Weather Watching #3 - Count Down to Fall 2013

Weather yesterday was fairly warm, but oh that wind!!! I was trying to organize all the nursery pots that I've accumulated in my staging area, but the wind sure had other ideas...

Déjà vu--last year we had an early deep cold, and then hardly another deep freeze the rest of the winter.

It will be interesting to see what happens this winter! Certainly the fall colors have been much more vibrant than usual!

just looked at Intellicast here. If I don't get a freeze tomorrow night, it looks like I'll be safe for another good week. no s-words either.

Sally, I can't believe you haven't had a freeze yet! Must be living in the sunbelt! :-D

She does have a warm heart and a radiant personality!

:-) awwwww

pffft! Judy! you're too kind! I bet you have the latest frost of al of us…and for that reason you stated.
; ^)

coleup and I both get the bay effect if there's a phrase for it; she most, by being closer to it. The big mass of water holds some warmth.

One of my favorite gardening books. "The Washington Star Garden Book" lists the Average Length of Growing Season for various places within a 40 mile radius of DC based on average first and last frost data.

Sallyg (BWI) April 17 - Oct 27 194 days
Coleup (Annapolis) March 30 - Nov 17 232 days

Rockville April 24 - Oct 10 176
College Park April 18 - Oct 21 186

So, I get an extra month on most of you all, even Sallyg. Thanks Chesapeake Bay!

Fun facts!! Kind of amazing

Brr, if this is what 45 feels like…well, I got my gloves out let's just say. No use whining.
; ^)

Just got up from checking out DG and Facebook and was surprised to see flurries!! So pretty. It was sprinkling just a little bit ago.

thats the spirit! It is pretty. I do know I have seen snow on the yellow fall leaves of the maple by my deck.

Woolly Bear Caterpillars.

The Hagerstown MD Woolly Bears are predicting a mild winter this year! Think I'll go with them.

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/winter-forecast-part-i-the-woolley-bear-prediction

I like the paragraph strategically placed at the end of the article.

"Several scientific studies have been done on woolly bear caterpillar forecasts, including one by the American Museum of Natural History. None of these studies has shown any correlation between woolly bear markings and the severity of the upcoming winter. According to the Old Farmer's Almanac, Dr. Charles Curran, curator of insects at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, studied woolly bear markings between 1948-1956 in Bear Mountain State Park, 40 miles north of New York City. He found some preliminary results that seemed to indicate that the thickness of the bands might indicate the severity of the upcoming winter. However, Dr. Curran gave up the study in 1955 after finding two groups of caterpillars living near each other that had vastly different predictions for the upcoming winter, according to science writer Ned Rozell."

If any of the woollys are weather predictors it is definitely our hagerstown farmer's almanac woollys!!!

I like that they get the school kids to collect them...my kinda 'science'.
Always gives me a shudder when I come across those all black woolly bear look alikes.
Also interesting that they found fewer Woollies this year. Acorn crop here seems lesser, too.

The Woollies may have been scarce up your way, but YOY did we have tons of 'em down this way not to long ago!! Driving home from work... if anyone was behind me they'd have though I was drunk, weaving all over both sides of the road trying to NOT run over them... they were EVERYWHERE!!
I wasn't able to get a close-up look at their bands.. too busy trying to not hit other drivers or run into a tree. < =D I can tell ya this much though, they were BIG and FAT!! =)

I cannot imagine being able to SEE a wooly bear on the road. Though I have never LOOKED for one. I do think I've found quite a few over the summer in my yard .

Me neither. I did step on one in Critter's garage during the bulb sorting escapade.

just heard Sundays weather forecast- bitter cold. BRRRRR

I saw that too - and I had been planning to get a bit more yard work done. Grrrrr. Or brrrrr. Probably means the house will be cleaner for Thanksgiving, so my family may be grateful!

Oh goodness, these ones were impossible NOT to see... probably as long as my pinkie finger, but waayyy fatter around. And hundreds upon hundreds of them in several-hundred-yard stretches at a time. It was YIPES type driving for several stretches.

LOL Happy, I had to laugh at your post! Funny how we manage to sneak in a little housework when we can't do proper outdoor work, huh? ;)

I've decided I need to spend the winter months catching up on my scrapbooking... I'm a couple years behind now! Yes, I'm also behind on household chores, but somehow I always find something that's more important to do... ;-)

Housework????? What's that??????
somehow I always find something that's more important to do as well--like shopping..

Honest--my house does not see a vacuum cleaner very often.
It's just ME here--it is MY dust--and MY dirt--so..I don't care...

Now--when someone is coming over--it gets to be panic time!

Would you believe I am scheduled to water tomorrow at the HD????
Going by the forecast==it almost seems inhuman to expect someone to be out there
hose in hand and wet feet for about 2 hours...

Not sure I will--I am assuming plants just don't dry out too quickly in this weather....
Of course--I will run this by the MOD. Or just tell him I am NOT doing it....
Touchy situation.............. G.

Gita, I know it is not like you to try and evade any duty, but I agree that would be brutal if you have to do it. Tell him/her- that it might make ICE on the walkway and you can't risk it for customers (MUCH LESS YOU)

Good lawd Speedie- where was that caterpillar invasion?

The ICE being dangerous to CUSTOMERS is a great strategy. If I were a customer there, I certainly wouldn't want to worry about ice! ;-)

Great idea, Sally!!!

Then I will add---"If it warms up a bit later--I'll see what needs watering then"....

The keep following the same guidelines as in the middle of summer....
MUST get the watering done before all the customers start walking around!!!

There are NO customers in outside Garden to speak of...a few..
Inside---aisle #1 is forever busy. That is where all the bug and critter traps and
poisons are...
So many people looking how to get rid of mice this time of year.
The mice are coming in wherever they can find an opening to get out of the cold...
Most of the sightings seem to be in the kitchens.
My suggestion usually is for them to check wherever any pipes come up from the
basement--like plumbing pipes under the sink, gas pipe behind the stove.
under doors that do not sot flush, etc...

I tell them to buy some steel wool and stuff it around all the pipe entry holes.
I also tell them to make sure there are no food crumbs around and that a mouse
needs only 1/2" opening to come through.

The steel wool worked for me years ago! I had caught a couple of mice under the
top of my stove (LOTS of food crumbs there!) They were coming in around the gas pipe.
Luckily--my Dear X had put an flexible pipe back there for the gas--so I could pull my
stove away from its cubby-hole to do this.

G.

We always have one or two mice inside. Not that we can see them, but we (and our cat) know they are there. I have tried hard to figure out where they get in, but I can't. I know they can enter through the tiniest of slots.

It's snowing here!

This message was edited Nov 23, 2013 9:26 PM

SNOW? It sure was getting cold, fast, when I left Kohl's at 4 30

Gita, I hope the only thing that happens with water in outside garden at your HD today is that it is drained and shut down before it freezes and bursts!

About mid-day--I bundled up to the hilt and decided to go outside
and see if i could water some things.

That came to an end very quiskly when i could not even turn the hose on.
Everything was frozen shut. Thar arctic wind was NASTY today!!
Pots were laying all over the concrete, blown off of these big display racks, etc

There was NO hope to get any watering done. Besides--do plants even dry out
in freezing weather? They all DID seem dry--that is why they were all
blowing over all over the place. .......G.

Yes Ma'am, they do dry out in freezing weather, especially when it is really windy and the humidity is low.
That is why, at work, we actually dig all our pots into the soil of spare beds, water them in, and that's where they stay over-winter. Of course, you can't do that where you work... sooo... something else will have to be devised. Some sort of sheltering idea, to protect the babies from the drying wind.
Now it's time to put on our thinking caps... < =/

Protect, schmotect…HD Lowes etc will clearance them and toss them

The smaller pots could be sheltered if they brought them into the yard,
instead of having them sitting in the wide open in front of the store or
on this "gigantic rack on wheels", by the front door.

I had wheeled this rack to where the hose is--and at one point--
it took all the strength I had to keep this rack from pushing me over
as the wind was howling. It was a bit scary....I dug in and quickly locked one of the wheels.

I don't even know if the "new people" ever come to see how things are after they deliver
all these shrubs? I have never seen them--but then, I am only there 2 days a week.

I think, any of us, could have, easily rolled this rack in the outdoor garden area
where things are a bit more protected, as it is, basically, walled in.
Better than having all the red pots of small Albertas rolling along the front apron
by the front entrance.

Of course--the X-trees are all in. and now THEY OWN the outside Garden space.

What I did do yesterday was open EVERY single box of the Amaryllis bulbs.
They are all growing inside the boxes--some already in bloom.
So--I took it upon myself to open them all up and still display them on a table.
Now they will grow straight up and bloom nicely. Hope people will still buy them..
WHY NOT? I wrote a small sign saying WHY the boxes were open.
G.

With our first taste of Winter, let's continue our postings over here

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1342654/