Hardiness Zone Changes

Here's the new Hardiness Zone map for the lower 48, courtesy of arborday.org.  This map has some significant differences from the 1990 map.  The biggest differences are out west.  Areas in the desert southwest have actually lowered a zone (indicating cooler temperatures), while areas west of the central Rockies have increased up to two zones (indicating warmer temperatures); maps of those differences are available at arborday.org. 

Here in northeastern New Jersey, we have gone from zone 6 to zone 7.  What does that mean?  First, we are in the same zone as Oklahoma City, which highlights the moderating influence of the Atlantic Ocean on our climate.  Second, it means that our average annual low temperature has risen.  Finally, it means that we are now in an area where less cold-hardy plants can overwinter without dying. 

It's always good to remember that climate refers to long term patterns in weather.  Last winter, we were buried under feet-worth of snow and freezing.  This winter, our temperatures are running above normal and there have only been two snowfalls of note (and by "of note" I refer to inches, not feet).

If you would like to look up your new hardiness zone, please use the tool on this blog!

Winter in the Adirondacks

I am not a cold weather girl. The going theory is that I don't have enough fat on me. However, my tall and skinny husband is very at home in the snow, so there goes that theory. Here are some gorgeous pictures from his latest jaunt in the Adirondacks.

More Farming, More Fun

Christmas for a gardener - for me, anyway - is when thoughts first turn to next year's effort. Assuming that the last vegetables come out of the garden sometime in November, December is usually the first full month of no gardening for me. It's a busy month, so the garden isn't really missed yet; actually, it is nice to have the birdfeeders up in the garden instead, and lots of visitors to watch with very little effort to get them there.
Then, my dad offered to help us dig up the new vegetable plot next spring, as he and my mom gave me a cold frame for Christmas! This means a few things:
1. Gardening season has been extended by 1-2 months on each end of the season. That's 9 months or so of gardening!
2. More gardening time means more planning! I'll be cracking the Johnny's catalog come January.
3. My dad's surprise retirement may mean I'll have a co-farmer this season. Sounds great to me!
4. That milky spore had better be multiplying and killing Japanese beetle larvae. I don't want them eating the swiss chard before we do.

Please excuse the egregious use of exclamation points; I just have visions of corn and kale dancing in my very excited head.

I'm Dreaming of a White...Halloween?!

Perhaps you've seen the commercial for Birds' Eye frozen vegetables, where people are picking bright, ripe peppers in the snow. One of my students asked me just this week if that could really happen, and I laughed. Boy, am I eating my words now.Brian and I went out this morning to salvage the rest of our crop. Yes, we are picking TOMATOES in the SNOW.

Next, we harvested the sweet potatoes.

Not bad for a first try at growing them! I think I'll bake this one in the oven tonight, to go with a steak...that is, if we keep the power on. The heavy, wet snow is causing tree branches to come down all over our township (poor trees!), and the power has cut off a few times already.
The rain barrel needs to be emptied before it freezes, so I used some of the water to rinse off the sweet potatoes. As a bonus, we found some more blue potatoes that I missed the last time!
These are some coral bells and little bluestem grasses in our front garden. They make me sad like this, all squished and drooped over. The blueberry plants are almost buried and the mums are wearing a cap of white.

It creates cognitive dissonance to see Halloween decorations and hear the sound of snow shoveling at the same time around here. However, I will use this opportunity to add to my forecasting knowledge of coastal storms, slip my feet into my favorite alpaca socks, and try to make sense of trees resplendent in fall color yet iced in snow.

Summer Became the Fall

It's a beautiful Indian summer day - if you allow me to be politically incorrect and use a term from my youth - and a great day to work in the garden. It may be almost 80 out, but autumn is progressing in the garden and, in the process, is providing for the wintering creatures in the yard.
The blueberry plants we put in this spring are completely cloaked in their fall color. Multiply this by the hundreds, and add a yellow canopy of trees, and you have sections of the northwestern New Jersey forest in just a couple weeks.

The switchgrass has a cloud of burgundy seedheads atop the blue foliage. I'm wondering who will eat the seeds this winter. Lots of people cut off seed heads to make the garden look neater, but seed heads can provide interest in the winter - make the garden look less sterile - and you never know who is getting welcome nourishment from your garden "mess."
The Joe-pye weed has traded its mauve flowers for the fluff of seed heads.
The garden is still providing people food this time of year. This is a flower on the sweet potatoes. The foliage is starting to yellow, which is an indication that the harvest is nearing.
I wish smell could be transferred via blog, because this harvest of basil has my kitchen smelling divinely. It's really important to harvest basil before even a light frost, because they are reduced to a black mush in cold temperatures. I'll wash these on the stem and hang them to dry. They store well in an airtight bag or plastic container.

It's time to get some mums for the front of the house and enjoy the remaining few weeks of tomatoes. We will put in the winter rye and plant next year's garlic in just a month. For now, though, I'm going to enjoy the warmth of the early fall sun and pretend winter will never come!

Butterfly Baby Boom

I became frustrated with the Eagles' lack of ability to win a game this past Sunday, so I went out to the garden instead. After picking some beets (which were delicious with red wine vinegar, oil, onion, and pepper tonight!), radishes, and cherry tomatoes, I wandered over to the carrots. Kneeling down, I found myself face to face with an eastern black swallowtail caterpillar. That's not unusual; we find a couple on the carrots every year. However, as my eyes adjusted, I saw more and more - 6 total! This type of butterfly likes to lay its eggs on parsley and plants in the carrot family, like dill, so we had the perfect environment for a bunch of kids to be born and grow.
This one is the first instar, or larvae. You can tell it by the white band around its middle.This one is a later instar. If you make it mad, two little snake-tongue-like protrusions come out on its end. As I like to keep our caterpillars happy, I look but don't touch.I watched this one's mouthparts eat up many carrot leaves. It looks pretty close to going to chrysalis. I've only ever seen one chrysalis in the garden, attached to the wood scaffolding to which I tie the tomato plants, and it didn't last the winter. I wonder where these will go, and if I will see them fluttering across the yard as adults next year.

The Beauty of Weeds

I'm teaching an environmental science elective next term, and I wanted to do some research about the flora biodiversity of our property at school before the first frost. While wandering around with my camera, it dawned on me that some of the weeds - the great unwashed of the botanical world - are actually beautiful when you forget that they are supposed to be unwanted interlopers. Here's a sampling. (PS - I attracted a lot of attention by crawling through gardens in my work clothes with a camera. Luckily, my coworkers understand that I am a nature nut and a nerd.)