2010-2011 has been an especially snowy winter for Summit County, Colorado. Up on Peak 7, at 10,000 feet elevation, where Klaus & I live and garden at Mountain View Experimental Gardens, the snow depth is between 3 and 4.5 feet! The calendar tells us spring arrived last month but our "Green Season" won't start until late May. What do we see in our garden now? How about Snowball Bush, Snowlover, Snow-in-Summer, Snow-on-the-Mountain and Snow "Drops" (not the plant -- actual snow flakes).
To get the garden going earlier than nature's schedule, we remove the snow from the interconnecting garden paths. We leave the snow on the beds to maximize moisture content. Since the gardens are composed of a dozen raised beds of native rock construction, as the sun warms the lowest exposed rocks, the snow melts and gradually recedes, revealing the tenacity of plant life buried since November under tons of snow (but, thankfully, no ice). The first to arise are the yellow sprouts of Puschkinia libanotica (Striped Squill). They freely self-sow in the gravel paths. Striped white buds begin to show after just 3 days of exposure. Cushion Drabas are emerging with yellow showing in their buds. Arabis caucasica (Rockcress) also has a white bud. And, yes, the Snowlovers (Chionophila jamesii), now purple in leaf, are resuming growth.
Winter is far from over, however. It snowed all day yesterday and is still snowing and blowing today. It took us a week to shovel out the garden paths and then the county snowplow filled in a long section with hardpacked snow from our road, stacking it to a height of over 10 feet! We spent another 8 hours reestablishing that path before we could progress to the rest of the garden. Below are photos taken a couple of days ago. As you can see from the first photo, Mountain View Experimental Gardens is "officially" open to visitors for the 2011 season!
