Sno’ foolin: Why bad winters are good for the garden

It’s the beginning of March, and we’re looking at a stretch with daytime temperatures forecast to reach a spring-like 60 degrees. Lovely, right? And, certainly, a cause to celebrate? I know so many people who are cheered by this. Yet, there are also those of us who love the deep cold of winter; better yet, when the slanted sunlight reflects off a covering of snow, making everything sparkle. Personally, I have missed winter this year.

Despite its challenges, winter is not just something that we have to get through or suffer with; there are serious reasons why we should welcome a long, deep, cold winter with plenty of snow on the ground. I browsed around the internet to gather a list of some of the benefits. If you’re a gardener, you may already be familiar with some of them.

According to Greg Mercer, in a January 2014 article in The Record (Ontario, Canada), a deep, cold, snowy winter:

- can help contain pests and diseases. For instance, mosquito populations, hiding outside as larvae until spring, are cut back by severe cold. Some scientists believe that invasive species, like the elm bark beetle that carries Dutch elm disease, the gypsy moth, and the emerald ash borer are also restrained. And deep cold is the enemy of Lyme disease-carrying ticks.

- helps recharge fields, wetlands, lakes and streams – as long as all that snow slowly melts away into the ground in the spring, rather than a rapid thaw that prevents all that moisture from soaking into the soil.

- provides excellent insulation, which can help give plant life a jump-start in the spring.

Jeremy Deaton, in a March 2017 article on Nexus Media, points out that, “In nature, timing is everything.” To us, it may seem as if everything happens simultaneously, but different species respond to different cues. Some plants bloom in response to warmer temperatures, others respond to day-length. Says Deaton, “In a normal year, these cues more or less line up as anticipated, leading the birds and the bees to discharge their vernal duties at roughly the appropriate time. But climate change is blurring the line between winter and spring – a phenomenon scientists call “season creep” – and many species of both flora and fauna are struggling to adapt.”

Deaton points out that even when plants and pollinators are in sync, season creep can thwart the growth of vegetation. Seeds that germinate too early, fooled by a balmy stretch in February, will likely be killed off in a cold snap come March. This can happen with trees, too. How many times in the Delaware Valley have we seen magnolia trees flower early, only to have the blossoms be killed off by subsequent belowfreezing temperatures?

This phenomenon, dubbed a “false spring,” can be extremely costly to farmers and, by extension, consumers. Deaton references an especially warm spell in Michigan during the 2012 winter. The warm spell, followed by freezing temperatures, ravaged fruit trees in the state, costing growers half a billion dollars. Says Deaton, “The problem is likely to get worse in the years to come. A 2015 study found that climate change will produce more false springs in the Midwest and elsewhere, imperiling fruit crops.”

And it’s not just flowers and fruit that are in jeopardy. Sugar maples only produce a spring sap run if winters are cold enough.

Few things polarize people the way the weather does. Whatever the weather, chances are there’s someone who’s not happy with it. But of all the creatures on the planet, we humans should probably complain the least– most of us can either turn up the heat or the air conditioning to stay comfortable. For the rest of Earth’s multitude of species, their lives depend on seasons arriving and departing when they’re supposed to. Ultimately, our human lives depend on that, too.