I bought some seed-starting supplies at the garden center yesterday, and I had a conversation with the clerk about our unusually warm and relatively-snow-free winter. She took a walk over the weekend and saw a number of crocuses popping up in her neighbor’s yards. Usually we see crocuses in late March and early April in southern Wisconsin.
So far I haven’t seen anything coming to life in my flowerbeds (except crabgrass, but that stuff is invincible), but some of my evergreen daylilies look a little too perky for my tastes.
It would be tempting to start my annuals (sprouted indoors) a few weeks early, but I’ve seen this production before. Assuming we escape March and April without record cold or a chain of freak snowstorms, there’s still no guarantee that we won’t have a chilly, frosty spring.
As much as I’m chomping at the bit to exercise my green thumb again, I’m going to stick with my usual schedule.
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Hi Em. We have had the same winter here, very unusual. My husband has used the snowblower only once. I saw on the news last night that tundra swans have returned to Grand Bend, Ontario, about 40 minutes south of me here in Goderich, 7 weeks early! Apparently that is a record. Also, I heard cardinals singing about 3 weeks ago, more than 2 months early, and the goldfinches have started to turn back to yellow! It’s really unbelievable. Winter is much more bearable this way, but Mother Nature could have a few surprises in store for us yet, so you are wise to stick with your seed schedule. Cheers!
I hope the birds know something we don’t. 🙂 I’ll have to take a closer look at the goldfinches here and see if they, too, are molting early. This “winter” weather is really starting to grow on me (although Christmas just wasn’t the same without a little snow), but I fear the result could be that we’ll be up to our eyeballs in gypsy moths, Japanese Beetles, ticks and other fun pests this summer!
I work in a pet supply store, and the flea and tick treatments are still flying out the door. It appears the fleas have not been killed off this winter either. I think we’ll be talking about this mild winter for a long time!
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