Woke up to our first morning with snow on the ground -- not much, but definitely a sign of things to come!

Too early, fer shure.

After last winter, ANY time is too early for me!!

I can imagine it is.

LOL -- the good news is, I'm still "kind of" gardening, in an unheated hoophouse where I have lettuce, spinach, broccoli, mini cabbage, chard, turnips, kohlrabi, scallions, carrots, parsley, chives, mache, etc planted, which should take me to about December 1st at least... and then around the 1st of February I'll start winter sowing seeds for the next year's garden... not too much of a "break," when you think about it! (despite the bad reputation that gardening in the north may have...)

We have snow coming tomorrow.
I am digging the last of peonies and bulbs into ground today. Mulching too.
Wintering over in house: geraniums, thunbergia, coleus and hibiscus acetosella.
Will wintersow some end of February. And some before then, if seeds come.
I have all seeds ordered for next season and received most already.
We gardeners just do not stop!

CarolineScott said:
We gardeners just do not stop!

Hear, hear!

Not necessarily a pleasant day here, but at least there's no snow. Cleaned up all of the accumulated pots/plant debris in my protected area and got the overhead shade sails taken down and put away, and hoses and connectors are just about done. Second and last water feature will probably have to wait till tomorrow. I really miss it when it's gone...not only the tinkling sound, but the visually calming effects of the motion of water cascading over rocks.

I know what you mean about the water features. I can look at my pond out my bedroom window and it looks so dead. the water fall is stopped (a stream about 15' long with three short drops then into the pond. And the pond is low and covered with ice now except where we keep the water circulating from the deeper end to the shallows for the fish.

Oh, but I bet you enjoy that during the season, Mary. Nice!

In the winter I put a heated dog dish where my water feature sits...then at least I can still enjoy the motion of the visiting birds.

Mary, are you able to leave the fish in the pond all winter?

Chelle, what a great idea for using the heated dog dish!!

Waiting impatiently for the day I can find one in brown or hunter green though. I'd really rather not look at the bright blue seven months out of the year.


But, at least it's done and ready to go.

There were birds on the feeder until just before I clicked the shot! Plenty of human activity outdoors must have them a bit jumpier than usual today.

LOL, Chelle -- maybe you could paint it??

We have a good layer of snow over our plants.
It is minus 16 ºC or about 2 ºF right now.
But the winds make it feel like minus 24 ºC or about minus 10 ºF.
The soil temperature is about 5 ºC or about 40 ºF , so the ground has not frozen.

Caroline, brrrrrrrr !!

Owie!!!! I am sorry, Caroline. It is much too early in the year for this cold.

Sandy, yes my fish stay out all year round. We put in heaters to keep the skimmer from freezing solid and run a hose and pump circulating the water to keep it oxygenated. The ice can be from several inches thick to 2'. 2' doesn't leave much liquid in the pond but they have survived it. Makes circulating it more important. I still see some small ones under the thin ice barely moving. The larger ones disappear into a lower cave and won't be seen til spring. they wait for the little ones to come out to be sure it is safe. Or they are more deeply asleep.

That seems amazing to me, Mary!!

Are you getting this bad weather from the typhoon? I assume you are, at least to some extent -- saw a clip on TV about the "Deadliest Catch" fleet riding it out... hope it's gone past you now, I think this weekend will be the worst for us. Then I hope we can go back to some "normal" temps (whatever that might be!).

Sandy, how much snow did you get?

We only got a couple of inches where I am -- which is on the southern edge of the Upper Peninsula, right near Lake Michigan. But in the northern UP there was something like 24" (To make matters worse, it's very hilly up there, I really would NOT have wanted to be driving before everything got cleared out!) Our temp went up to 34 F today and the sun was out, so some of it has actually melted; but colder temps are coming for the next few days at least. Hope things get more back to normal (whatever "normal" is), but last year our winter started very early too so this could be it.