Indeed, Cohan, there was even more snow depth than is pictured in my photos
taken April 12 so there has been some snow melt already. However, the overall
indicator of snow melt progress is the volume of water in the Blue River which
flows from the west side of the Continental Divide through Breckenridge, down
to Lake Dillon (Denver's water supply) and into the Colorado River Basin. As
of today, the water level in the Blue River is still low. The local newspaper
has been warning residents that our river could flood this spring due to the
increased snowpack. May and June are usually our heaviest snow melt months.
Even in early July it could be problematic trying to cross on foot some of our
back country streams where there are no bridges. By late July, the river and
creeks have "calmed down" and are at a normal summer flow. I don't put much
stock in an area's USDA zone designation. Those zones are based on the coldest
ambient temperature recorded for a given area. My Zone 4 says it can get to
-30F (-34.5C) but it never has been that low in the 18 years we've lived up
here or in the 48 years Klaus has been coming to Breckenridge to work and ski.
Also, the zone designation doesn't consider an area's winter snowpack. At our
house, the snowpack begins around the first week of November and is still
providing an insulating blanket for the soil through mid-May. The temperature
at the contact point between soil and snow stays around 32F (0C), fluctuating
only 2 to 3 degrees downward when we have a period of sub-zero F. ambient
temperatures. Our snow is never icy and is full of air, even when it's
compressed. The plants are protected from biting winds and extremely cold
temperatures and actually continue to grow under the snow, forming new foliage
and even flower buds. They are also protected from March and April days of
unseasonably warm sun that might induce them to break dormancy prematurely.
Because of my reliable snow cover, I have been able to grow species listed as
hardy only to Zone 5 and even 6. Just 20 miles from here, on the east side of
the Continental Divide, the winter climate for plants is far more severe. That
area, around the little towns of Alma, Fairplay and Hartsel, is designated as
Zone 3, even though they are at or below the elevation of our gardens. Being
in the "rain shadow" of the Rocky Mountains, they get very little snow
throughout the winter months. To make matters worse, fierce winds sweep across
the naturally-open, park-like meadows, removing what little snow may have
fallen on the plants. With mostly clear winter days, the sun beats down
strongly through the thin atmosphere, warming and heaving the frozen soil,
ripping apart the root systems. Every spring, gardeners lose several
perennials to that harsh winter climate. One winter I tried to keep the path
to the compost pile shoveled but it was a losing battle. We have a half-acre
lot and the compost pile is at the back end, about 250 feet or so from our
house. I would get the whole thing nicely cleared and then the winds would
come up during the night and fill in the path with windslab snow. After
repeating that operation several times with the same result and throwing out my
back in the process, I finally gave in to Old Man Winter and strapped on
snowshoes to get to the back of our lot. We had so much snow this winter that
I couldn't even keep my broken snowshoe path open! Again, it was Mr. Wind who
filled in my neatly packed track with 12 inches of new snow during the night
while I was in dreamland. Jane HendrixMountain View Experimental GardensPeak 7
Area - Breckenridge, Colorado U.S.A.Elevation: 10,000 feetUSDA Zone 4Website:
http://www.picturetrail.com/hendrix
---------- Original Message ----------
From: cohan fulford <[email protected]>
To: "Alpine-L, the Electronic Rock Garden Society, postings copyright by
authors." <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [Alpine-l] Springtime photos
Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2011 11:43:34 -0600
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 HendrixMountain View Experimental GardensPeak 7
Area - Breckenridge, Colorado U.S.A.Elevation:� 10,000 feetUSDA Zone
4Website:� http://www.picturetrail.com/hendrix�
-
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