Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, your popular host, Mani the purebred border collie, here today to bring you some gardening news. You may remember me from such posts as “Before It Snows”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose.
It was sunny on and off today.
You can see what it was like here yesterday morning.
It snowed, but only this much. The guy I live with says the rest of the month looks pretty dry, with the “exciting addition” of high winds, blowing dust, and fire weather warnings this coming Thursday.
He says we have to face the fact that the weather here has changed, and very dramatically too, in the years he’s lived here.
No rain in March is just bizarre, but the last several springs have mostly been unpleasant, in the sense of almost no rain and record cold temperatures.
He was talking to his friend the other day, telling her, because he’s lived here longer, how we used to have these long periods of mist, drizzle, and rain, any time between March and October, and sometimes more than once during that period. Lots of overtime when he worked in telephone repair. The last time that happened was in 1995. It snowed, but didn’t stick, every day in April into the middle of May, and then rained every day until the first of June.
He might take quite some time to adjust to these new weather patterns.
Last autumn, the guy I live with planted five Eremurus robustus, and there’s no sign of them, even though the one already in that border is up.
He doesn’t know why the new ones never came up.
He also doesn’t know why so many of the seedlings that resulted from the nicking and soaking business died, but he’s okay with that. He just did it to have something to do.
The seedlings of Ipomoea leptophylla, also nicked and soaked, are very much up, though.
And, if you remember my post “Una Furtiva Lagrima”, he was hoping there would be some results from last year’s sowing of calochortus seeds. It looks like something might be happening here.
I did hear another “Ha!” of triumph.
It’s not very likely these are newly-germinated seeds.
So he’s pretty happy about this, especially if the seedlings live.
I’ll leave you with a picture of me in one of my favorite places. You may be able to see my nose under the curtains, in a place where the guy I live with said “a certain purebred border collie puppy” chewed the bottoms of the linen Pottery Barn curtains.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
Your weather is certainly unusual. We have similar comments here on the changes we see in the weather patterns. We have had a very uncommon dry February while March has been a deluge. I dug a hole yesterday to plant a new small prunus and it filled with water.
The guy I live with said it’s going to be dfficult to adjust to the changes, in the sense of not knowing at all what to expect from week to week.
It is certainly a bother.
Here, it seems to require new ways of thinking about gardening.
Long time residents along the Front Range are shaking their heads in agreement with the new ‘facts’ weather wise. Yesterday’s dusting at least tamped the dust down for which we are grateful yet suspect dog baths will become more frequent because of the extended lack of moisture and more dust on paws. Both dogs will not be keen on that fact. Looks like yesterday’s predicted forecast of snow for the weekend has evaporated. Not excited about Friday’s predicted windy conditions either. I’m so over the wind.
It’s just gross, though the prospect of no more summers with daily thunderstorms doesn’t bother me. Purebred border collies do not like thunder. The guy I live with said he estimated 275 thunderstorms passed over and near our neighborhood in 2014. That was the year before I was born.
The guy I live with’s friend in southern Colorado has had to endure winds of 75 mph almost every week this year.
People like thunder about as much as the wind. Which is not at all. My Dad lives near Pueblo and know first hand the trials and tribulations of living out on the windy plains. He has tumbleweeds blow in from heaven only knows where on a near daily basis. Several shingles from his roof were blown off this past autumn. It’s a full time job keeping up with the wind down there. 😬
The guy I live with says the forecast for Pueblo is just icky. Red flag warnings and “blowing dust”.
That doesn’t sound very springlike.
Mee-yow wee facin same factss two Mani an Guy! 4 dayss ago it was 41 deegreess an mee was out inn Condo. BellaSita put out all our patio decorationss an solar litess inn wee garden. Wee ‘felt’ Spring inn THE air.
Today (Wednesday) iss snowin?!?!?! WHAT THE CAT???
An furry chilley here again!
Wee have to accept weather has changed an adapt. Guy wee hope yore plantss are just sleepin still under THE snow. An wee think you did grate with yore seedlingss two.
An Mani you look purrty reelaxed inn yore fotoss….of ocarse you nevurr chewed any drapess rite? 😉
***nose rubss*** BellaDharma an ((huggiess)) BellaSita Mum
I did chew the drapes…
There’s no snow in the garden here right now, except for some ice on the north side of the driveway.
It doesn’t feel like spring here, at all. The guy I live with says this is “some nightmarish new season”, where they continually predict rain and snow, and then the next time he looks, there’s wind and “critical fire danger” instead.
Mew mew mew mee will not mewo to a soul Mani!! Mee bunny kickss THE drapess here butt BellaSita thinkss it was ‘angel’ Unkell Siddhartha beefore mee 😉
Same here….wee herd a Robin last nite butt cuud not see him/her. An today iss freezin again…
Wee wurried ’bout wind an crittycal fire danger there…pleese bee carefull OKay?
The guy I live with was very angry with me, but not for long. It isn’t like anyone inspects the curtains.
We’ve been seeing robins for quite a while. You can always ytell, because the water in the birdbath is half empty after a robin bath.
Friday doesn’t sound very good, but I guess we’ll see.
Goodness, concern about fire so early! I suppose it is no stranger than fire at the end of December.
Yep, already.
But the guy I live with says this is very bizarre. The forecast for Thursday night calls for a fifty percent chance of rain and snow (it either will, or it won’t), then super windy on Friday, then a twenty percent chance of snow and/or rain showers after noon, with a red flag warning at the same time.
Still, it’s stressful.
That fire near Louisville was so very strange that one can understand why fire warnings would be stressful. That really was odd!
It was, and it’s easy to see why there are red flag warnings now.
When I began gardening here 30 years ago I never saw a rabbit and we got the most lovely long gentle rain — often overnight. Both of those have changed. The rabbits now terrorize my garden and rain is not always coming at the periods where it used to be counted on. Many more rain storms where it’s a nasty “rain event” as the weather guys say.
We don’t have “rain events” at all, any more. The guy I live with says waking up to rain was so nice, but it hasn’t happened in ages.
He also said when he and his wife moved here in 1986 there were no rabbits, but a few years later there was an explosion in the population. The owls arrived a few years later.
Unfortunately that kind of weather seems to be the norm these days.
What gets to the guy I live with is these constant predications of rain and snow, and then nothing happens.
He says this isn’t atypical weather for March, but the lack of rain and snow has been.
He’s especially irked by the fact that so many things in the garden are late this year, and some rain or snow would have been very helpful.
You’d think with all the doppler equipment stations are always boasting about, they’d be a bit more accurate. Guess unpredictability is now part of the equation on weather forecasts. Sigh.
They were right about the wind, but it would be nice if they were right about getting some rain, too.
Mee-yow no one cuud stay angry with you fore long Mani!!! You are too cute!
An wee still NOT seen a Robin….so weerd rite?
An wee hope Furiday iss calm an not what they purrdict at all 😉
I am hard to stay angry with. They’re only curtains, after all.
It’s been really windy here all day.
We sometimes have robins here all winter. Not sure about this past winter, though.
Guess what Mani?? It snowed again last nite…just 1/2 an inch! Then it melted this mornin an now iss pourin rain an still furry cold out!
Swinter….that iss what this iss! An wee still not see any Robinss….maybee today with rain….wermss will come out…..mee wantss to see a Robin 😉
No snow or rain here. At least the wind stopped last night.
Kind of chilly now, though, and the wind is picking up.
How kind of you to adjust the length of the drapes! Our formerly resident Aussie helped us out in a similar capacity with a comforter that was a bit too long for the bed. Feathers everywhere, it was quite spectacular.
ceci
The guy I live with said that Flurry, the first purebred border collie who lived here, used to eat the batting from the couch cushions.
I was just bored, and, at the time, an expert chewist, and so that’s what transpired.
Pleese stay safe from THE Wind an any pawssibell *fire* danger Mani an Guy!
Thanks; it was a really nerve-wracking day. I was too scared to go outside, even though the guy I live with said he’d go with me.
Oh nose Mani!!! Wee sorry you were so scared! Wind came here over nite an iss well, windy! BellaSita an Aunty Sheila goin out fore grocereess soon….hope they due not end up blown to Kansas! 😉 Iss it calmer there today?
Much calmer today, thanks. It was really scary.
Wee furry furry reeleeved Mani an Guy two!! =^..^=
Thanks. We have another Red Flag day today. The guy I live with says this is getting to be too much.
Oh nose! Pleese stay safe Mani an Guy~~~it REELLY ISS too much! 😉
Met a couple who had moved from Denver to Calgary last summer. They said they chose Calgary because it’s what the climate in Denver used to be like. Fast forward I guess this is what we will be like in the future. In the last 20 years our precipitation is 25% less than what it was and the summers are getting very hot.
The guy I live with said that makes sense. For people who’ve lived here a long time, like the guy I live with, the climate is almost unrecognizable now.
For me, anyway, not having thunder in the summer is just fine, but maybe that was just the last couple of years.
Neither of my dogs like thunder either Mani. One of them ran away one day while we were out and got stuck in someone’s window well. He was a little bit embarrassed but we were glad he was safe. Unfortunately, we still get storms but now they are loaded with giant sized hail.
I’m not sure how long it’s been since I’ve heard thunder. The last hail here was in 2018; two hailstorms.