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Late Winter Snow in the Garden



This was NOT what I wanted to see in my backyard on Monday morning! Several inches up here in the Skagit Valley, with the roads fortunately clear by midday but the promise of temps sinking to 28F tonight not making me happy at all! Fortunately, it’s not staying below freezing during the day so hopefully all the buds on the fruit trees and bushes, and all those tulips and daffs coming up, survive these next few nights that hover just below freezing.


After we hit a face-numbing 9F in the dead of winter, something I’ve never experienced in my five decades as a West Coast gal (rain - yes, cold like that - nope), we lost a treasured snow gum (eucalyptus designed for winter!) that was thriving before this, a new ceanothus planted just this fall, and are crossing our fingers that the seven California Lilacs in front make it, as they took a real beating (zone 8B, where we live, means down to 10F…so clearly we went below our normal threshold). So…lots of stress on the flowering plants...


As for our raised beds, I’ve got greenhouse plastic (saved from our time on the farm - hey this stuff is not cheap!) covering three of our raised beds, serving as cold frames / mini greenhouses on each to help protect them by at least a few degrees. Since our lettuce, spinach and collards just started sprouting, this is vital! Our garlic is well on its way, so now we’re just hoping the strange season we’ve had delivers some beautiful cloves come harvest time this summer.


The forecast is due to hit 60 by mid-month, so that’s what I am stuck on. Laser-focused, you might say. I know I’m not the only one tired of wearing This Many Layers, right?


But hey, it was my honey’s day off and there’s nothing like a walk in the snow, watching our old pup go nuts in the powder, admiring the flowers peeking out despite the snow, and planning the final bits ’n’ pieces to the next panel in my fence mural…so we good.




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