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I can remember times, when I was still teaching, when I would lie awake at night wishing for a snow day. School kids have more in common with their teachers, sometimes, than they may realize! Everyone needs a break from their routine from time to time. And everyone I know is wishing now for a break from the snow.
But that break is still down the road and over the weather horizon. Another storm moves in tonight. We have restocked on the essentials: coffee, cream, and cat litter.
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Snow remains a welcome sight in the winter garden. Beyond it’s beauty, it also insulates, hydrates, and provides the extended period of cold so many plants in our region require for spring growth.
We may not think about it, but snow absolutely functions like a blanket on our garden beds and in our pots. Deep snow protects roots, crowns and leaves from winter’s very dry and extremely cold winds.
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Snow insulates and protects sprouting bulbs and awakening perennials, helping them through these last weeks of winter. Like mulch, it helps maintain a more even soil temperature so plants don’t ‘heave’ up out of the ground during the freeze/thaw cycle.
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Our ground water is replenished from melting snow. But so are our potted plants. Plants can’t absorb water very well from frozen soil. But melting snow waters plants and helps thaw out the soil when it melts in the mid-day sun. Without snow, hardy annuals and perennials living in pots through the winter may dehydrate on sunny days, especially when it is windy.
I often water our pots with warm tap water on wintery days when there is no snow cover, just to give the plants a chance to re-hydrate. I’ve also applied a dilute solution of Neptune’s Harvest, in warm water, to offer a little boost of minerals to help our pots make it through winter’s last ‘Hurrah.’
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Snow cover helps certain fruit bearing trees, bulbs, and perennials maintain the periods of extended cold they need in order to grow. Gardeners in regions with gradually warming climates find that some plants no longer get their required ‘chilling hours.” This means replacing old reliable plants with different cultivars adapted to the warmer climate and fewer hours of freezing temperatures. Our extended periods of snow this winter help those plants which need the cold as part of their annual pattern of growth.
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We humans are extremely adaptable, and stubbornly tough. We find work-arounds for all sorts of frustrating circumstances. We will deal with this coming winter storm, and the next, and will learn some useful life lessons in the process.
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May spring find you sane, healthy and soon.
But until this winter passes, please remember to stop to appreciate the beauty of it all.
And keep in mind that snow brings its blessings along with its frustrations.
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“The world as we have created it
is a process of our thinking.
It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”
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Albert Einstein
Forest Garden 