A May day / night dilemma #phenology

The Twin Cities National Weather Service has issued a frost advisory for much of Minnesota. For our county it runs from 1 AM to 8 AM tomorrow. They report the current temperature as 36℉. The weather app on my smartphone(?) forecasts overnight temperatures not dropping below 34℉. Of course, that same app informs us it's currently snowing when a glance out the window reveals rain sprinkles (that turned into snow flakes as we wrote this). So, the dilemma is: do we attempt to protect a bunch of newly planted flowers from a potentially non-existent frost by covering them and, if so, what to use for a cover.

rarely do May thunderstorms bring snow

Photo by J. Harrington

Other years when we've had mid- to late-May frost advisories, they've mostly occurred when we had clear, calm nights. With rain and / or snow in the forecast for the afternoon and evening, the bed sheets we've used in the past for frost protection are likely to get soaked through and, come morning, possibly turned into sheets of ice. We have some tarps sitting around the garage we could try, but they're likely to be too heavy to lay on the new plantlings and may crush them. Plus, they might not stay put if wind gusts do indeed reach 30 mph tonight. Local trillium have just come into bloom. What will they look like tomorrow?

are trillium frost proof?

Photo by J. Harrington

Frosted or crushed is sort of a plant's equivalent of "which eye do you want the sharp stick in?," also know as a Hobson's choice. An alternative would be to ignore the advisory, cross our fingers and hope that Mother Nature shows some pity. Then again, since we're now watching snow flakes, maybe the smartphone(?) should be listened to. Spring in the North Country isn't just a challenge. It's a mixed bag of challenges that makes life interesting, unless you're a plant or an orphan fledgling. The goslings we saw earlier today will no doubt be hunkered under mom to stay warm and dry tonight. In case you're interested, the "normal" high and low for today are 70℉ and 50℉. Tomorrow's normal low is the same and the normal high is 71℉. If you'll pardon a short posting today, I think I'll go dust off the snow shovel, just in case. All in all, we'd prefer a seasonal thunderstorm rather than a late season snow and frost attack.

Misreading Housman

By Linda Pastan

On this first day of spring, snow

covers the fruit trees, mingling improbably   

with the new blossoms like identical twins   

brought up in different hemispheres.   

It is not what Housman meant

when he wrote of the cherry

hung with snow, though he also knew   

how death can mistake the seasons,   

and if he made it all sound pretty,   

that was our misreading

in those high school classrooms

where, drunk on boredom, we had to recite   

his poems. Now the weather is always looming

in the background, trying to become more   

than merely scenery, and though today   

it is telling us something

we don't want to hear, it is all

so unpredictable, so out of control

that we might as well be children again,   

hearing the voices of thunder

like baritone uncles shouting

in the next room as we try to sleep,   

or hearing the silence of snow falling   

soft as a coverlet, even in springtime   

whispering: relax, there is nothing   

you can possibly do about any of this.

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