...wow I wish my growing season extended from early april to early October...April was snowiest on record over 48"while september was unusually warm and dry till last week then 5'snow and so far in October 8"...snowing as I type... my shrub roses took exception to early season cold and were much weaker than usual...adequate moisture pretty well timed was real plus....tons of potatoes...not so many tomatoes...thanks for the graphics interesting

Mtny, I'm sure the Weather Service just threw up their collective hands and said, "we aren't agriculturalists!"

In their year-to-date growing degree days chart, they start with March 1st. Aaaand, they've got Mt. Washington, New Hampshire!!

Anyone trying to grow a field of corn on top of Mt. Washington?!

Good to know that you had "tons of potatoes" there in SW MT, despite and because of it all.

Steve

Here is a link that might be useful: year-to-date, GDD

Well that charts shows my area roughly -2 on normal temperatures, but with all the clouds and tornadoes and hail storms, the garden had a much harder time than that would suggest. My tomatoes were challenged for sure, but the peppers were extremely sad this year.

What kind of season was it? Well, to use a highly technical term, it was really sucky! There was no spring, just an on and off winter that killed my Nepal tomato (the full size I was trying out this year) before it even got started. Almost did the same with my pumpkin vines. Spring peas finally ready for harvest in July. Lettuce turned bitter almost immediately. The one bell pepper I got only made it to about 2 inches big. Green onions did ok! Pumpkin vines eventually came back but I didn't hold out much hope for fruit, so I was really surprised a couple of weeks ago to see a lovely little pumpkin growing. Then came the surprise hail storm. Now have lovely little pitted pumpkin. Also had several little perennials sitting out on the patio waiting for the weather to come down from the 80's to plant. They took a beating in the hail, but of course the temp. has come down now, straight from the 80's to the 40's and now 30's and a little snow. Low tomorrow night is supposed to be 11 degrees. What the heck???

And yet, there is a bright spot; good old Galina pumped out her usual heavy crop of yummy little cherry tomatoes. Thank heavens for old faithful. Oh, yeah, 2nd bright spot; the David Austin roses I put in this spring settled in nicely and gave me some lovely, wonderfully scented blooms this summer. For everything else, well there's always next year.

I agree with "sucky." My cherry tomatoes did all right, but only got about 10 from my Eva Purple Ball. Peppers no luck, and only about 20 cukes before it caught powdery mildew. Oh well. Hopefully things will be better next year. I hope so, because my garden is going to be a lot bigger!

I was away when the weather turned, so missed the mad dash to harvest, but IMHO this season here on the Front Range was below acceptable.

Dan

Well.... it was the best of seasons, and it was the worst of seasons.

Bumper fruit crop, good leeks, green and bulb onions, and the best garlic I've managed yet. We had record warm early spring, which helped the garlic and fruit.

Then it got cool. Dismal peppers. The tomatoes, well in one bed, they were great, the big garden, they were awful, probably the worst I've had. Cucumbers, green beans, and Asian melons did 'ok'. Beets and chard, just fine.

Its the thought of cleaning it all up and making new beds that has me here, on the computer, procrastinating.

I'm glad to know it wasn't just me...

It appears that the mountains had a real effect on our 'o9 growing seasons: west of the divide - maybe a little warmer than usual; east of the divide - too variable!

More and more, those storms and radical swings in temperature have been brought to my attention. We had a couple of records here. Heat, during the hottest part of the year. Then we had record cold to close down a longer than usual growing season. 'Tweren't nothin' compared to the gardening weather difficulties in much of the nation.

What I can see is that the growing degree day information can't adequately show short-term weather events and their effects. But, I suppose nothing really can . . .

digitS'