IT’S SOMEWHAT DIFFICULT to come to terms that Wednesday is a new year. Happy 2025 to everyone! A new year and a new season.
Just last week was the Winter Solstice — daylight length starts getting longer. For many here on the Peninsula, our dank, dark, dreary, damp days of winter get their spirits down.
Well, on comes the light. With the new year comes the lengthening of our daylight hours (woo hoo)!
For many of your plants, daylight length is one of the key factors in the equation that has them bloom or begin to break or enter dormancy.
We mentioned another factor last week, that being soil temperature and, of course, moisture is a key component as well.
Again, as I write this, the 10-day forecast that is pushing us out into early January calls for only one single night in the 30s for a low (39 degrees, to be exact). And numerous daytime highs in the low 50s. Unbelievable!
So as we prepare for the new year with our new resolutions, let us resolve to understand our new emerging weather patterns.
This current fall/winter, we’ve really had no “killer frost” for all of October, November and December.
Just this year, back in February, we had record-breaking sustained cold temperatures.
So let us resolve to release our gardening schedules of old and make promises to closely pay more attention to the weather and its forecast.
Let us also resolve not to prune your orchard until some nice, cold frost comes or until after Feb. 22 — by then you will need to, regardless.
As we approach the new year, we can look for new plants, trees, bushes and vines to plant.
Let us absolutely make a resolution to buy more spring flowering bulbs each and every year. Just keep buying different colors, varieties, species and heights.
There are a plethora of spring bulbs that bloom here on the Peninsula from early January through mid-June. And what about that autumn color everyone just so adores?
The turning leaves and their brilliance are greatly admired and appreciated by all.
Resolve to every year add a different type of fall foliage color to your yard and to seek out early color, as well as late fall color.
And of course, I have to make my yearly plea to everyone to plant dahlias around your yard and to put up a hanging basket or two (three to four is way better).
There are few flowering perennial plants that will give you more “flower power” along with the variety of size, shape, color and height than dahlias, maybe no other, so resolve to get dahlias or to get more of those superb cut flowers.
Of course, hanging baskets just give any house or business a Victorian charm, and our weather here is the most ideal for this type of container.
But above all else, and if but just one, make a resolution to enjoy your surroundings and this glorious Olympic Peninsula even more! Take a hike, picnic in your backyard, stroll on the beach, take in the fresh alpine air or just read a book while swinging in your hammock.
Resolve to appreciate our fabulous outdoors even more — and I know I will!
So to each and every one of you, happy New Year, may your yard be weed free, your vegetable garden have no aphids, and may all your thumbs and fingers be green. Stay well all!
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Andrew May is a freelance writer and ornamental horticulturist who dreams of having Clallam and Jefferson counties nationally recognized as “Flower Peninsula USA.” Send him questions c/o Peninsula Daily News, P.O. Box 1330, Port Angeles, WA 98362, or email news@peninsuladailynews.com (subject line: Andrew May).
