Indianapolis, IN: It’s snowing today, which means I feel a certain obligation to post some pictures of snow scenes in my garden.
If you live where the sun is shining and you can skip about your garden in summer clothes today, you might want to get a blanket to wrap up in before continuing to read this post. Just the mere viewing of these pictures of snow scenes could cause your internal body temperature to drop a few degrees.
Or at least you might shiver once, just in sympathy.
The first picture above is of my new patio under snow. If you look closely you can just make out where the edge of the patio meets the edge of the lawn, up near the top.
Let me lift the camera up a bit to give you a broader view to put it into perspective.
This is not yet a deep snow. I can still make out the wooden forms around the raised bed vegetable garden off in the distance. That reminds me that I most assuredly, definitely, unequivocally want to, need to, must replace those raised beds in the vegetable garden this spring.
Speaking of the vegetable garden, I saw my aunt and uncle yesterday for a brief half hour when they stopped to visit with my mom. We talked about hot beds and cold frames. My uncle calls them hot beds, I call them cold frames. What do you call them?
Whatever you call them, he said if I built one and buried horse manure down under it, the decomposing horse manure would generate enough bottom heat to at least grow spinach, lettuce, and other cool season crops in the cold frame when it is cold outside. I’ve got to try that. There is a horse farm literally at the end of my street. I’ll bet I could get some “stuff” from them.
Ah, dreams of the vegetable garden… but let us return to the reality of winter..
This first significant snowfall has the weatherman and news reporters all in a frenzy. They are broadcasting from various roads and parking lots, reporting on the conditions of the pavement.
Sometimes they have to report that the pavement is just wet because the snow isn’t sticking.
That’s the case with the front walk which is on the south side of the house. Snow is not yet sticking to it. Contrast that with the patio in the back of the house, the north side, where snow is sticking quite a bit.
As temperatures drop and the heat stored in the pavement radiates away, snow will eventually stick to the front walk and the driveway, too. When that happens, I’ll get out my new Troy-Bilt Storm 3090 XP Snow Thrower and see how it works.
Until then, I’ll just enjoy the pretty view of the snow falling gently on the garden, coating the branches of the evergreens in a mostly decidedly festive, holiday coating…
And maybe get out some of my books on vegetable gardens and think about spring.
I just love your opening shot! Have fun in the snow Indy!
You have my sympathy! Happy dreams of spring 🙂
Oh, how well I remember… We lived in Lake Station, IN in the 1980's. (originally called East Gary, IN). Started snowing on Halloween, accumulated all winter, couldn't see the ground till Mother's Day. I had an AMC Gremlin in those days. Our parking was just off the street, in front of our front fence. The snow plows kept burying the Gremlin. I don't know how many times we had to dig it out, only to get it buried again.
Summers were great, though, only one week of uncomfortably hot weather. Made for a wonderful summer garden, though the season was short.
Here in Oklahoma, we have milder, shorter winters, but August is like a visit to Hell.
Brrr. It's cold here, but not snowy yet, thank goodness. Want me to mail you some chicken poop? It's very hot. 🙂
Wow it's not often that we get snow before you. England has been covered just like your pictures all week. Trouble is we're not as prepared as you, – its just spades and shovels, not snow throwers here. At least ours is starting to melt now, might be able to garden later in the week.
Dear Carol, Snow is late coming to the Poconos this year, but boy, it is COLD!! … Good excuse to stay indoors and read, and dream of spring. Stay warm! P. x
Being one of those Summer people, I find snow absolutely fascinating. It's something I only ever get to see in pictures and I love it.
Happy dreaming! The days will be getting longer before we know it – just a few short weeks!
You lucky lady getting your first snow and being home when it hits. No snow here just sleet. UGH.. I call them Cold Frames but I have heard the term Hot Beds. Have a great weekend dreaming of May.
You are farther north than I am, my cold frames (that is what we call them here. . .) keep my spinach and lettuce and mesclun going all winter without the horse manure buried below them. But the manure would certainly be a very good addition to the system.
I highly recommend cold frames! There is something very luxurious about picking nice fresh greens for a salad in January when everything around is covered in snow.
Nice post. I like your blog very much.
What is it about the first snow that makes everything seem even prettier with that frosting of white? I would love a cold frame if I could figure out where I could put one. It would be very handy to get manure from that horse farm. Around here, the horse farms never have much on hand (so to speak), because of all the gardeners taking it away.
It is very pretty…
pretty pics!
Funny about the vocab. I know them as coldframes, but it almost makes more sense to call them hotbeds!
Actually hot beds and cold frames are two different but related things. Both you and your uncle are perfectly right. Take your cold frame, add the hot(uncomposted manure) under a layer of soil and you have a hot bed. Saw one company selling heat mat to replace the manure.
Here in CT no snow yet but that is not really unusual.
Love your first photo, Carol–I thought you were putting us on until you explained and I looked closely to see the edge of the patio. The snow definitely stuck here–I'm not sure I can even get my car out, though right now I'm content to stay in where it's warm. Time to order some more garden books from the library!