Howdy!

[Alaskan]

Nice to be here.

I have been on BYC and BYH but never got around to getting on here.

There were a HUGE list of questions suggested...

But... I am thinking maybe I should start a journal page to run through that huge list.

So briefly, Howdy from Alaska..

Spring here... so oodles of snow still coming down and in the near future.

What can I say.. warmer weather (20s and low 30s) equals gobs of snow.

 

[wyoDreamer]

Welcome from Wisconsin, and I get ya on the weather. We are having a warmish spring, but we got snow last night. It will be in the 50's this weekend again, but only 34* here today.

 

[Alaskan]

We don't get weather swings here...

Pretty stable actually.

A 10 degree shift for us is seen as big.

Right now we are in low 20s.

 

[Hinotori]

Welcome!

 

[Lazy Gardener]

We don't get weather swings here...

Pretty stable actually.

A 10 degree shift for us is seen as big.

Right now we are in low 20s.

You have me totally perplexed. Day/night temp shifts... seasonal temp shifts? You are in Alaska, yes? I do believe you benefit from warmer climate being brought up by the ocean currents. What is your lattitude? I'm 44.6 here. Winter lows here can go to minus 20*F, but the last 2 winters, we've only seen -10 for lows. Current day highs have been anywhere from 15* to 48*. Night time lows are single digits to mid 20's. Frost usually out of the ground around April 15 - 21.

 

[Alaskan]

Our swing from low to high today (in town) was 13 to 29. Hummmm

So I guess I should have said a 20 degree change is seen as big.

Ok... that makes more sense...

But anyway... very stable temps, I am right close to the ocean... 15 minute drive away, but up at 1,300 feet elevation.

Latitude 59!

But we tend to just sit in a temp range... so at 13 min to 29 max for a week... and then maybe higher or lower... but then stick there for a week.

None of that crazy Texas nonsense where you are broiling... then you see this wall of dark come running towards you... then pouring rain... then sleet.

The lowest it has gotten since I have lived up here (just over 20 years) was -20 for lows... but again... it just sat there for a couple of weeks... then a bit warmer for a few weeks... you get the drill.

And being on the coast warmth is a thing we don't get.

We see days that hit 60 as high summer. Some years we get 4 days of summer, some years 2 weeks, and one year we had about 6 weeks!

Anyway... makes the snow melt sloooooowly.

 

[Alaskan]

Oh... planting here is May... and nothing that likes heat can go into the ground without a greenhouse.

Peas and lettuce though, are very happy.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

I shoveled the snow off 2 of my raised beds last week, then spread plastic over one of them. Hopefully, that will get the soil thawed enough for me to plant some cold weather crops under a tunnel in a couple weeks. Getting antsy to get some soil under my fingernails. My neighbors won't get any seeds in the ground until Memorial day. That: because they can't think outside the box when it comes to planting a garden. "Must till the soil before planting. But... can't till the soil until the ground dries out. And won't plant ANYTHING until reasonably sure there won't be any late frosts."

 

[Alaskan]

If I want to be hardcore....

I sprinkle ash over the garden, once it is a good guess that no more huge snows are coming.

Once the snow is gone, clear plastic until all weed seeds sprout... hoe weeds, plant garden seeds, replace plastic until seeds are close to touching the plastic... then replace plastic with grow cloth.

Can't imagine shoveling the snow off... unless it was less than a foot deep.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

We've been blessed with a mild winter, so less than 12"!!!