Soil on Up: Buds and Blooms: What will the mild winter mean?

With the equinox officially a matter of days away, it seems appropriate to share an update of the progress of the season. Starting about a week ago I spotted the first robins in the backyard. The sight of robins seems to be a pretty reliable sign of spring (unless they are traveling in a flock in the middle of winter, which they sometimes do). Here are some photos of what is budding and blooming around my yard at least.

Quince blossoms ready to pop

This winter was disturbingly warm. On December 31st of 2015 I took the photo below of blossoms on the quince bush- thanks to the extended period of unseasonably warm weather that lasted for weeks and weeks.

A white Christmas? Not here! Many will remember that this was the year that you got to wear flip flops and shorts on Christmas Eve/Christmas instead of the usual winter gear.

A disturbing quince bloom in December.

The poor quince bush was so confused about what to do, based on the strange signals from nature, that it started blooming MONTHS ahead of time. This was my ultimate photographic evidence at how completely messed up this winter had been. I may have been a little cantankerous on the subject of the warm weather... as a gardener you become a little more aware of how slight changes can have drastic effects on your backyard ecology. It may have been pleasant for humans in numerous ways... who doesn't like being able to abandon our heavy layers of clothing or drive to work on clean dry roads or have lower energy bills?

We can be quick to forget sometimes that we are part of a living ecosystem... many of the plants and animals that we share the land with evolved in tandem with freezing cold winters. There may have been one day... ONE DAY... where we had subzero temperatures this winter. Here and there, there was a phenomena of obese squirrels! Until winter temperatures hit, the squirrels will eat as much as they can to store up energy to survive the season. The sustained mild temperatures lead many squirrels to believe it was still autumn... an autumn that for some reason just kept going and going and going.

It remains to be seen what this mild winter will mean for the natural world this year. Will there be over abundances of certain insects? What about invasive and damaging species of insects like the emerald ash borer, whose populations have been kept in check by the cold spells of the last couple winters? (Supposedly, being a non-native species, many cannot survive temperatures that dip below a certain point for a certain sustained amount of time). Will there be low production from fruit trees? One friend who runs a local CSA, is worried about their peach trees. Another friend is worried about their families vineyard. There may be imbalances of all sorts.