April Showers and Showers and Snow

Wet weather equals mud equals dog
booties. We all hate booties!

To say that April was wet is almost an understatement. Before the month ended, we'd had 175% of our normal rainfall and three times our normal snowfall. Two days saw new record rainfall amounts set for those dates.

Until the very end, the month was grey, grim and cold---much too cold: Two-thirds of the month's days had below normal high temperatures; fifteen of those ranged from 6-21⁰ below normal. Likewise for the nights: Nineteen were below normal; eleven were 5-16⁰ below. Overall, and despite the fact that we had three days with temperatures 11-19⁰ above normal, the month's average was 57⁰ which was 6⁰ below the historic average. The month's night-time average was 36.2⁰, which was 4.8⁰ below the historic average.

I have to admit that I was wishing for some global warming. (I fear I got my wish, given what May has been like, but I'll be covering the so-far freakishly hot weather in May's summary--or summer-y.)

For this gardener, the worst thing about the rain, mud, and bone-chilling cold was that tasks normally begun in mid-March and continued through April couldn't be done. By the time the month ended, I was a good 6-weeks behind schedule. Not being able to get jobs done was bad enough in itself, but not being able to be outside and marvel at the small miracles of Spring left me feeling as grey and grim as the weather.

Crabapple buds and first blossoms

We managed to get onions and peas planted, but we had to bundle up before we could do a thing. I We had lots of wind during the month; not only were they cold, northwesterly winds, many days they were ferocious. The woods behind us suffered a terrible loss of trees over the entire winter, but it was on a warm (actually it was our warmest day in 6 months) but incredibly windy day in April when I heard no fewer than eight trees fall within an hour.

Newly hatched mason bee
and its new home

I took refuge and heart in and from gardening magazines and wildlife websites. I'm embarrassed to admit that it wasn't until April I realized that 2018 is the Year of the Bird. If you want to help build a better world for birds, take the pledge to do one action per month that is bird-beneficial at this  link https://www.nationalgeographic.org/projects/year-of-the-bird/. Click on "Count me in". If you only want the monthly project information, be sure to unclick the four sites listed below the sign-up.

Peony and Siberian iris buds survived the bitter cold nights

If you enjoy birds and gardening, here are tips for how to create a garden that serves as, or at least naturally and beautifully supplements, your birdfeeder https://www.fix.com/blog/grow-your-own-birdseed/

I discovered that Gardeners Supply has a great informational section called "Learn and Share", covering a variety of topics such as how to create a Backyard Habitat https://www.gardeners.com/how-to?folder=backyard-habitat-articles. I also discovered the online version of the Old Farmer's Almanac has great vegetable-growing advice that we hope will help improve our veggie garden yield https://www.almanac.com/gardening.

Despite the weather, all our flowering trees and our heirloom peonies survived a succession of bitterly cold nights at the very end of the month. The mason bees we over-wintered emerged from their cocoons and were joined at our bee "hotel" by an additional 40 mason bees ordered from Crown Bees.The most exciting April happening, however, was when eight wild turkeys wandered through the backyard one afternoon before disappearing into the woods. Sadly, I couldn't grab a decent camera fast enough, and my phone photos are disappointing. Fingers crossed they'll visit the yard again.

Leo Routed the Lamb

Welcome Spring!

March is supposed to come in like a lion and go out like a lamb. Didn't happen. I'm very behind in blogging, so as I write, it's mid-April and that lamb is still missing. Winter persists; over the past month and a half only thirteen days have had highs that were normal or above normal. The garden chores are way behind schedule. I spend a lot of time studying the Weather Channel and plotting when it might possibly be dry and/or temperate enough to get outside and get something--anything-- done! We managed to get 60 onion bulbs planted this month, but finding a window of opportune weather conditions for even that relatively small job wasn't easy.  Baker's Acres, my favorite nursery, opened for the season on March 24, and I bought a flat of pansies in honor of Spring's official arrival. You can see from the photo why I didn't rush home to plant them. It's very hard to garden when bundled up like Nanook of the North.

Of the many weather anomalies and historic events occurring in March 2018, the persistence of winter in Central Ohio is small potatoes. The East Coast experienced four nor'easters between March 1 and March 20, resulting in new March snowfall records being set in many places. As March began, the Arctic had just seen one of its warmest months on record, with February temperatures running36-54⁰ above average. Alaska had one of its warmest Marches on record, with temperatures running 6.9⁰ above average; Barrow, Alaska experienced the warmest March on record. Heavy rainfall fell in parts of the Hawaiian Islands; Lihue had 9.03" of rain in March which was 196% of its normal rainfall for the month. Rare March tornadoes in the Southeast caused more than $1 billion in damages and killed three people.*

Compared to the above events, Bean Hill's March was benign.

• Twenty-three of thirty-one days and nights had below normal temperatures
• Eighteen of those days had highs that were 5-19⁰ below normal and 12 of those nights had lows of 5-10⁰ below average.
• The month's historic average high is 51⁰ and this year our average high was 45.8⁰; the historic average low is 33⁰ compared to this year's 28⁰. While February's temperatures averaged 5⁰ above normal, March's averaged 5⁰ below.
• Rainfall was exactly what it should have been--3.21".
• Snowfall was below normal: 4.4" is average and we had 2.9".
• No new records highs or lows were set.

By the way, those pansies finally did get planted, and seem to be thriving (as are the daffodils) despite the less than agreeable weather. They are literally bright spots in a rather dismal start to Spring.

*These statistics come from NOAA's National Climate Report for March 2018. NOAA's site is fascinating, especially if you're a weather/climate junkie NOAA National Climate Report

Yep, It Was "Solmonath"

February is a unique month. Not only is it shorter than any other, it's the only month that can have a day added to it. February is the only month that can pass without a full moon, as happened this year. (The next time that happens will be 2037.) And February is the only month in which we rely on a rodent to predict a weather change.

Red-wing blackbird*

At Bean Hill, the first part of February was cold and snowy, and the second part was wet with rain---too much of it. It was definitely, to use the Old English word for the second month, "Solmonath" which translates to "mud month". The average February rainfall for this area is 2.2 inches. We had a whopping 5.68 inches. Even without factoring in the melt of 4.9 inches of snow, February 2018 was the wettest February on record.

The month was, after a chilly start, warmer than normal. Ten days had highs that were 10 or more degrees above normal. February 20 set a new record for the date when it hit 78⁰---thirty-six degrees above normal! The historic average high for February is 41⁰, but this February the month's average high was five and a half degrees above that.

Crocuses and emerging stonecrop

The majority of the nights (21) had a low temperature reading that was above normal. The historic average low for February is 24⁰ but this year's average was 4.3⁰ above that. One night's low temperature was fifteen degrees higher than the normal high for the same date. Eleven nights' low temperatures were 10 or more degrees higher than normal; two nights had lows that were 32⁰ above normal. A consecutive run of higher than expected night-time temperatures is more problematic than are higher than expected day-time temperatures. Cold weather is necessary for many plants to flourish in the spring. Cold nights inhibit plants from growing too much too soon, especially if warm days have encouraged growth to begin. Maple syrup production was down in 2017 because the too warm days and nights inhibited the flow of sap, which requires that cool (40's) day-time temperatures alternate with night-time freezing (20's) over a period of several weeks.

Lone crocus

Despite the month's muddiness and gloomy days--it snowed or rained for at least part of twenty-one days--February had its perks. The Red-wing blackbirds returned on February 19. The first migratory birds to return each year, they are really Spring's harbingers, and their whistles and constant chatter always make me smile, even when it's muddy.

A day later, the Killdeer arrived, and then left. This happens yearly; they're checking out nesting areas, and our 900 feet of gravel drive is very attractive. They'll be back.

A bluebird pair appeared the last day of the month.

And green shoots and colorful little crocuses are popping up in all the gardens. Spring is on its way.

Killdeer nesting in gravel**

I'd love to tell you I took the bird photos, but I didn't. Here's who did:

*By ADJ82 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=65840016 

**By Audrey - originally posted to Flickr as Female Killdeer On Her Nest, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?