It’s Good To Know Where The Snow Will Blow

Driving around the area after the February 2 storm revealed some incredible differences in how the weather hit out here. We’d just had 2 to 3 feet of snow about a week earlier, then rain, freezing rain, some sleet and then more snow followed by a flash freeze.The pleasant surprise was that there seemed to be little to no damage from heavy, wet snow. That’s the kind of damage that crushes, twists and breaks trees and shrubs. The only places I saw that was where bucket loaders had dumped piles of snow on top of hedges and bushes. For the most part it looked as if the public works folks were very thoughtful and considerate, however.

At several points in the past month it has been brutally cold. Not nearly as cold as last winter, but I noted the stems of the hydrangeas reaching out from the drifts of snow. As you may remember from last winter, on most hydrangeas the portions of the plants that were consistently covered with snow generally survived, as the snow insulated them. It wasn’t uncommon to have a 4-foot stem with the top 2 feet that were exposed totally dead, and with some life below. If you’re concerned about what’s going on this winter, remember that it’s not just how cold it gets. It’s how long it stays cold. Most of our marginally hardy plants will respond poorly to long periods of severe cold, but they don’t flinch at a few nights down around 5 or zero. Also keep in mind than many plants need the cold. Many fruit trees need a certain amount of “chilling” in order to develop buds that will fruit.

There are also a number of seeds, mostly of perennials, and some trees that need cold periods, or vernalization, that starts a biochemical process in the seeds that allows them to germinate. In some cases they’ll need long periods of cold, some short, and even other periods of warm and cold over a period of years. These are the challenging ones.

Another interesting facet of the storms was the drifting snow. I know it’s always been an issue in the open areas along 27 past East Hampton and into Springs and Montauk, but it’s also an issue along the highway between the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club and the college. If you drive by there you may still see the vestiges of the 8- to 10-foot drifts on the north side of the road. But if you take the turn over the railroad tracks onto Tuckahoe Road, you’ll pass the college soccer field on the right. Just past the soccer field, you’ll notice two sets of parallel snow fences. The technical term for this setup is “snow farming.”

The first, or more northern, fence causes the snow being blown across the open field to be blocked, and the effect of the wind against the fence causes a drift to be formed downwind of the fence. The drift can actually be mobile and move as it grows or as the wind changes. But the second fence contains the drift and causes it to be more stable and grow in place. It’s actually manipulation of the snow and so referred to as snow farming. In this particular case, the purpose is to keep the snow from moving down to the access road into the college and the parking lot, which can easily be blocked. If you take a look you’ll see just how successful this “farm” is.

Now to some warmer thoughts. I’ve been a bit negligent in my coverage of the new vegetable varieties for 2015. There’s a new cucumber around that has a white skin and is very sweet as cucumbers go. If you’re looking for a mild to sweet cuke with a thin pale skin you may want to grow Platinum. Available from Seeds of Change (seedsofchange.com), this cuke was developed by our own Cornell University. It’s been getting some pretty great reviews and apparently it’s also been a hot seller at roadside farm stands. I’ll be growing it in a test garden this summer, so we’ll have our own taste test and reviews during the summer.

And speaking of seeds, there’s a very interesting seed operation right in our backyard. It’s called the Long Island Seed Project, and if you’re into breeding your own vegetables or sharing seeds with others who have done their own breeding, you should take a look at the website at www.liseed.org and hit the “About Us” button on the left side of the home page. This won’t appeal to everyone, but if you are committed to organic vegetable gardening and locally developed seed and vegetable varieties, you’ll find this very interesting.

If you’re really dedicated to making a great garden you have to have great soil. And in order to have great soil you have to be an active soil steward. This means knowing what’s going on in your soil and how healthy it is—and if it isn’t in great health what you can do about it. The first step? A comprehensive soil test. Soil testing can be as simple as knowing your soil’s pH, but you really need to know much, much more. To explore the options and to learn more put this link in your browser: http://goo.gl/avcVmL. It will take you to a Cornell web page that will get you started, but if you have more questions just drop me a line.

A couple of weeks ago I attended an environmental summit in Westchester at the urging of safe lawn goddess Dr. Diane Lewis. There was a series of lectures you could attend during the day, and one that I signed up for was titled “Native Plants: Making Beauty Sustainable.” I really didn’t pay too much attention to the description of the lecture or who the speaker was, but the topic grabbed my attention. Wow, did I luck out. The speaker was Sheila Brady, a landscape architect and designer who’s a principal with the firm Oehme, van Sweden & Associates.

Sheila is the designer of the new native plant garden at the New York Botanical Garden, and it looks as if she and her team have created the native garden of our dreams. You may recall from a column last year that I’ve pretty much abandoned the idea of such a garden being successful. The majority of these efforts have failed—and that’s been my experience and, as you’ve told me, yours as well. I really enjoyed the presentation, and the garden looks really great and I think it will be going into its third year this growing season.

I hope to visit the garden several times this year and with some luck devote a couple of columns to it, because it looks as though someone has finally gotten it right. And the NYBG has been in the same boat as many of us. Their earlier attempt at a native garden failed as well. Why? What’s different about the new one? Stay tuned, and of course … keep growing.