Six on Saturday – 23/11/2019 – November neuroses

Chris Mousseau

November, like March, can go either way: crisp, clean, cool, snow gradually accumulating and staying, or temperatures up and down, killing off plants, snow coming and melting, creating mud and muck and general misery. This year it’s been leaning towards the latter. We had a nice dump of snow on the 11th, then it was quite cold, and now for the past week it’s been above freezing, melting the snow and leaving autumn debris strewn around. Oh well; as they say, First World Problems! Here are six things in my garden this week that demonstrate this November weather cycle. To see loads more, feel free to visit The Propagator‘s site.

#1 – Ornamental Grass. This clump has been slowly enlarging over the years. I didn’t think it was looking too great this year, for some reason, but maybe I was being overly critical because looking at these photos it’s not all that bad eh?

#2 – Winter is made more bearable because, with leaves fallen, I can spot unusual or architectural shapes amongst tree trunks and branches. One of my favourite trees to see in winter grows along the west fence line; when spotted from a particular angle, this is what you see:

#3 – Other things easier to spot in winter are mosses and lichens, like this fungi growing on a stump:

#4 – Also tree related in my garden is this white spruce – its top so heavily laden with cones this year. I wonder if that means something?

#5 – As the snow melted I spotted next year’s garlic crop, already sprouted, roots, hopefully, well established already.

#6 – Finally, this rhubarb, looking kinda pretty a few weeks ago as it began its slow descent to mushdom, now looks just sad. Very sad,,,

17 Comments

  3. I wonder if cones go through the same cycles as our acorns? I suspect they might. We’ll have a mast year, when the acorns are amazingly plentiful. Then, the next year or two they can be scarce. The scientists don’t seem to think there’s a one-to-one relationship between the weather and acorn production. For example, a mast year doesn’t predict a particularly severe winter — but they still aren’t certain which factors play the most important roles.

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    1. Yes, I was wondering the same thing. Although, meteorologists are predicting a colder than normal winter here….Perhaps the tree is simply indicating it’s not too happy with the soil or moisture levels where it’s growing….

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      1. If there are other white spruce in the neighborhood that are also producing more cones than they normally do, then it is likely a mast. If it is not native, and it is the only white spruce around, it would be impossible make such a determination. If there are other white spruce that are not producing a mast crop of cones, than it is more likely that yours is distressed. It does not appear to be distressed. The new growth is comparable to that of previous years.

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  4. Looks cold! We don’t get snow normally, but it has been far too wet! A month’s rain in two days apparently. I like your grasses and the fungi. And I am a big fan of the structure of winter trees 🙂

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  6. I’m w/others who give that grass 2 thumbs up. There’ve been comments in other SoS’s about how something is a bit meh until its season & perhaps that’s it w/your grass. Love both the naked tree & that vibrant fungus. Now I have to run out & check my garlic to see if it’s up!

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