Home Garden Companion

Ilona's Garden Journal




snow

Winter Gets Weaker

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Winter can’t possibly hang on, it knows that… and each passing week it gets weaker ( teeny tiny pun there). Yet, until sometime in May we can get frosts. Recently we got walloped with a snowstorm here in Ohio and some of it is still on the ground today. I have taken lots of photos of winter in the past, but it was fun to tromp around the yard yesterday morning and I took some more snowy photos. This time, using a few different perspectives, just for fun.

I had ordered some Mignonette seeds after reading where to buy them- Select Seeds. I received them last week and it was nice that they were sent so promptly. Even nicer that I received a bonus pack of four o’clocks. Now I am officially excited about spring, and no amount of sudden snowstorms can dampen that for me.

I guess that is something that gardening has given me. A sense of the timeliness of seasons, so that I no longer want to rush the season.

I remember long ago when I had my first child, a little girl. I often “rushed the season” with her. When will she roll over? When will she teethe? When will she walk? When will she talk? I had no sense of the way the moments of now go by so quickly, then.

Now is so soon over that we must not waste it in rushing towards the future. This has nothing to do with not planning or looking forward to things, but in enjoying the “what is” of life. I am enjoying the March month of my garden, and it contains the railings of winter as it exits my part of the earth. I am used to it and understand it now. I know spring is coming, and I know I will see loads of blooms in my garden, for I have stocked it with a plethora of spring blooming plants. It will come in its own time.

I also know that with spring comes a horde of tasks, which I can still, in March, look at from a distance. I can sit with my computer and my coffee without any of the feeling that the day is too short, and the list too long for all that I need to do. And I like that.

Just as I will like the heady plunge of spring into the growing season that holds the fruition of my plans, which are only seeds of promise right now.

To each season its beauty and blessing.

I hope you are enjoying yours.

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© 2013 written for Ilona’s Garden Journal by Ilona E. An excellent blog.

snow day in georgia

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we got snow here in the middle south, from noon til just after dark.
small flakes fell hard and fast all day, so similar to the hard rains we
have been getting regularly this fall and winter. this winter storm dipped
way down south to savannah; i also heard there were brief snow showers
in tallahassee, on down to the coast. i think snow on a florida beach would
be a photographic wonder! i took a walk yesterday evening- my horse
rosa , a snow novice, came along beside me anyway. as evening fell,
the snow stopped and the light was a lovely dusky blue…
trees, earth and sky in monochrome.

this morning, before sunrise, the world was the same indigo shade. as the
sun came up, the light hit the treetops. it was blinding, but beautiful.
i had my old 35mm, but no film, so i hurried inside to write haiku impressions

i grew up in ohio, and i do realize such pleasure from snow is the result of many
years in the south, away from it! you up north might consider such a reaction
kind of crazy – but this winter scene will be gone by tonight; only the muddy
ground and a few of the earliest brave daffodils will remain.
here’s hoping you will forgive me my delight,
and enjoy my “snow pictures.”

indigo evening
shrouded in snow
silent night.

indigo dawn-
snow crunches
underfoot.

i came upon
a woolly white armchair-
my garden bench.

snowy tree-tops
brilliant, blinding
limned in light

concrete Kwan-Yin smiles,
serene in her snowy
pillbox hat

bonsai benches
capped with snow
small magical forest

whack!
tiny bird hits window
flying snowblind

for my snow poems
i’ll get no empathy
from midwest.

vty- j-lea

updates for February 8

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I received a note from Jessica working for the Dispatch events, and she advised me about Tracy DiSabato-Aust’s appearance times:
Tracy will be appearing at 1 and 3 p.m. at the garden show coming up at the end of the month.
Saturday, Feb. 27, 2010

Glad that is cleared up!

We awoke this morning to the world being even more frosted-ness. Frigidly cold, the tree’s every branch and twig carried picots of white snow crystals against that icy blue sky that only the coldest of days can manufacture.

And tomorrow more snow is predicted.

Again I stepped outside briefly to capture just a couple more photos. I might post them later- the frozen strings of the willow’s branches were in one shot. I noticed little mousie tracks on the front porch. Isn’t it a bit cold for mousie tracks? What was he doing on my porch with no perceivable contributions to his welfare? The tales the snow tracks tell us….

I really must improve the spontaneous writings- typos  and grammatical faux pas everywhere, it  is shameful how poor my keyboarding skills are.

Oh yes, I should put the date of the garden show in here….
Feb. 27 – Mar. 7, 2010

Ohio Expo Center
(Ohio State Fairgrounds)
717 E. 17th Ave.
Columbus, Ohio

Winter Landscape

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After Christmas day rains, we again had snowfall and the ground and trees were trimmed with a confectioners icing of powdered snow. It sifted down and clung to all the branches with little puffs in the crooks and crannies of the shrubs.

Since most of that took place in the night hours I took no new pictures of it. but thought I would post more of the early morning photos from the first lot.

From Ilona’s Garden Journal

Just A Note

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It snowed over night, and I woke up to the beauty of a world draped and trimmed in fluffy white. My son remarked how much warmer it felt with the snowfall, but we didn’t know why. Turns out Susan Reimer has done some homework on it:

Snow actually protects the garden from the cold, and especially from the drying effects of a cold wind. It is an excellent insulator. Snow increases the temperature at soil surface by about 2 degrees for every inch of accumulation, according to the Purdue University extension service.

As the snowflakes pile on top of one another, pockets of air are left between them and it is this air that provides the insulating effect.

Snow not only protects from the drying winds, but it brings needed moisture to plants that will continue to lose moisture through their branches, both evergreen and leafless. And, of course, melting snow feeds the soil, carrying nutrients and moisture.

She also highlighted one of Kylee‘s pictures, with exceptional winter garden color from red osier dogwood and a spiky Yucca filimentosa.


I don’t usually like yucca plants in Ohio- but I like Kylee’s. I think it is in how plants are used that creates the difference. I love her combination of dogwood with it.

The snow is already starting to melt- I wonder if that insulating effect of snowflakes also works as they are falling through the air?

I had fun following tracks around my yard when out taking some photos. I see that deer are visiting. Not sure I like that- as they can do so much damage.

I hope my husband fixes my greenhouse soon. The last windstorm blew out some pannels and they were damaged. We are waiting on replacements. I lost some plants I was storing in there.