It's a winter, for sure

Yep, we're having a good old-fashioned winter this year.  As of today, we've had lows below zero 29 times already, with more on the way.  That's about average for the whole winter season.  So far we've also had 4 days where the temp never got up to 0. That makes it colder than a walk in freezer. The last time we had a winter this severely cold was 1981-82.  Boy, do I remember that one...  I lived in Dinkytown near the U, and walked all the way across the East Bank campus to class, a distance of close to a mile each way.  I wore hard contacts at the time, and my breath would fog up the contacts between blinks. I wore long underwear every day for a month, and even went to my parent's house one weekend as the heat in our apartment couldn't keep up with the incredible cold.  I wish I knew what the windchills I remember translate to in the new calculation system.  But whatever -60 was is still bloody cold! And snow. Boy, did we have snow.  One Wednesday we had 17". Then that Friday we had 20" more! The U shut down that Friday afternoon, as the city buses quit running.  Both Joe and another friend were stranded and ended up staying with my roommate and me overnight.  We had a blast, even when the power went out for a while. Then poor Joe spent hours the next day digging his car out of the parking lot...  Dinkytown was full of absentee landlords who didn't give a crap about maintaining their buildings, and certainly didn't care about shoveling.  We had so much snow that winter that the snow pack on the front sidewalk covered the bottom step of the steps! With thousands of people walking in the area every day, things got packed down in a hurry.  One house did shovel, and it was like getting onto a giant superhighway when you got to their house, compared to the narrow bumpy trails on either side.  Of course, when everything started to melt, that superhighway became a giant lake! I walked around it for weeks, as I recall. In case you're curious, the snowfall total for January 1982 was over 46" and we ended up with 95" for the season.  There's a reason I remember it so vividly!

The coldest winter in (relatively) recent memory was 1976-77, with 39 nights below zero.  I remember my aunt and grandmother, both from much milder climates, were here over the holidays and through the worst of it.  I'm sure they wondered why we lived here, although at least my grandmother had been here in warmer months and knew we don't live in perpetual winter.

And I can't forget our snowiest winter - 1983-84, the first winter we were married.  We had 98.6" of snow (for those of you not local, our average is more like 55"). We lived in an apartment on a snow emergency route, so every time we had an emergency, we had to go dig the car out, move it,  and dig out a new spot for it to get it out of the way. Parking was tight, and we couldn't always get a place on a non-emergency route ahead of time. We shoveled at least at much that winter as we have many winters at the house!

So why am I writing about winter in a garden blog? Well, hope, for one thing.  It's comforting to remember that this, too, shall pass, and we will have spring again. I've ordered some native plants to fill in for some not doing so well out front.  The maple trees kind of exploded in growth the last couple of summers, and it's much shadier than it used to be. I need to adjust to that.  And I got my postcard about volunteering for the Friends School Plant Sale yesterday, so spring MUST be coming.  The days are getting noticeably longer, too.

A friend on Facebook had a thermometer fall into a snowbank earlier this season.  It's the kind that broadcasts its readings, so you can tell the temp from indoors.  We have one, too.  But the cool thing about this one is that she can give us updates on the temp in the snow! Trust me, it's been much warmer than the ambient air temp most days, and far more consistent from day to day.  And that, dear readers, is why gardeners in this part of the world love lots of snow cover. It keeps the plants warmer (20 in the snowbank is a lot warmer than -16!) and it keeps them at a far more consistent temp overall.  That means a lot less plant death. The frost won't go nearly as deep into the soil this year as it would in a year with little snow.  Oh, I just heard this is now the snowiest January since 1998, so we're really getting it this month! Just to show you how snowy it's been - a few pictures, taken Jan. 30 at the library.  Two show the drifts between the two halves of the building.  They haven't been plowed or shoveled or anything - that's just how the snow ends up after blowing in and settling. You could practically cut yourself on them.  The one here runs over 4 feet tall - maybe closer to 5.  I didn't go out to check...  The other shows how much snow's been plowed out of our lot.  Note the piles are quite a bit higher than the cars!

 

 

And I now feel justified for my odd hobby of going to the local park to rake up oak leaves for mulch.  We only have our two maples, and they don't put out enough leaves for our needs.  And I don't like using them because they get slimy and nasty over the winter, so off we go to the park.  Boy, do we get looks...  But it's free.  And, according to the gardening show on WCCO radio, oak leaves make the best mulch of all.  Better than straw or hay, if you use enough of them, which we do.  And not only do they insulate well, they don't decompose over the winter, making for easy clean up in spring, and they don't leave any seeds behind!

Keep warm and start planning those gardens!