Do you talk about the weather?

ClareBroommaker's picture

My husband gives me multiple predictions, observations, and assessments of the weather every day. Today, though he gave me a photo of the day's remarkable weather in the front yard. It is very common for us to get hail this time of year, but I don't remember a snow this far into spring.

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Sweet Tatorman's picture

I mostly talk weather with a few gardening buddies. Primary topics are rainfall/drought and timing of Spring planting. I have enough experience that I [mostly] resist the siren song of the impulse to plant too early. That said, the 18 years of data I have for this location records only two years in which there was a last freeze later than April 17. Based upon that, my tomatoes and peppers were already in the ground when the cold front that caused your pictured snow reached me a couple days later. The early hours of April 22 produced a low of 27.7F with a total of 6 hours below 32F. The tomatoes and peppers were hit pretty hard with some of the foliage frozen to the touch. I suspect that most of them will pull through but this remains to be seen.

My garden buddy and I have already been talking about drought since our area is entering into one. We won't plant tomatoes and peppers until around Mother's Day, but in a bad year we could still get a late freeze. I just hope summer won't be as hot as the last two have been. We use drip irrigation, so we do everything we can to save water, but the heat will shut down production of some plants like tomatoes. I guess we just have to wait and see.

ClareBroommaker's picture

Oh, dear. 90 degrees F predicted. Windy. Sunny. What-- no spring, again?

Seedlings in small cell packs are under threat. Newly potted cornelian cherry dogwood and aronia will need to have shade half the day. Moving pots around, beginning to sweat.

Garden buddy gave me two fabric soaker hoses, will set those out in a permanent-for-the-growing season position.