Gardening in Winterpeg
I laughed when I read my last post along with my husband at, "...under the shade of the habiscus tree."
The habiscus tree is about four feet tall and pencil thin, but we could shade our painted toes. :) --hey, it sounded great!
Since most of you aren't from Manitoba, and many of you enjoy the weather of the Southern states, I'll fill you in on the struggles we gardeners face out here in the city coined as "Winterpeg"...
The winters are quite cold with temperatures dipping to -40 some days. We need to bundle up for November, December, January, and February. March is often referred to as "in like a lion, out like a lamb."
By mid April, which is my birthday, I'm usually in shorts and barefeet, taking advantage of the spring weather, but the weather is iffy--some days are hot, and some days we can still get pretty cold. It's pretty much a mixed bag.
May long weekend, celebrates the Queens birthday. Multitudes of Manitobans head out to campgrounds while gardeners head out to the garden centers. It's a little known fact that you shouldn't plant your garden until the May long weekend, or you take a risk of your annual plants freezing.
Some impatient gardeners such as myself do not heed the warning, and we plant earlier because we can't wait. Thus we face a night like last night...
The garden was all planted, and we were facing temperatures that may bring touch of frost. There is a winter storm up north, and the northerly winds have brought in the cold temperatures again. Argh!
So what do we do? We gather all of the sheets we can find and go out to cover the plants. Including the tropical habiscus tree.
My front yard was covered in bedsheets, including Disneys's "Cars" which friends and neighbours love to snicker at, but the biggest snicker of all comes from the habiscus tree draped in a white sheet with it's tails flowing in the wind.
My kids call it a ghost. My husband calls it "Casper the Friendly Habiscus Tree," and my teenager says "Get that thing off your lawn--it looks like the "Ku Klux Coniferous!"
posted by Darlene @ 10:20 AM
8 Comments:
I've often wondered how you folks survive that weather. Ours is bad enough--an Easter Sunday snowstorm buried the tulips under a foot of 'frozen sunshine'. Our grandson wanted to rescue them and tromped into the bed to pluck a few. He had good intentions, though he managed to mangle the rest with his boots. I'm all for planting early, though--just can't wait.
I've done the sheet thing myself. I don't care what the neighbors think if it manages to save a few more pickings of raspberries! Can't wait to see pictures of your garden....
Here in Jacksonville, Florida, Ginny and I gardened all weekend too -- in 85 degree sunshine.
As a Florida native, I wonder why anyone would live anywhere else on earth???
I am sorry to hear that another winter storm hit your area. I pray it was the last for this spring and you can uncover you wonderful hibiscus tree.
We have been very blessed with the weather here. For us is usually the opposite - we hope it stays cool as long as possible. I never look forward to the temps to rise up to 115.
Blessings on your Monday and always.
*lol* - you should have posted a photo of your garden in sheets :-)
Every now and then I kill some of my plants as well, either in bringing them out too early or in forgetting to get them in in autumn.
We don't have any cold weather, but it has been unbelievable dry for weeks lately and this was hard for raising new plants.
Get a hot house.
Put your tropicals in pots.
Bring them in when you need to.
lol must really look a sight
Lol. I am an impatient gardener but also lazy. I always forget to bring my geraniums in and then the frost gets them.
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