Tags
Despite the cold, I was rather disturbed to learn that 13 of the last 16 winters in my area have been “Zone 5” winters. If you aren’t a gardener or in the U.S. you might not know what that means, so let me explain. The United States Department of Agriculture, USDA, long ago created a plant hardiness map. It is based on average annual extreme minimum temperatures over a 30-year period and goes from zone 1, the coldest, to zone 13, the warmest. My zone in Minneapolis is 4 which means minimum winter temperatures regularly dip below -20F/-28.9C. That’s air temperature without wind chill added in. The last time the USDA updated its zone map was 2012. I’m not entirely certain, but I think they update it every ten years.
For 13 of the last 16 winters to be zone 5 is a big deal. It won’t yet put me squarely in a warmer zone but it is definitely moving there. State climate watchers and meteorologists are speculating that within the next three to four years we will begin seeing zone six winters. This is both crazy and scary. A zone 6 winter would mean a minimum temperature of only -10F/-23.3C. Some people might wonder why I’m not cheering, why I am not excited about the bigger variety of plants I might be able to grow, why anyone would be upset over a winter that never got colder than -20F/-28.9C because, wow, -10F/-23.3C is still pretty cold.
But it is not cold enough.
Minnesota ecology has evolved around long, frigid winters. Already forests in the northern part of the state are showing signs of stress and disease. Our moose population is getting smaller every year. The emerald ash borer is spreading at a faster rate, killing the state’s ash trees. And every year incidents of West Nile virus occur earlier and earlier in the season. That we even have to worry about the virus at all is a fairly recent, within the last ten years or so, thing.
And it isn’t just ecology that is affected by warmer winters, people are too. Minnesota culture is heavily invested in cold winters. Heck, we have a frozen lake’s worth of jokes about it. And we tend to think we are better than everyone else because we can endure the frigid cold. There are winter carnivals and events that warmer winters will make difficult. This year it took so long before the cold hit, the lakes have not been able to build enough ice for the various pond hockey tournaments and many of them have been postponed or cancelled entirely.
Warmer winters are no small, inconsequential thing.
I am not quite sure how to plan for shorter, warmer winters in my garden. I continue to operate under zone 4 assumptions but clearly I am going to need to adapt. I don’t know what that means, exactly. Today I spent an hour or so figuring out where to plant all those seeds that arrived in the mail earlier this week. I am supposed to rotate my “crops” to keep garden soil healthy and avoid hungry insect problems. But, as big as my garden is—pretty much my entire backyard—it still is not large so rotating is a flexible term. I mean growing my tomatoes three feet from where they were last year and moving the zucchini from one end of the garden bed to the other counts as rotating, right?
I got it all figured out though, at least on paper. There are always revisions when it comes time to plant because I can never remember exactly how much room I have in all the various garden beds. And bundling up and walking around the garden right now won’t work because everything is under snow and I can’t even tell where the paths are and where the beds are. Spring and planting time will reveal all!
Biking
Just a quick bike note today. I did another race on Thursday and it was an entirely different mix of people than the week before. There were eight people in group D and I was still the only woman. It was a crazy fast race and I think the guy who won by just over five minutes should have been racing in the C group instead, but maybe he has low self-esteem issues and needed an ego boost or something. I came in fifth in my group riding pretty much at the same rate I had the week before. I had a great time though riding with a C group rider who had gotten dropped from the main group and playing tag with another D group rider.
I’ll try again this coming Thursday and see how it goes. One thing for sure, it is most excellent exercise and I work a lot harder in a race than I do during a regularly scheduled workout. I will be really interested to see how it all translates to riding outdoors again when spring comes.
I started off thinking “Doesn’t this mean it would be better? Warmer soil means plants will bloom and fruit and all sorts of pleasant things will occur!” It took me a while to realise that this also means plants that thrive in that colder climate will suffer…
It’s a terrible thought.
Grow with love and laughter! xo Shenanigarden!
LikeLike
yanniesaurus, there are a lot of people thinking really cold winters won’t be such a bad thing, but you are right, all the things that thrive in the cold will suffer and that hasn’t sunk in for many people yet. Thanks for the lovely wishes!
LikeLike
And, the thing is, that your getting warmer presumably means others are too and that we are not doing well at keeping this in check. I quite like warmth, but as you say the ramifications are bigger than individual comfort. The specific ones you give here are really scary.
LikeLike
yes indeed, we aren’t the only ones getting warmer. My parents in San Diego are constantly remarking about it getting so much warmer earlier in the year and staying warm longer. I read somewhere a while ago that by the end of the century Minneapolis will typically have weather comparable to that of Oklahoma City today. That is a sobering thought!
LikeLike
Oh dear, it is indeed.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s an unsettling time to be alive, isn’t it? I mean, I’m sure it was scary for different reasons in other times too. But we know so much about what is happening right now, and what’s been happening the last few years climate-wise… and it feels sometimes like we are helpless to stop the changes. I don’t give in to my fears and despair. My fighting nature won’t allow me to. But I still feel very unsettled when I see my spring bulbs starting to sprout in December.
LikeLike
Laila, yes, unsettling is a good description! Everything is in constant flux and we can no longer depend on something as seemingly simple as the climate to be reliable. I try to not give in to despair either but I think it is only natural to have to down day now and then before dusting ourselves off and jumping back into the fray 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Winter and I mean true winter did not hit our part of the world till last week. In an agricultural intensive country like ours, this has been disastrous and the crops that are sown in autumn for tending through winters for harvesting in Spring, have been either spoilt or have had stinted growth. The farming community is worried and we should be too…Climate Change has come into our house and sooner we acknowledge its presence and do something about it, the better!
LikeLike
Winter arrived in the UK this week but with about -5/6F the minimum it seems pretty balmy compared to a mild Minnesota winter. I think most of us have been cheered to see a bit of winter as we have had a few really beautiful sunny days. Normal service looks like resuming later this week – milder, wetter perhaps detestable!
LikeLike
Ian, we might warm up to -5C today and get a few inches of snow too! Glad you got a few days of sun. I hope you get a few more before the rain returns!
LikeLike
cirtnecce, oh no, that’s terrible what has happened with the winter crops there! We definitely have to start operating differently but when it comes to growing things it is hard to know what to do since there is little consistency. I hope the winter crops aren’t a complete bust.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well…it has turned cold lately, so its not all doom and gloom, however it is an uphill task. I agree with you, that we should have started looking into this several generations back! But I guess better late than never and every effort counts!
LikeLike
Glad it isn’t all doom and gloom! And you are right, every effort does count. Now if only more people would make more efforts then we’d really be getting somewhere 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
This is so interesting, and frightening. It’s only when the impacts of climate change become local and visible that it all really hits home. (On a sort-of-related note, I was given a DVD for Christmas called “The Salt of the Earth”, directed by Wim Wenders – as a gardener and environmentalist, I think you’d really enjoy it!)
LikeLike
widget, yes and so far it has only gradually snuck up on us. I think pretty soon it won’t be so gradual. Thanks for the film recommendation! It looks really good!
LikeLike
When I was at the produce section of my market this weekend, there was an obvious change. The store posted signs that explained that due to the unique weather conditions – and too much water that adversely affected crops – there was a shortage of certain vegetables, mostly the organic produce. And the prices certainly reflected that shortage! I miss those Mid-West winters (although it is 41F here today and we’re all “freezing.” Wimps.)
LikeLike
Grad, as much as I would like to buy local produce in the winter that is impossible here which means my lettuce and broccoli comes from California and I have noticed that because of the drought the size and quality have decreased and the price increased. But too much water has equally bad effects! You should come up for a winter visit sometime before the midwest winters are no longer!
LikeLike
Climate change is super scary. And I live in a part of the country that is projected to be underwater when the sea rises, which — ack! No! I like living here!
LikeLike
Jenny, that must be super scary for you! Should the waters rise high ans fast, I can vouch that Minneapolis is a really nice place. And by then our winters won’t be as cold.
LikeLike
The last two weeks of 2015 were so mild here that trees were budding. I couldn’t help myself telling the trees ‘Please, wait, it’s much too early still’. Now the cold has arrived, and with it a piercing wind. And again I find myself talking to the trees, this time saying ‘I’m so sorry’. It makes me feel unsettled and a bit sad.
LikeLike
Cath, oh dear, that is very bad. Hopefully the cold isn’t too deep or lasts long enough to cause all those buds any damage. It is greatly unsettling though. I worry about the trees.
LikeLike
It’s exactly the same here in Scotland, the biggest worry being all the tree viruses which are arriving and multiplying in the warmer weather, and of course nasty creepy crawlies aren’t being killed off as they used to be. The woodland behind us is losing trees all the time, very sad.
LikeLike
piningforthewest, yes, that is exactly the problem here too. Sorry to hear about the effects on your woodland. The number of ash trees the city has to remove every year these days is astonishing and sad and leaves big holes in the city’s treescape.
LikeLike
Your racing sounds fun!! It definitely does mean a better workout than when you are riding on your own. What a great way to get a good ride in during the winter.
LikeLike
Rebecca, it is! And the best thing is the only crashes I have to worry about are of the computer kind!
LikeLike
Oh, maybe early seeds arriving is a sign that spring will be early, too! One can always hope, though a little scary to think you might be moving into a new planting zone! Aren’t you excited about the idea of racing outside again? Or will you race outside or just do long rides?
LikeLike
Danielle, heh, can’t count on an early spring, though it does happen about a week earlier here than it did 20 years ago when I first moved here. I am looking forward to cycling outside again. I have to get my bike in for a tune up! Not sure yet If I will race outdoors, I need to do some investigating on how that works. There will definitely be long rides though!
LikeLike
I wouldn’t be surprised to learn our zone has changed, too; I gave up early because of the squirrels but a friend of mine fed us fresh greens from his garden…on Christmas Day. They were delicious, but it was pretty weird.
And I went for a bicycle ride this morning. We’re going to start planting kale and other greens indoors in the next couple months while we figure out some way to protect our outdoor stuff from beasties while still enabling them to get sunlight.
LikeLike