Winter has finally arrived. Last week we had 15 inches of wet snow in the first storm and 6 inches to 8 inches in the second storm. With the rain this week, watering trees won’t be necessary for at least a month.
It has been so long since we had a heavy snow, I had forgotten about things like digging out the gas meter, removing heavy snow off of plants to prevent breakage or getting snow off the roofs.
Unfortunately, there isn’t anything I can do for the now-buried daffodils that were poking up prior to the snow. I will just have to be careful not to walk on the snow in the area where they grow. We have been keeping the bird feeders full through all the weather. I hope the bluebirds that I saw coming out of the nest box before the storm are okay.
Stormy days are opportunities to do landscape dreaming and planning. Although it is hard to believe, spring is less than a month away, bringing with it all the chores of waking up and caring for the landscape.
Think about what worked in your yard last year and what didn’t. For example, I find growing vegetables is not worth the effort. I will replant my veggie containers with more hummingbird friendly plants such as bee balm. We are redesigning our irrigation system to eliminate a lot of hand watering. Dragging hoses around is inefficient and time consuming.
Perhaps you have some time-saving improvements you would like to implement. Figure them out now, so that you can get a jump on making the changes. Or maybe you want to simplify some of your planted areas, so you have less maintenance.
Perhaps you want to add boulders or other hardscape. I’m hoping my husband will build a decorative steel gate for our back fence, which is now visible after cutting down trees last year. Then, of course, I’ll need to install a paver pathway to the gate. We will change the automatic irrigation pattern in this area, since we no longer have to water trees there.
Because my yard is so old, a lot of my dreams and plans are about eliminating plants or cutting things back. You may have a new landscape and want to make plans for putting in more plants. Remember to use water-efficient, drought tolerant plants and to avoid any flammable plants close to structures. Take a lesson from a long-time gardener who has learned her lesson, “Keep it simple!”
— JoAnne Skelly is an Associate Professor and Extension Educator, Emerita, University of Nevada Cooperative Extension. She can be reached at skellyj@unr.edu.
