Groundhog Day

The Storm Begins
View from my Office

     I thought that Groundhog Day, with its ephemeral hopes for spring, would be a good time to start up my 2015 blog. Unfortunately, Chicago groundhogs were buried under two feet of snow, so my timing was not auspicious.

     As usual, my first heads up came, not from Chicago news stations, but from my friends in North Carolina. Do you detect a note of glee in all these long  distance warnings?

     Chicago got 19.3 inches of snow in 24 hours -- the fifth heaviest snowfall since 1880. Wan had to be at work on Monday, so instead of spending my Sunday blogging about the springtime ahead, I spent it with her trying to get a head start on digging out her car. We ran my car up and down the drive and then parked hers by the back door.

     I knew we should really go back out around 6 pm and do the whole thing over again. But did I? No. Instead I asked Wan if she thought I should brave the blizzard once more. Feeling sorry for me, she said, No."

    You know the result already. I stayed warm and dry on Sunday night, but come Monday morning Wan's car was buried worse than before. Still stuck an hour later, Wan finally called work -- only to find out that there was no place to park at the job in any case.

     We spent the rest of the morning digging out once more. All my thoughts of spring had long since departed.

Where is the Global Warming?

Map shows 2014 vs. average 1951-80 temperature over the globe. Bar chart
 below compares each year since 1880 with 20th century average.

          As we emerge from the latest cold spell I asked myself  "Where is all this global warming when we need it?" A recent report in the  NY Times provides the answer. Globally, 2014 was in fact the hottest year since record keeping began in 1880. Of all the areas inhabited by humans, only a spot along the Angola/Namibia border and the American Midwest were cooler than average.

     While our TV stations were reporting on the "polar vortex," they were mostly leaving out the other half of the picture. The southerly kink in the jet stream that sent frigid  Canadian air as far south as Alabama has been paired with a matching northerly kink further west that has brought tropical air north. This has not only scorched California; it has also brought a heat wave to Alaska  and the arctic that has  melted the ice out from under the polar bears' feet.

     Perhaps Chicago's weather is not so bad -- even in January.

Best Wishes

     Best wishes to you and yours in this holiday season. We will  talk again in the new year.

     Scott

REPRIEVE

All the remaining veggies, cages, and paths are gone.
All that remains is re-tilling  when the soil is dry enough.

     Nature can be cruel, but she  also sometimes gives us a second  chance if we are ready for it. After weeks of freezing  temperatures, she gave us  highs close to 50 degrees on both Saturday and Sunday.

     While many of you were fighting through Black  Friday, I was trying  to take advantage of a surprise "Green Weekend."

     I have hundreds of feet of hoses,  all of which froze during the early polar temperatures.  Now I was able to drain them, coil them  all up, and put them in our old playhouse.

     I had made sure my rain barrels were only half full, but what was there was frozen solid, and this thaw gave me a chance to drain them. A full barrel will split open during a freeze. If you do not bring them into the garage, you should keep them drained and even cover them. I will have  more to say about rain barrels in the new year.

     Another chore last weekend was removing the landscape cloth in the aisles  of my veggie garden. This cloth is only marginally effective against weeds, so I do not recommend it to most clients. In a vegetable garden, however, it helps both to suppress weeds and to provide an un-muddy surface between rows.
Those of us who dash for one more tomato in the rain appreciate it.

     In the winter, however, the fabric adheres to the ice. The Thanksgiving thaw was just what I needed to remove it all. Then I spread all the remaining results of my composters. Normally I would till this into the soil while breaking down my raised beds. Now the soil  is too  wet, so that chore will have to  wait till next spring.

    I would also  like to  report my garden's last gasp of the season. Even after all the cold weather I was able to harvest my Brussels sprouts just before Thanksgiving. More important for many of you, I harvested green tomatoes on Halloween and put them in a shallow cardboard box in the pantry. I used the last of these on the day after Thanksgiving in a salad. My pantry tomatoes were not as good as those directly off the vine, but they were still much better than those in the supermarket.

     There is more to do. I have to cut down all  our perennials. But I have done some of this already and can do more on sunny days this winter.

     A little patience goes a long way.

Discontent

One of my North Carolina friends can't resist sending me
 cheery maps like this one from last week.

     We are still a month away from the winter solstice and I am already overflowing with discontent. The Midwest seldom gets a long and luxurious spring, but it usually enjoys a leisurely autumn. Chicago stays pleasant until our first light frost about Halloween.

     Then we usually have a few weeks to get ready for winter. Our roses still look good and we can still harvest broccoli and parsley, but it is time to begin cleaning up our perennials as well as our tree leaves and putting our stuff way. In a good year our trees will lose leaves at a steady pace that allows us to keep up.

And now this one from the weekend.

     This year, though, we are once more being hit early and hard by record-breaking low temperatures, and, even worse, a record number of days during which the highs never break the freezing mark.

     I, for one, was caught completely unprepared. My trees simply dumped their leaves, which, despite several mulchings, are still heaped up; my hostas are not cut down; I still have three potted shrubs that have not been planted and my rain barrels are frozen up, as well as my composter and my hoses.

Tasks  ahead.

     I will have to do something about all this while the temperatures are in the 20's because next weekend it will finally get warm enough to allow a nice mix of rain and snow to make a big mess of everything.

     Discontent indeed.

Fall Ends with a Bang, not a Whimper

31st  St. takes  it  on the chin.

    

     Season change in Chicago does not have  a "stealth mode." We know exactly when Autumn ended -- Halloween. Winds gusting to almost 70 MPH blew  away any trick-or-treaters under 100 pounds and whipped up  lake waves to  more than 20 feet. And then there was the more routine stuff like rain, sleet, snow and a bit of hail. This let up for the sole purpose of allowing the temperature to plunge below freezing for the first time.

     I was amazed that the sleet did not destroy my roses and hydrangea, but the wind did bring down one of my bean trellises. When the freeze followed the storm both beans and tomatoes decided it was time for early retirement. Fortunately, Wan and I had just held a final picking party for them, so they are leaving the scene fulfilled.

Halloween winds find a knot in my treated  lumber.

     Our cool weather crops like snow peas and Swiss chard are still  doing fine.... And I am still planting trees and shrubs for my clients. The soil is still relatively warm and as the plants shut down they demand less of their roots, giving them a chance to re-establish themselves with less transplant shock.

     Dormant plants are easy to deal with, but they are not care-free. All your trees and shrubs, but especially your new ones, could use a good dose of water before the ground freezes. Keep your hose  running while you are out raking leaves.

COMPETITION!

     While my crew was planting shrubs in a client's back yard, a crew of interlopers showed up to install their own landscape  plan in the front. Imagine my dismay!

     Using a unique business plan, these landscape pirates did not charge for installing their plan. Instead, they demanded a "donation" to remove their work, and you get to pick the next victim.

     The rapscallions responsible turned out  to be kids from the Beverly Unitarian Church on a fund drive. My attorney cautioned me against a lawsuit. He told  me this meant issues of church and state and I would  probably be in litigation for 10 years or more. He advised me to do nothing -- and to avoid mentioning my address.

     I wish them luck -- in yards other than my own.