I can't tell you how i HATE to read this.
mo

Hi Mo!

I know. I hated to write it, but I wanted everyone to know the snakes are out here, because if they are out here where it was 23-27 degrees last night, they could be out just about anywhere.

Dawn

This is just another indicator that this year is going to be odd...and warm early...and Heaven only knows what else it will throw at us. I personally appreciate the "heads up". Several of us garden in rural areas so we need to be aware....sure makes me wish I had already cleaned up all the leaf debris.

Paula

Paula, I was really shocked that snakes are out already, but even more so that the one Chris saw was out early in the morning after a night that was so cold. I hadn't been worrying too much about snakes, so I've been sticking my hands into places blindly....like to pull winter grass growing under a shrub or whatever. I'll be more careful now.

I have a lot of stacked-up hay bales to use for mulch. I was hoping to get most of that hay layered onto the garden beds and the pathways before the snakes were up and moving around too much. It is too early to put heavy mulch on the beds because the mulch would keep them from warming up. Right now I want them to warm up so they are not mulched unless they're already planted with cool-season crops.

I am so bummed out by this. We are usually fairly snake-free until April. I feel cheated! We just lost 2 months of being snake-free.

I was raking up decomposed mulch today from the pathways and adding it, as compost, to garden beds. Usually I scoop it up with my gloves hands and drop it into the bed right beside the pathway. Since the compost is thick enough that a snake could be in it, I switched from using my hands to using a compost scoop, which seems slower to me.

Even all these signs of an early warm-up don't mean we are done with winter. We often have snow in March and seem to always have cranky cold or rainy weather around Easter. Easter cannot get here fast enough for me.

Rural gardening with plentiful wildlife around is challenging enough as it is. We don't need snakes out in mid-winter to make it even more of a challenge.

Dawn