If April showers bring May flowers, what do April snow-showers bring? Well, we’ll get flowers anyway, but spring does seem to be taking her time this year. As a skier, I really can’t complain, but as a gardener I am eager for this all to melt off.
My yard this morning
As a child, I heard these spring snowstorms referred to as ‘poor-man’s fertilizer’. Apparently, the dust particles around which the crystals form are full of nutrients. When the snow falls on unfrozen ground- like now- the moisture inherent in the snow soaks the soil and allows the nutrients to be carried down where they’ll do the most good. I always thought it was the contrast between white snow and growing plants that made the plants seem an even brighter green, but it seems science and Mother Nature have a hand in as well.
Unfazed by snow
The light wasn’t that great for taking photos this morning, but you can see an Artemesia tridentata in the middle with a Festuca idahoensis behind and Eriophyllum lanatum to the left. None seem any the worse for this morning’s dusting.
