I know what you mean!!! One of my clematis vines is leafing out and my poppies are up quite high. My bulbs and my day lillies are all starting to sprout!!!!
The fellow who writes the garden column in our local paper said not to worry. The plants can cope better than we think. What I worry about is all the insects that normally are killed off with the cold weather. A mild winter means more insect infestations. Last year was bad enough. Oh well, not much we can do about it. They are calling for colder weather this week.
Wendy

My alliums are up. I had been putting off checking them since there isn't really anything I can do about them, but I finally 'needed to know'.

And my soil is still not frozen. I've never seen this before. Never ever. Some of my plants still have lots of green growth on them (won't hurt them, they're the tough ones) - the iris and daylily leaves are really up far!

The squirrels are massive - they look like bowling balls! At least it makes them easier to hit when I throw ice cubes at them :-)

BP

LOL... here too. I'm in Woodstock, half way between London and Toronto and it's been BALMY here hovering around 10C a good deal of the time. For the southerners in the USA, 10C *IS* balmy for us. Normally by this time of year those of us in southern Ontario and more northerly regions are knee to hip deep in snow, heating our homes and dealing with temps ranging from 0C to -30C and even lower. The golf greens are loving the action but some are flooded with water due to all the rain instead of snow and the kids are liking that they can still bike ride and skateboard.

My gardens are acting the same. I mulch all my gardens with the maple leaves from our woods and when I pulled some back last week the perennial flowers were sprouting anywhere from 1-3" in height as though it were March or April! Our local news says to just keep them mulched over in preparation for when we do get that first deep freeze and they will be fine. Some articles also mention wrapping tree trunks, esp if the tree is a fruiting variety. The sun and warmth will get the sap moving in the wrong direction for this time of year and wrapping the trunk will keep it cold and dissuade the flow of sap and help prevent winterkill by keeping the majority of the tree "cold".

Our squirrels are quite LARGE too. Not only are they enjoying extra ground-hunting without the trouble of snow but they are forraging regularly at the neighbor's feeders. We have squirrel baffels so they can't get at our feeders but quite regularly they will sit under the suet feeders and gobble up the suet that the woodpeckers drop when feeding on it. Imagine...blechhh...sitting and eating suet as a mammal! The poor things are going to have little squirrel heart attacks :o( Despite the lack of cold, we have an abundance of birdlife to keep us entertained on a daily basis and we're happy to see a male and 2 female downy woodpeckers that are regulars at our suet cages. Hopefully we will have one or two nests this year if we are lucky. :o)

Barb
southern Ontario, CANADA

It's called climate change. With our mild temperatures, we will start observing that more plants from tropical areas can grow here. (But one does have to keep in mind that it would only take 1 day of deep chill to kill off that palm tree)

My predictions for the summer? Since we had less snow, expect to have less water for plants and so we'd probably have water conservation warnings.

Ianna

I heard California got snow today. We've been under an inch of ice for a week now. It looks nice but it's cold!!!

I've just read of news that several 'zonal denial' gardens had been hit hard by the frost and snow that hit the west coast, all the way down to sunny California.

Here on the east coast (Halifax area), we have been doing the roller coaster thing again. On Wednesday we had a cold snap sending us in the -20C range, and this evening we are getting dumped on with 55mm of rain and 90km/hr winds with a temperature of +7C. Tomorrow we will wake-up to -4C and the high for Sunday is set to be around -8C.

Who knows what next week will bring!!

I do know the Japanese Quince was flowering in late December... I've tried not to look at anything since then.

AHHHH so now a month later and we are in a deep freeze! I am hoping this will kill off some of the bugs.

I have a quick question about BUGS; is there anything I can do/use to help kill off some of the "early" bugs that seem to eat the young leaves just as they begin to sprout from the garden soil. Last year my hollyhocks were eaten alive and never had one full leaf.

To reduce incidence of pests of these sorts, remove any mulches in the area where these bugs reside. I also use clear plastic pop bottles to use as bell jars to protect the new plants as they come out.

Can you identify what kind of bug? Slugs maybe?

Ianna