Early Spring Weather

Although it's only early March, we have been having beautiful, spring-like weather lately. In fact, quite a bit of the snow in our yard has melted, revealing a few surprises.

Our alpine strawberries, which I worried about all winter, appeared a bit flattened, but still green, with new growth appearing. In fact, they didn't look like they went dormant at all this winter. Now that their protective snow cover is gone, however, the heavy frosts at night are turning the leaves the brown and reddish colours we expected to see last fall. I'm hoping this damage doesn't hurt their chances of growing well this summer - they should be able to cope with the cold temperatures as long as their root systems are strong enough to regrow when the weather is a little more appropriate.

Alpine Strawberries

Our chives have also been trying to emerge for a few days. There are several shoots of green growth with brown ends that have also obviously been damaged by cold temperatures. Our creeping thyme, however, looks about the same as it did in the fall.

Creeping Thyme

Although it's exciting to see so much growth so early in the year, early warm weather followed by hard freezes can cause more "winter" damage than cold temperatures in the middle of winter do, since it is tender, new growth that is damaged. Although mulch should be pulled away from the stems of woody plants to prevent rot, it can be left on the soil to keep it cool and prevent plants from breaking dormancy too early.