Tuesday, February 6, 2007

If I Wanted to Live in Wisconsin...


I should have known that if I kept on gloating about having a suntan in mid-January, something like this would happen. In the space of a couple of days, our daytime temperatures here in NC plummeted from the 70s to the 30s. And have stayed there. This morning, my thermometer was a hair below 15 degrees. All of this as the climate change conference in Paris is releasing its report on global warming.


I have a number of perennials in pots that I bought for half price, and have been shuttling them in and out of the laundry room on these cold nights. I don't know if its necessary, but if I pay good money for plants...and even half price is good money at New Garden...I don't want them expiring before they even get roots in the ground.


Last Sunday I set out several hellebores and heuchera that I got from Mama. this is probably the worst time to transplant things, and if these pull through I swear it's the last time I'm transplanting in January. Most of them look okay. One is a little wilty, and I've got my eye on it. I went out in the cold today, bundled up in my parka and ear-flap hat to water the things. On top of the frigid temperatures, we've gotten no precipitation in about a month except for one aborted winter storm that turned out to be a dud. The forecasted 2-4 inches turned out to be a dandruff-like dusting in a few bare corners of the yard.


So I'm waiting for spring, or at the very least I'd take a return to normal temperatures, which according to the paper is 50. That would seem balmy compared to this. In the meantime, my gardening is limited to watering the pansies and hellebores and taking photos of the birds with my new digital camera. Check out the juvenile Cooper's Hawk perched on the fence!

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