A jump on Spring
Amy Ivy and I talk today about satisfying that itch to rush the gardening season. It’s always there, as the days get longer and the snow clears. There are mornings you walk outside and smell earth and water in a mix that is unmistakeably spring.
Usually it’s pure fantasy until we get farther along on the calendar. But as this winter was a puzzlement of mild temperatures and little snow, this shoulder season is proving to be more of the same.
Snow drops in Potsdam. (Photo: Mimi Van Deusen)
Things are early. We’ve heard reports on bluebirds, in West Potsdam and on my road outside Canton. Waves of robins are passing through. And then there are these snowdrops, from this morning in Potsdam. Leroy St. according to our alert photographer, Mimi Van Deusen.
And the forecast this week is for more mild weather, and more sun after tomorrow. Amy has great ideas for “low tunnels” to make out of ABS pipe or sturdy wire and row cover fabric available at hardware stores and gardening centers. They’re good for experiments with early spinach and lettuce seeds. And why not? Live it up!
Tags: agriculture, climate change, gardening, outdoor recreation, spring, st. lawrence valley, weather, winter
Could it be that spring will actually arrive on the date in the North Country?
I think so!
I can hardly wait for fall.
And I came to a report of a black fly. No lie.
Maybe we’ll get black fly season over early, and have a longer fly-free camping/hiking season?
I just hope this doesn’t mean a extremely dry summer ahead. I recall the last very early spring we experienced was followed by a very dry summer. Coincidence I suppose but I hope we don’t have a repeat. Especially since we won’t have the usual snow run off to carry us through. It could be a very bad scenario.
I’m betting on a cool, wet summer.
Clapton, for sure. When you have no snow like this if it doesn’t rain in the spring the forest floor unprotected by the canopy before the leaves come out becomes extremely dry and dangerous from a fire perspective. That is the kind of conditions that burned a large part of the Adirondacks in 1903 and 1908. If fires start naturally under these conditions in the Forest Preserve should we allow them to burn?