #atlanta #beautiful day☀️
#atlanta #chattahoocheeriver #atlanta #chattahoocheeriver
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Copyright © 2023 · Part of Ilona’s Garden by Ilona Erwin

Copyright © 2023 · Ilona's Garden Journal