A Winter Wonderland Arrives

Visually add another 3" of snow to the image above (taken around 9:30 am) and that is the snow we've received thus far today. As I type, it's still coming down and I think the prediction is for about 5" of snow ending tomorrow morning. The roads tomorrow afternoon should be good for my trip up north with Ed Lyon for the Garden Dreams symposium in Amherst, WI on Saturday. I've developed an anxiety about travelling on icy roads after a "white knuckle" incident years ago with the RBG truck and trailer on my way up to the Garden Expo in Madison. I hit black ice at about 60 mph and am not sure how I avoided a potentially fatal roll over in the worst location to slide off the road. Whether divine intervention or blind luck, I'll take it (and never forget it). While I'm glad we're getting the snow, that insulating blanket has much more value when the ground is already frozen as it helps keep the soil frozen and minimizes fluctuations and root damage/heaving. However, snow on unfrozen ground will insulate the unfrozen ground and slow that process. Oh well, no use worrying about it but we may see some repercussions in terms of plant damage in spring. Time will tell.

Despite the weather, we had a great group of volunteers come in today. The next three images show some of the new "grow bags" that are essentially reinforced fabric containers that will hold soil and can be placed on the deck, patio, balcony, etc. I've seen these over the past couple of years and we thought we'd experiment with some of these and evaluate how well they work as compared to a standard clay or plastic container. We'll plant and display these out in our Ornamental Edible and Compact Vegetable display and are interested in how they perform and what visitors think about them. In theory they appear effective but the "proof is in the pudding" as they say.

Larry H. and Dennis headed out in the snow to continue hauling back the white pines (Pinus strobus) from the Holiday Lights Show (HLS) for imminent chipping in to our mulch pile. Both guys were pretty soaked by the end of the morning as was Pat M. who went out to continue pruning. Dick H. and Dick P. hauled all manner of items to our storage shed (off site) and helped with some other projects. We welcomed a new Grumpy today (John M.) who helped with some of the indoor work that was prevalent today. Dr. Gredler continued wrapping up lights as Dick W. took them off the pvc arches (lower right). Bill O. continued to wrap up the larger cords while Larry kept a constant stream of processed HLS supplies moving up to the garage for 9 months of storage until they're dragged out again for testing and set-up! The carpenters (Dave, Bob A., Vern and Jim) continued repairing and repainting our garbage bins (see Bob A. in the second photo from the bottom). To the left are Jim and Dave processing our 10' long, 8" diameter pvc pipes for elevated, horizontal planters. I'm excited about this and the guys will prepare 10 of these that will be painted before we get them out in spring for planting. Gary continued printing out more tree & shrub labels on the laser engraver, almost completing our woodland walk area. He and Luis will meet Monday to start work on the woody plant labels for the Scottish garden. Maury was in working on various projects and we also saw Tom C., Amanda, Janice and others today.

I only finished two seed orders today but was drawn in some different directions as we're preparing for our newsletter, finalizing 2011 expenses and some other event preparations. I may not have time to blog tomorrow but will catch up Monday if not sooner. Janice and I talked about veggies for the spring plant sale and she has a nice assortment including some very showy hot peppers (Capsicum sp.) like 'Pretty in Purple' as seen at the bottom.