Forsythia

We’re up to 18 growing degree days (yeah, I promised in the last post to explain that, I will try to get to that tonight), and there is some Forsythia in bloom. It’s in the service building parking lot, next to Centeno. And entire hedge of it, and it’s been in bud for a week now. There is no other forsythia in town that I’ve seen, I think the warmth from the parking lot has sped this one along some.

It was a warm winter, so we probably won’t see any low blooming forsythia this year. Continue reading

What’s in Bloom

It’s April 2, and we’re at about 15 growing degree days on campus. (More on that later) We already have some plants in bloom: here’s a short list

In the Garden of the Seasons by the New Library is some Spring Witchhazel, Hamamelis vernalis. It’s the very first plant to bloom I can think of, but it is pretty subtle. Down south they may bloom as early as January or February, but up here they are right on schedule. I like it’s fall color, a nice vibrant yellow.

There are also some snowdrops in bloom behind Longwell, that’s on Hillcrest Road by the commuter parking. They look to be escapees from an old garden back there.

And finally, Red Maple is in full bloom on campus. Otherwise known as swamp Maple, or loggers refer to it as soft maple. It’s not in bloom in Weybridge yet, but Middlebury is a little warmer than other locales.

 

Sap

Been climbing trees lately, so not a lot of time to post. We prune trees here in the winter, not because it’s the best time to prune, but that it works well in our workflow.

There is no real bad time to prune trees, with a couple of exceptions. Continue reading

Forecasting a Nor’easter

I’ve heard somewhere that weather forecasting in the Northeast is one of the most difficult areas in the world. That may be, I don’t know, but we have many influences on our local weather-a meandering jet stream, the Atlantic, the Great Lakes, our Green Mountains, even the Arctic itself. On the weekend of February 21-22, the National Weather Service in Burlington was forecasting a potential Nor’easter to hit New England the end of the next weekend, on March 1. I followed the forecasting of this storm closely all week, to see how the forecast and storm would develop through the week. Continue reading

Bur Oak

It’s hard not playing favorites with the trees on campus; wouldn’t want to hurt their feelings, after all. But if we rank trees by the number of inquires, one of the most popular trees is the large (ok, very very large) Bur Oak by the Mahaney Center for the Arts, on the north side. Continue reading

Weather Station

There is now a weather station for Middlebury College, thanks to the Environmental Council. We are using it down here in the landscape department for Insect Pest Management, as well as for snow removal. We currently stream the data to the Weather Underground here-there is also a couple of desktop widgits on that page to add to a desktop or webpage if so desired.

More on it later, as well as hopefully it’s own website somewhere.

Weather Underground PWS KVTMIDDL2