Winter is here with snow falling this morning.
Ground is still warm, and not frozen so we can still dig.
Snow makes it easier for me to move the large containers in my driveway--they slide in snow.
Mounding peat around roses and placing rose huts over some. I only grow hardy roses, but the hares nibble the ones near the sidewalk so I protect them with the huts.
Filling bird feeders.

ewwww... bound to happen sooner rather than later at this point, I guess.

We are having what I consider bonus days... no precipitation predicted for the next week, highs only in the low 50s but that way beats freezing temps, and even a few sunny days thrown in for good measure. At this rate I might actually get all my fall cleanup done!

I applaud you for looking at the bright side of the snow, though, Caroline... "Snow makes it easier for me to move the large containers in my driveway--they slide in snow."

I stuck a bunch of seed-started perennials in the ground inside my hoop house to over-winter; next year, assuming they survive, they are destined for a new butterfly garden that I'm working on. Also weeded around the grape vines so we can put a fence around the area for the winter -- otherwise the deer seem to find the vines quite tasty, although they pretty much leave them alone in the summer. DH decided to remove and replace one of the railroad ties that form the foundation under the greenhouse; turned out to be pretty amazing how stubborn a really rotten tie can be to remove . After a while I pretty much couldn't bear to watch anymore, I guess that was after one of the side panels of twinwall popped out... (fortunately, he's a professional, having worked on the RR tracks for 39 years )

In winter there is less for the critters to find, as food, so then they chew just about anything they can find.

Update -- the tie has been successfully replaced ! Seemed like a lot of work to me, considering that my GH is on the short end as far as lifetime, I'm afraid... and I've been saying that when I need to replace it I would just opt for a hoop house, rather than a real GH; I pretty much only use it for growing seedlings after starting them inside under lights, at any rate. Despite that, today my hubby said he thinks we should get a "real" GH when we need to replace this one, because I'll be using it for at least another 20 years or so... LOL; not so sure about that, but what the heck, I'll take it!

That is great! Sandy!
You have your old one back repaired, and the promise of a new one.

Sandy, when you plant seeds in the flats and put them in the greenhouse til spring, do you spray them to keep them moist? When I winter sow it seems like the lack of moisture just prevents germination but since they have tops I is cumbersome to try to spray them all.

Mary, sorry for the confusion -- I don't plants seeds in flats and leave them in the GH over the winter; but yes, they would certainly need some watering. I gave winter sowing a shot last year, using kitty litter jugs, putting the jugs outside with the tops off so they would get snowed and rained on, and while some things did sprout well that way (some didn't, but I tried a lot of stuff that I wasn't sure about so i didn't expect everything to come up) I actually thought it was more hassle than just starting seeds under lights in late winter/early spring. I have planted things in my hoop house in the fall, in the ground, some of which survived the winter and started re-growing in the spring.

Hoop house


Greenhouse (when it was first put up in 2003)

I love both of your 'houses.' They look well built and extremely functional. I have 3x8 18" raised beds and put pvc poles arched over them to cover with poly in the spring. The poly lasted three years. This spring I will replace it and change the design a little. I did plant lettuce and brocs in the beds last week or so in hopes they would start growing as soon as the soil and sun allowed to get a jump on it. When I grow them in the garage 'greenhouse' they tend to be weak and spend too long there. I thought I had waited long enough last year to be able to put them out before they began to get straggly but no soap. Lettuce I managed to get out and then sowed more immediately so we had a nice crop all summer.

Mary, the "low tunnels" work very well ! Last year I purposely bought extra onion sets in the spring and kept them in my fridge until fall, then planted them, thinking I would get some late onions... until I realized that those onions were never going to "bulb" with the shorter daylight hours .

So, I covered them with a low tunnel and they not only survived the winter but gave me what I considered bonus onions for quite some time... in fact, I still have a few left to use! This year I had some leftover onion plants (which I started from seed in late winter), that have been in their pots all this time... I'm going to put them in the ground, set up a low tunnel, and hopefully get more bonus onions next spring. It's really pretty amazing how much difference that small amount of protection makes!

I keep pushing for a new house (well, new to me) with enough yard to plant vegies and back off on the flowers. I would use the low tunnels in a heart beat. Lots of people up here use them with great results.

We got quite a nice snow dump last night. But now it is warming and the road are terrible. Schools are closed and the state troopers have shut down several roads as there is no way to control a vehicle on sheer ice going down hill. There was an suv that turned bass ackwards on a hill and the lady driving had enough presence of mind to honk the entire way down to warm people to get out of the way if they could. Of course ended up hitting a vehicle or two at the bottom. No way to avoid it. Sad things is she was trying to turn around at the top to avoid this road but gravity got the rear end of the SUV and that was all she wrote. No body hurt though. I am staying home knitting and baking bread. May haul a few dahlias out of the basement while I still have some left unrotted.

Yikes -- that must have been pretty terrifying for the driver of the SUV (and anyone in her path)! I'm not fond of snow, but I hate, hate, HATE ice! Seems like every year lately we get a major thaw, complete with rain, sometime in January, which turns the world into a giant skating rink. Driving and walking are both so hazardous when it's like that

Well, it was below zero for a while, like -17 at night and about zero during the day. Then two days ago it started warming up and today it was raining. Fortunately the roads while wet are not icy until you hit the 'road less traveled' then Katy bar the door. Still snow on the gardens, just the roads and paths melting to the ground.

I think we shall get that warming later. I am testing older seed packets in the house.
Too cold here to do much outside.

It is now 40F. I wonder if it IS headed your way. Will that be okay for your garden. I prefer to not have the snow melt at this time of year. I really need the snow cover for later in Jan-Apr when it goes nuts. Except for one year when the snow was two feet high on 18" raised beds. Took forever for it to melt. I was wading through snow to plant in the raised beds that had cleared of snow and the top few inches were thawed enough for lettuce and such.

I did not get the garden beds all mulched, but might be able to on the weekend.

@oberon46 I do the same thing. I have some in my yard, and I work for a company in the summer that installs raised beds.
My gardens:

I almost can't believe the weather we've been having... and this forecast by the Weather Channel shows no sign of snow before mid December!

We have quite a bit of snow and have been in a deep freeze for several days now, this morning it is -2F, supposed to be sunny so it will warm up some.

Do you keep some plants indoors? so you do not develop withdrawal symptoms from gardening?

I have about 12 Amaryllis bulbs, they keep me busy once I take them out of their resting place, I have 2 out, one is blooming, the other has a bloom stalk, I should take 2 more out. Also have 2 Dieffenbachia plants that my mother gave me almost 20 years ago, RIP , every few years I cut the tops off, root and replant, the old plants get dumped. This year I have an Aloe Vera plant that I am taking care of while my friends are in AZ for the winter.