Winter in My Wisconsin Garden

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Posted by @goldfinch4 on
One thing is certain about winter in Wisconsin – it’ll never be the same two years in a row.

It can start with snow in November that stays until March, or maybe it will be mid-January before the snow starts to pile up. One year our last snowfall was in May, and then the first snowfall of the following winter arrived in October. That’s a short five month period without snow! During our cold winter months when no flowers are blooming and everything looks brown, it would sure be dreary without snow.

My favorite snow events are the ones where giant fluffy flakes fall gently down and drape everything with a beautiful white blanket. When the sun comes up everything is sparkling as if it’s covered with tiny diamonds. Our Blue Spruce is especially gorgeous, with its needles providing a dark background to further show off the white splendor of the snow.

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The contorted hazelnut is in its glory in winter. With its black branches void of leaves, it displays twisted and distorted limbs against the pure white backdrop of snow. Along with the snow our winters often bring ice storms. Although these storms are extremely hard on trees and shrubs, they certainly do create an incredible display.

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Not only does snow-covered vegetation look interesting in winter, but just about anything covered with a layer of pristine snow or ice also does. It's equally picturesque in the dark, as shown by the picnic table below right.

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Even all of the little perennial plant markers sticking up through the snow make an interesting scene.

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We are occasionally treated with a surprise visit of hoar frost or rime frost. Hoar frost occurs when heavy moist air comes into contact with an object whose temperature is below freezing, and the moisture freezes on contact. Fog often accompanies hoar frost.

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Rime frost forms only on the edges of objects when humid wind blows across objects and freezes to them. It has to be very cold out for this to happen.

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Even though my perennial gardens are sleeping under a carpet of snow for several months, that doesn’t mean that the gardens have to be boring in the middle of winter.

 
Comments and Discussion
Thread Title Last Reply Replies
Winter in WI by gchrismer Sep 11, 2015 8:38 PM 2
Pretty by shelleymunger Feb 21, 2015 10:19 AM 1
Beautiful! by vic Feb 21, 2015 6:17 AM 20

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