I was wondering how quickly your spring melt was coming along-- we don't get nearly the volume of snow that you do, but your area is z4, whereas I am 3 (on the map....but remember the z2 temperatures!).. Paths we have shovelled all winter--to woodcutting areas, compost, etc, definitely give the melt inroads--without those, we'd have even less bare ground than we do (most of it re-covered in yesterdays snow!) Cohan
On Fri, Apr 15, 2011 at 9:25 AM, [email protected] <[email protected]>wrote: > It could be that we've "quieted down" because our gardens are "waking up". > Our Rocky Mountain winters at 10,000 feet are very, very long. To cheer us > up, I've begun to germinate about 235 new species from seed under lights in > a spare, cool bedroom. Every day something new pops up and --- IT'S GREEN! > What a beautiful color green is! Aside from our evergreen conifers, we see > green (without white) for just 4 short months. > > > To get Mountain View Experimental Gardens moving along quicker than > nature's schedule, we remove the snow on the interconnecting garden paths > starting in mid- to late March. This time we didn't start until early April > because of the excessively abundant snow. It's wonderful exercise! No need > for a membership at the local rec center! We pick the sunny days for this > activity and it is so pleasant to hear our birds singing, especially our > pine grosbeaks, when we stop to catch our breath. > > > When the job is finished, we make a daily tour to see what new things have > emerged at the edges of the gardens as the sun warms the rocks and > the snow slowly recedes. This is a much-anticipated activity and is very > uplifting at a time when Klaus is still having to shovel the snow off our > roof and I have to don snowshoes to take our kitchen waste to the compost > pile. > > > I have posted a series of photos at the NARGS forum at > http://nargs.org/smf/index.php?topic=657.0 The gardens are "officially" > open to visitors for the 2011 season. > > > We are not done with snowstorms. In fact, there are 12 inches of new snow > predicted for this weekend. That means we'll have to reshovel the garden > paths, but that's just our "early spring conditioner" to get us in shape for > those high-altitude wildflower hikes in July. I live for the Green > Season!!! > > > Jane Hendrix > Mountain View Experimental Gardens > Peak 7 Area - Breckenridge, Colorado U.S.A. > Elevation: 10,000 feet > USDA Zone 4 > Website: http://www.picturetrail.com/hendrix > > > - >
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