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Spring is here and my garden is a month ahead of itself

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Winter is over and Spring is definitely here in Toronto. Actually it seems like we lucked out and never really had a winter this year.

Yes, I can hardly believe I’m saying that, but did you know that we didn’t have ANY snow at all here in Toronto in March? None, zip, zero! Toronto has apparently been keeping weather records since 1845 and this is the first year in that time that there’s never been snow in March. Geesh, it might the first year in history that there’s never been snow in March in this area.

Not only that, my home town of Ottawa which is known as both one of the coldest capitals in the world as well as one of the snowiest didn’t have snow in March either.

I’ve had small leave buds coming out on my roses since February and the shrubs in my neighborhood have had leaf buds for two or more weeks. In fact the trees are starting to fill out a bit as well .. There’s no leaves yet but I know there will be soon. Perhaps after this weekend! It’s supposed to hit 25 C (77 F) tomorrow and get even hotter on Saturday. It’s like almost summer temps!

I bet that my husband seriously considers pulling out the patio furniture this weekend.

It’s like we had an extended Autumn, an Early Spring and if the warm weather that we’re supposed to get starting tomorrow sticks around I guess we’re skipping to summer.

Very strange weather but I’m not complaining. I’d love it if it were like this all the time.

Of course last summer we didn’t really have a summer – it was cold and wet – like a long spring and I’ve found over the years that whenever we have a terrible summer like that (seems to come about ever 10 years or so) we almost always have a mild winter followed by a hot hot summer. So we’ll see how summer turns out.

My plants are loving this weather. My first crocus’ were up on the 14th of March and now there’s tons of blooming Crocuses all over my backyard. The clumps of flowers are bigger than I’ve ever seen them.

The grass is already turning green and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we have to pull out the lawn mower before the month is over. I can’t remember ever cutting the grass in April so this might be a first too.

There are also all kinds of plants sprouting up in my garden – something that usually doesn’t happen until mid- April to early May. I’m not sure if the plants coming up are Hyacinth, daffodil or tulips leaves … probably a combo of all. The leaves sprouting up are about 4 or 5 inches tall already.

I’m sure that I’ll be getting out in the garden this weekend to tidy it up, clear out old leaves and just admire all the plants that are coming up.

I’m so excited to see my garden coming to life so much earlier than it ever has before.

Is your garden ahead of itself this year too? Do you have plants coming up or perhaps some early spring flowers blooming? Tell me about it.






It was a green Christmas!

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Well, for the first time in a few years we had a green Christmas here in Toronto.

I think in the time I’ve lived in Toronto (about 25 years now) we’ve had more green Christmas’ than white ones, but for the last few years we’ve had lots of snow at Christmas.

It actually rained quite a bit on Christmas day and the following day. Kind of nice to have the mild weather – at least we didn’t get the freezing rain and ice storms that so many people in the US seemed to have during the holiday!

Did you have a green, icy or white Christmas in your area?

Normally in the winter time I hope for a good snow cover for my garden as the harsh winter winds and low temperatures are hard on the plants if they don’t have some snow cover to insulate them … but as of right now it’s fairly mild out and the garden and lawn got lots of moisture with all that rain!

Hopefully when it starts to get really cold here again we’ll get some snow. Yeah … I think I’m wishing for some snow – odd I know!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of my regular readers and new visitors. I hope that you had a great time visiting with family and friends!

All season tires or Snow tires

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Usually at this time of year here in Toronto we’d be seeing huge snow storms at least once a week. We’ve been quite fortunate so far though and haven’t had any snow. That’s unbelievable. I’m sure our luck won’t hold and that it will suddenly turn very cold and we’ll have a major storm, but until that time I’m quite happy to enjoy the weather.

When it does snow though I’ll have to drive in it and I don’t like driving around without a good set of tires on my car in the winter. This article about winter snow tires that I read on Caroom.us brings up some important information as to why having a set of real winter tires is important.

Many people buy All Season Tires year in and year out, and while this is ok in some places, it’s not suitable in others. I’ve seen far too many cars wipe out near and in front of my house that have all season tires on – old and usually balding to not believe that everyone living in cold weather areas that get a fair amount of snow should use winter tires. Read Caroom.us article to get even more information as to why winter tires are important and economical. Actually, the site appears to have a number of good auto related articles that are easy to read and not just for the automotive buff.

I think one of the reasons why people in Toronto use all season tires most of the time is because our winters have become quite mild in the last 10 years or so. We do get snow most years but it melts for the most part within a day or two. So people try to “get by” on all season tires. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if some “got by” using summer tires year round. Not safe, but when you can’t count on snow and frequent snow storms I guess you do that.

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