Signs that this is going to be a hard winter

I heard a report a few weeks ago stating that the Farmers Almanac claims that this is going to be harsh winter in our area. I'm not one for superstitions nor do believe in fairy tales, so I have never given the FA much validity. Quite frankly, every time I've picked one up in my local Home Depot, I could not make heads or tails of it while sifting through page after page of advertisements.

Those who can decipher the news between the ads say that the east coast, midway and up will have frigid temps along with with lots of that white fluffy stuff. Our area usually sees its "winter" as mid January to late February. Most of our snow happens during mid February to early March. Last year we had an unusual number of snowfalls, all within a short time span.

What this brings me to is that I have witnessed some things in nature over the last few weeks that have me wondering if those prognosticators over at the Farmers Almanac might have a winner on their hands. You see, while they have a good record, according to records, they have been accurate about 80% of the time, there's that other 20% staring you in the face. Last year they predicted we would have the colder than normal weather with a mixed bag of precipitation. Actually, we had quite a mild winter, with only a handful of days below freezing.

We have a few Sweetgum trees on our property. If it wasn't for their incredible fall foliage color, I would have every one of them cut down and replaced with something more tolerable. These trees produce their fruit for seed distribution, in the form of a hard spiky ball. I'm sure you've all seen one. For those who haven't, imagine a ping pong ball, painted brown and spikes protruding from the entire surface. They don't break down easily, and the trees produce these in copious amounts. So much so, that late in the winter season, I have to rake the entire back yard, starting at the house and continuing to the back of my lot. This takes close to an entire day, as these fruit can not be picked up with much success with a mulching mower, nor can they be mulched very well at all. They shoot out from the mower with deadly speed, bouncing off of the house and tree trunks, and I find myself ducking here and there while mulching the leaves.

Sweetgum leaves and fruit

closeup of spiky fruit

The squirrels have been eating these like they were some sort of delicacy. Most years, they eat a few, no big deal. But this year I have noticed huge piles of discards under the trees. Good for me! Maybe I won't have to rake this year! But wait! What else can this mean?  So, without any scientific data or advanced degree in animal behavior, I have concluded the following; It's gonna be frickin' cold this winter! Why else would they be eating something they normally only nibble here and there? They are putting on as many "ounces" as possible because they know. They know that it will be a long, hard, cold winter. Uh...I've got to go to the store.

March 24, 2013... a late snow for us

The other occurrence that made me think that this was gonna be a doozie, was that one of my Witch Hazels, which normally blooms in late February, bloomed in Early November (see November 12 post). I really have no other explanation.

Sweetgum leaf

Great color from the Sweetgum

Fall color at its best

I just wanted to share some photos I've taken of fall colors. Some of you live in places where there is no change of season, or you just might want to look at the colors. Virginia has some of the best color change during this season, depending on the amount of rainfall we get prior.

Please enjoy the photos as much as I enjoy the season.

Crepe Myrtle seed pods

scene from the back yard

mums

mums

mums

mums

Japanese maple

Japanese maple

Japanese maple

Sugar Maple

what a nice mix

Strange happenings in the garden

Early blooms

One of the guys on one of the gardening communities on g+ popped up a pic and stated how he loves this time of year because his Witch Hazel blooms. This statement made me stop and wonder what was going on here. All of my witch hazel has always bloomed late in winter, usually late February to early March. He is in Georgia, I'm in Virginia. We're not that far from each other. So what gives?

Then, late yesterday I was walking around my gardens and I see this! (see image above) What is going on here? they have never bloomed like this before. Then I started thinking... and we all know what that means. Well, my wife always says, "uh oh". Maybe this is the harbinger of things to come. They have already said we are in for a bad winter. Who "they" are is anyone's guess, but I'm thinking it's those prognosticators over at the Farmers Almanac.

Are the plants trying to get everything in before "the end". Do they know something we don't know? So I dig a little deeper. While we have three different varieties of witch hazel, there are tens of dozens of varieties though. After some research, there are a few varieties that actually bloom twice in a year, fall and very early spring.

Hamamelis 'Diane', with dark orange blossoms

Hamamelis 'Jelena', with orange blossoms

Sometimes bloom time depends on the age of a plant, as does growth rate. Our Ginkgo seems like it is taking for ever to get big enough for shade, but all of the ratings I've read say it is fast to moderate. So we'll wait and see on that one. So maybe the double bloom-ability on this Hamamelis just needed a few years to get there.

I also found out why they are so expensive when you do wish to purchase a new variety. They are all from grafted plants. Plants from seeds or cuttings tend to be less expensive, due to less work involved.

The large specimens in Washington DC all seem to bloom in February also, last time we were up there, and they all seemed to yellow. If you are into plants, Washington DC will keep you on your toes. Many were planted decades ago and will be very large.

In other news from our habitat, we had our first snow of the season, which is very early for us. Okay, okay, it was only flurries, but it sure did come down for a bit. The bird feeder was a very busy area of the yard as I added a suet cage with suet/nuts onto the side of it. It seems to be quite popular. We have quite a few woodpeckers/sapsuckers around here, including Pileated, Red-Bellied, Red Headed, Hairy, Downy, and the Common Flicker. I noticed that the Titmouse and Blue Jay also fed from it.

Rerun post. To mulch, or not to mulch, that is the question.

 

This is a rerun of a post I did last November 22nd. Since I have many new readers, I wanted to share my thoughts on this topic, again, and with my new friends on Google+. I was outside today, mulching and cutting and the smells of autumn clicked and brought me back. I laid down in the yard after finishing and watched over 30 birds descend on the bird feeder. I'm not the only one getting ready for winter.

November, 22, 2012.
Every year I see hundreds, no thousands of people raking, bagging, blowing huge piles of leaves frustratingly with a small electric blower, filling huge tarps with leaves, only to put them in bags, ready to go to the landfill. Really?

The plastic bags alone will not decompose for 1000 years. You use paper bags? Really? I'm not going down that path. There are a few ways you can save the planet and still have a nice yard, in fact a better yard, and I will try to share my thoughts on the matter.

First, you don't have to have that yard that looks like you have a full time staff of groundskeepers. I tried that a few years ago. I would get angry when leaves fell on my newly raked yard, curse when the neighbors (who never seems to clean his yard) leaves would blow into my nice clean yard. Clean? Yes. Spotless? No. Ain't gonna happen Mr. Gates.

What are leaves anyway? I see free fertilizer! So I compost just about all of my leaves. In the first part of the season as the leaves are falling as they are now(see pic above), I lower my mower deck, and mulch the hell out of them. Most of the time you can't even tell there were leaves on the lawn. The only thing that throws the mulching mower for a loop are pine needles, but it still cuts them up and eventually they will break down faster this way.

Why not leave them there and do nothing? Well, for one thing it looks like no one lives there. If you leave the leaves and debris on the ground, they get wet, mat up and cut off water, air and sunlight to the ground. They will eventually break down, sure, but it will take a long time, and everything under them will die. When you mulch, you are increasing the surface area of the leaf exponentially therefore giving more area for air and water and bugs and whatnot to break it down. It also reduces the "pile" by 2/3's. See pic below.

After most of the leaves have fallen, and most of my neighbors have joined my collection, I will start to clean out the beds. I do blow these out, into the yard, where I mulch them there. Some are blown down to the back of the yard where they will join the compost pile. The yard loves it and I save on chemicals, time, energy etc.