Gus guards the garden, even in the dead of winter.

   Garden catalog time is upon us.  We sit by the fire and look at all the beautiful possibilities that await us, come Spring.  But we rarely even visit the yard this time of year, especially when it’s as cold as it has been lately.  Certainly no early evening tours with a glass of wine in our hands. 

Nevertheless, something good is happening in the garden.  This current longer than usual deep freeze that we’ve been having here will make our work easier come warm weather.  

For one thing, those bulbs we have (like tulips, for instance) that require a cold winter will do better this year.  Most years it just doesn’t get cold enough here (the piedmont of North Carolina) for tulips to do well.  They’ll only last a few seasons, as a rule.  This should help.

AND a lot of typical garden pests won’t make it through the winter, at least for us.   Up North, where the bugs are hardier and used to long cold winters, it won’t make that much difference.  But here in the South, where the winters are usually short and mild, often with below freezing temperatures just at night, our bugs are susceptible to long periods of freeze like we’ve had  these last few weeks.  That should make for easier gardening for us. 

The best news is actually the “hope” that this freezing period reaching so far south will have some effect on those species that are migrating into new territories.  I hope that insects like the fire ant will be driven back by this unusual cold period.  I don’t know that they will, but…  well, that’s why I said that the best news was a hope.  As these foreign species move into new areas, they cause havoc with native flora and fauna (and us).  Let’s keep our fingers crossed on that one. 

So the cold isn’t bad news for gardeners.   Think Rebirth, Renewal, Rejuvenation.   Flip the switch on that gas fireplace and reach for your catalogs (and maybe a cup of warm mulled cider).  Spring is on its way.

Filed under: Winter