Just ignore it. 30F isn't cold enough to get excited about unless you have seriously jumped the gun and already have things like tomatoes in the ground.

Thanks for your reply! Happy to say that I have not jumped the gun -- all tender plants are still in pots and can be brought indoors-- so this is reassuring. Just wanted to be sure.

"There is a difference between the cold this time of year and back several weeks ago. Namely, the days are longer so the time of near freezing temps is much briefer and also the high sun angle means things do warm up quickly after sunrise."

Fascinating! I love learning details like this. Through gardening you gain a much deeper understanding of how the environment around you functions.

I think I know the cold you are referring to from a few weeks ago, Jurassic Park. I had a dystillium with new growth which got burned and looks awful now. It was why I wrote this post! (Although I think in that case the problem was also the wind).

Anyway, everything seems to be just fine this time, with no damage sustained as far as I can tell. Including my young camellia. Jurassic Park, yours is fabulous!

We seem to go from one problem to the next, so after the chill we got flooding rains overnight. We need to WARM UP and DRY OUT! Enough "Spring" already.

We had the same, except when they forecast 30F overnight, we woke up to 38F and it was fine. Yesterday was a great gardening day, clear skies and sun most of the day. A little on the windy side. Then last night it came down in buckets with a lot of rain coming from the East which is unusual for us. Just about vertical rain against that side of the house and the windows on the west side were dry. Heard lots of noises in the night and thought for sure a branch was going to be down, but nothing. Then today, it's very cold and very windy.

A couple more weeks it will be May and we should start to see some consistently mild weather. Although, I find myself thinking that I don't remember a time when we had consistently windy days. I know I've been thinking that for the past couple of years. It used to be just the temperature fluctuations and the precipitation that was evidence of climate change, now it seems wind has been added to the picture. I think we just have to appreciate whenever we get really nice weather. I'd expect May is going to end up being the best month of the year, weather wise.

The wind has been almost constant so even a 60 degree day feels cold. I'm at 800 feet and wind roars through like a freight train. It sounds like the middle of winter in April.

Sue, it used to be March would be expected to bring the winds. April showers would bring May flowers. and it wasn't really hot until July and the first half of August. Now you don't know what you're going to get. I would imagine at higher elevations the wind is quite a bit worse. Look at Mt Washington in NH. Doesn't all the woods around you slow it down at all? Maybe once the trees leaf out?

You're spot on, Sue! Even warm days feel cold because of this incessant wind. Hard to enjoy the day - or work in it. Tried to do some clean-up the other day and had to give up because it was too windy. Same today - gave up on my clean-up plans because of the wind. I just worry we're going to go straight into 90 degree days. We seem to be losing spring.

:)

Dee

My fear exactly Dee. We go from winter to summer. Granted there have been some nice days but they seem to be few and far between. I thought today was going to be nice until I went out to a local nursery at lunchtime. It was 60 degrees and sunny and I had to put a windbreaker on over my sweater. Tomorrow is a vacation day for me that I hope to spend in the garden but northwest wind is in the forecast again...

Some pictures-I am enchanted by Anemone bandana but never think to order more with my fall bulb order.

Post sunset view across my front boulder garden which needs a lot of attention from me this weekend.

A happy clump of Daffodils.

Cornus mas Variegata

PM the trees don't slow the wind down at all up here. It roars through the top of them. I was hiking with a friend tonight. She thinks the wind is getting worse every year and she may be right. I blame climate change. It may be our new normal.

Good morning,

Sue, I always enjoy photos of your garden. You do a great job with placement. And I like that building in the background. Is that something you had built and is it a shed or intended for something else? It's attractive. All your bulbs are looking great. I need to try to add Anemone and every spring I vow to add more bulbs and then something comes up to prevent me from taking the time to install them, so I don't order them. Maybe I should start saying in the spring that I'm not going to add more bulbs in the fall. [g] Maybe that will work.

If the wind is becoming routine and at your elevation is especially becoming a problem so you don't enjoy working out there in early spring, maybe you can change the way you work. And your garden plan a little. With the wind in mind, perhaps you can plan a windbreak somewhere and a sitting area or work area shielded by it. And clean up the garden more in the fall than the spring. Your garden is pretty so sitting enjoying the garden out of the wind might be something to look forward to in spring. Or a work area where you can start to put all your pots together for the season.

As for climate change, I do blame all of our weather changes on that. And I agree, I'm expecting the weather is going to get warm too fast again this year. I was just thinking the other day of reminding my husband to get the a/c in the windows soon, when really I don't normally think about that until the end of May.

But, I think what we all need to do is adapt as best we can. I'm grateful our part of the country seems to have it better than so many other places in the country. All the areas that are putting up with brush fires and worse heat, etc. It appears that little is being done to reverse climate change, so eventually we may have it worse than we do now. So, I'm trying to enjoy every minute of what seasonal weather we have now and try to make it work for me.

When I buy more daffodil bulbs I'm going to be buying late blooming bulbs. And if we are going to keep having early heat, then I am increasing my planting of roses that enjoy the heat. I'm trying to notice what is responding well to changes in the weather and what is struggling and do more of what works. I know that doesn't amount to much, and really it's more up to nature to adapt and for us to observe and work with that.