Are you happy Winter comes and Yard work stops?

[bloodless]

Yippie Ky Yay!! I'm so happy we're moving into dormant grass time. My landscape degrades every year as my ability to work on it diminishes. I've lost some plants this year in the drought (TX). I can't afford to replace them. I'm just glad yard work is almost over for the season. I need to move to a condo.....

[Skylar]

In a word, no - I am not looking forward Raynaud's acting up in my feet and hands. But I do love fall, just not winter cold.

[genko_b]

Our grass is dormant in the dry summer and comes alive again in the fall when the rains start, and really speeds up in the early spring. I've just planted the last seeds for our fall/winter vegetable garden and am moving shrubs and perennials around now that it is cooler and more rainy. I'll be out there all winter tending the vegetables and sprucing things up, as something is growing all year around.

I'm not sure what "yard work stops" looks like! Good thing I enjoy it. I'm grateful it does not get so cold here as the Raynaud's bothers me as well.

Genko

[Joe S.]

NO. I have 9 months of snow to shovel. The cold brings pain.

[newhorizons]

Now find myself at the age that the thrill of raking leaves      and then shredding them to return quicker to Mother Earth as compose for next years beautiful flowers    ... has been stolen from me...

Today my sadness is that I have dug up the 100 different variety of special daffodils that I planted 10 years ago.  I now have at least 400 precious little bulbs and nowhere to replant them as hubby grassed the areas where the bulbs were.  Easier, he says, to mow grass without the bulbs and rocks to mow around all next Summer!

Thus, I have become a shade tree gardener along with watching the gorgeous butterflies fly South for the Winter!

Consider me an old Master Gardener too old to get down on her decrepit knees and plant her best loved flower...my beautiful daffodils that bloom in early Spring!

Yes, its new horizons for me... and, this phase hurts not only body,  but mind and soul.

[Bucky]

I've just planted the last seeds for our fall/winter vegetable garden and am moving shrubs and perennials around now that it is cooler and more rainy. I'll be out there all winter tending the vegetables and sprucing things up, as something is growing all year around.

Genko - I'm sure it IS a year-round labor of love for you and your gardens.  I can not imagine you just sitting back and not going out to your garden.

Today my sadness is that I have dug up the 100 different variety of special daffodils that I planted 10 years ago.  I now have at least 400 precious little bulbs and nowhere to replant them as hubby grassed the areas where the bulbs were.  Easier, he says, to mow grass without the bulbs and rocks to mow around all next Summer!

Newjoy - so sorry you had to dig up your beloved daffodils.  Wow . . 400 bulbs . . . that's a lot!  Can't you make a rock garden or something like that where you can put all your bulbs in one spot and hubby doesn't have to get near them with the mower?

I didn't know there could be 100 different varieties!  I'm sure they were very pretty when they were all in bloom.

                                                    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One thing about summer that I'm not going to miss is bugs.  You go outside and something is always flying around and landing or buzzing by you.   

Today, it's cool here - in the low 50's (we were just in the 80's last week!  ).  This afternoon, as I walked down our long driveway to get the mail, it hurt to breathe in - the cold weather makes my lungs hurt when I'm outside.  We'll mow our grass one more time this year, and then we'll be done.  But, I'll still have to venture down to the mailbox all winter. 

Any way we can fast forward through winter?!?   

Bucky

[Carebear]

I'm with Joe.  We easily have six months of winter here.  If it isn't snowing, it's -40 degrees C...and dark by 4:00 PM.   

[Narablueeyes]

I'm with Joe.  We easily have six months of winter here.  If it isn't snowing, it's -40 degrees C...and dark by 4:00 PM.   

That sounds like the northwest I used to know.  Don't miss it at all.

[eyeamdry]

Joe, that does sound like here - Michigan. We are lucky if we get 3 months of summer. I should add that we usually have a bit of "Indian Summer" in the fall and that is the best of our weather.  Lucy

[Joe S.]

I agree about Indian Summer. Instead of being in the 70's as usual we had 80's.

[bloodless]

Wow! Sorry about the shoveling Joe! That's one good thing about TX. As we say, "It gets really hot in summmer, but you don't have to shovel the heat!"

Newjoy, I just cringe at the loss of your daffodils. I hope you find a place for them.

[meow]

Here in El Paso it's sunny and close to 80, dipping down to about 50 at night. The Bermuda grass goes dormant as soon as the highs are below 60, but it's starting to fade.  The leaves will fall off Thanksgiving week, all in one or 2 days, which is weird.

The lowest lows are between Xmas and New years--highs in the 40s, lows around freezing.  A snowstorm or 2 every year, less than 6 inches each time, melted by noon the next day. In the summer it gets around 100 for weeks, but with single-digit humidity it is tolerable, and as soon as the sun goes down the temp drops 20 degrees.

We have incredible weather. Over 300 days of sunshine a year. The only bad time is March and April, when the jet stream is shifting from spring to summer, and we have 25 mph winds every day, with the occasional REAL windstorm of 40-50, with gusts around 70.

However, I will take dust and wind over relentless cold, snow and ice any day. I grew up in Valley Forge, so I know of what I speak...

[arina83]

Nope. Winter "yard work" is heavier! Get a lot of snow here (had almost 4ft on the ground at one time last winter). Other people usually take care of the snow, but that means I get stuck caring for the animals (carrying feed buckets, giving out hay, picking up manure). And "winter" can last Sept-May here. Hasn't been too bad this year. Last year we had our first little bit of snow in Sept., and we got hammered Jan-March.

[Carolina]

My husband does all the yard work.

He loves it.

He's been clearing out the underbrush and small trees in the woods behind our house.

And the poison ivy.

And chopping stacks of wood to season.

Here in NC we don't get snow (we left our snow blower in Massachusetts when we left and never looked back).

I've never done the outside work, cause it is his baby.   And now I couldn't do it if I wanted to.

Especially not summer stuff.

Hugs

Elaine

[Sooki]

I AM looking forward to no grass to mow.  We have way too much grass.  It seems like such a waste of time and energy.  But if I don't mow, the blackberries take over.  Winter is the time I can get caught up pruning the blackberries and the bushes. 

But I dread the darkness here in the PNW.  The days are short and the sun is low in the sky.  But the cloud cover makes it especially dark.  There are days on end in which you can't really tell when the sun has come up - the increased daylight is very subtle. 

The dog has wet feet continually.  This year I got rubber kneehigh boots to wear so my pant legs aren't wet all the time.  I try not to think that it will be 4 months before we have as much daylight as we have now. 

I have big plans to paint most of the inside of the house this winter if my energy holds up.  I have this dream of selling the house next summer and moving south and downsizing.  And I'm hoping for a few road trips south to remind myself that the sun really does shine; it's just clouds between us. 

So, mixed feelings about winter!