This weekend brought us our first real proof of winter in St. Louis, mild temperatures driven out as the Arctic air pushed in.
Eleven inches (28cm) of rain this month in St. Louis (officially), with at least 9" (23cm) of it coming in the last four days. What follows heavy rains in late December?
I've been hearing that this winter in the Midwest (remember that I'm in St. Louis) has a high probability of being a mild one. As a zone 6 bamboo grower I hope for a mild winter every year, as it's important for the plants to keep their green leaves in order to have any chance of a "size up" next year -- meaning larger, taller culms emerging in spring.
Although the freezing temperatures won't arrive until tonight, I brought in all of my tender plants yesterday. As usual, this was before I really had a place to put them all.
I started looking at the results of our recent first freeze in yesterday's post, showing the beauty in the big leaves now dead.
We had our first freeze in the St. Louis area a few nights ago, which means that lots of tender plants get turned instantly ugly.
Nor surprisingly, the pond has built up a layer of ice. A few days ago when it was still forming the sun was out and the frozen pond in sunlight is irresistible to me.
This first winter with a pond in the garden, I'm getting the idea that I'll never be short of photographic subjects again.
A brief taste of winter before the unseasonable warmth returns -- it's been quite cold the last few days.
After shutting down the stream due to sub-freezing weather returning, I noticed that a water-filled bucket had frozen over again. This was not surprising.
When I added the artificial "stream" water feature to my garden in 2006, I immediately fell in love with the atmosphere it created. Its quiet, bubbly voice made a big impact, adding a calmness to the patio area that I never would have thought possible. It became so integral to the surroundings that when its first winter came around I did whatever I could to keep that water flowing.
The other morning I posted about frost flowers, delicate ice structures that are produced by certain types of plants under certain freezing conditions. In that post I questioned the conditions under which these glacial garden blossoms formed.
This morning I headed outside with the camera, as I was heading over to the community mulch pile to pick up a load of mulch. It was a frosty morning, a degree or two below freezing. I only walked out of the garage for a moment, but something caught my eye -- an interesting flash of white:
After our hard freeze Friday night (25ºF), most of the annuals and non-hardy perennials saw their brief lives end. Saturday I took a walk around -- after it warmed up a bit -- and surveyed the damage.
This morning when I woke up it was 24º F. Our normal low for this time of year is 40º F. I knew the cold was coming, but it's still a bit of a shock. So is it winter already? It feels and somewhat looks like a winter sunrise...
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