From the Land of the White Witch
After careful analysis, I have concluded that Chicago’s recent weather has been caused by the White Witch. You remember the White Witch, who froze the land of Narnia into a 100 year winter in C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
Can you offer a more plausible explanation for the otherworldly 65+ inches of snow we have gotten this season, about twice the average? If you can, I don’t want to hear it.
Wednesday night I got home from a business trip. It was snowing when I drove out of Chicago and it was snowing when I drove back. When I saw our house I noted that our driveway had been blockaded by a three foot wall of ice and snow thrown up by the snow plows.
Actually, our whole block looks like a giant snow fort. Someone could organize the neighborhood kids into a truly epic snowball fight.
After we broke through the snow blockade, Judy took her camera around to take pictures of the front garden.
I leave most plants up over the winter, and a number of them are obliging by breaking up the monotony of white in an interesting way. Switchgrass ‘Northwind’ (Panicum virgatum) has stayed vertical in spite of all the ice, snow, rain, and wind.
Seedheads of northern sea oats (Chasmanthium latifolium) are always ornamental, and some of the seeds are still hanging on.
Even the seedheads of the humble orange coneflower (Rudbeckia fulgida) have a certain appeal in this season.
Also, I like the look of the ostrich fern’s (Matteuccia struthiopteris) fertile fronds against the snow.
Does the White Witch rule in your part of Narnia?
gardeninacity 
Nope, but we are getting a real winter down here in NC. Your pictures remind me of the 3 years we lived in PA and the winters were exceptionally harsh — snow at Halloween, an inch of ice, 2 feet of snow in one storm. I was ready to come back down south after that.
You must be tired of shoveling snow!
I am indeed.
This make my complaints about the weather seem silly. At least our snow is gone, save for those ugly gray piles at parking lots edges.
We’ve probably got at least a month to go before we get to the ugly grey piles stage.
White Witch here too. Feel like I’ve been transported back in time to my childhood growing up back in Buffalo. Weird thing is that I’m kind of getting used to it. Not the rest of my family though. Love the pictures and story.
Buffalo is one of the few cities in the US that gets more snow than Chicago. So you’ve made an improvement!
Ha! A giant snow fort indeed! I literally have mountains on the end of our driveway because we have a sunken in driveway! So funny! And yes…Narnia all the way and that sneaky witch!!! By the way I love your house! It is so charming!!!
Oy, a sunken driveway. That would not be fun in this weather.
We’ve had the coldest January in 100 years but not that much snow. But I used to live in upstate NY near the Canadian border so I can relate to mountains of snow and the snow plow blockade. Check out the Garden Love column on my blog. 🙂
Oh yes, upstate NY is the snow capital of the nation.
I found your Garden Love column – I’m so embarrassed to say I had not noticed it before! Thanks for the kudos – and right back atcha!
No, we have the Rain Witch here. We had the wettest January since records began. How awful for you with all that snow.
Ah, the Rain Witch. That must be in another story.
Now that IS an awful lot of snow… I hope you don’t get any more or there’ll be nowhere to shovel it! Our last little pile in the driveway melted yesterday with temperature reaching almost 10° C (50F).
The piles are getting so high the snow is rolling down onto the street. Is your winter milder than normal?
Oh yes, much milder, and that’s the official verdict by meteorologists too. We have barely had frosts and only two brief snowfalls of an inch or so that then melted pretty quickly… The experts are saying our seasons have shifted and winter is later and longer, but this year it just missed us almost completely!
We may see a little snow again here Tuesday but I’ve never seen the likes of your snow. Your plantings serve as a good reminder that this won’t last forever. Hang in there. susie
I’m trying!
White Witch indeed! Those fern fronds seem to be saying, “We’re here! We’re here!” In 2011-2012, we had like double the snow typical here and everything seemed so short in the garden. We followed it up with the Drought of 2012, and lots of 100 temperature days. I hope this is not the pattern for you, Jason. When we get that much snow at times, I often find it humorous when gardeners talk about plants with winter interest or plants that are evergreen (under the blasted snow, of course!).
We had a bad drought a few years ago but not recently. I certainly hope we don’t get another next summer, though there will undoubtedly be lots of mud and flooding this spring when all this snow melts.
We haven’t had the amounts of snow you have had but most of the time the garden has been covered with snow this winter due to the cold temps. This spring’s mud season will be epic too.
Maybe there will be a Mud Witch.
The White Witch is as good an explanation as any. We are over 50 inches (as far as I know – it snowed again last night). For once, there is enough snow and it is staying around long enough for me to get in some cross country skiing.
And those cross country skis may come in pretty handy if the snow keeps coming.
I feel your pain. Well, not really, since I’ve never seen 1/3 that much snow at one time, but I’m as tired of the cold as you must be. Winter in Carolina should be days in the 50s and nights just above freezing, not these crazy single digits. I thought we might be out of it, but the forecast calls for snow and ice beginning tomorrow and stretching into Wednesday. Fingers crossed for rain instead.
I hope your snow is providing a cozy blanket for the plants. There should be some upside to this mess.
That is the upside. We have had some unusually cold temps and I have worried about the tulips and some other of the less hardy plants. Fortunately the snow is providing insulation – I just hope it is enough.
Oh dear. Chicago in winter. I do not envy you!
On the plus side, at least we don’t have fire ants. Yet.
The White Witch flew into the Seattle area last night, just long enough to give us enough snow to make driving treacherous. I used to live in Massachusetts, so I remember being in the icy grip of snow for months on end. I sympathize with you.
The White Witch must have felt that the PNW was not her scene. She’s more of a Midwestern gal.
hmmmm, looks just like my house. More snow tonight, another storm coming through Friday. In theory it can’t last, but I think most theories ignore the white witch effect.
We need to bring in some intrepid young children and a lion to turn this winter around.
I am out in the northwest suburbs and have had to shovel my snow piles to see the street when I back out of the driveway. And more snow to come. I also love the structure of the grasses and plants within the snowy landscape.
The snow certainly reinforces my preferences for leaving plants up over winter.
After the White Witch (and I really like that explanation) left Chicago she took the mass transit to NH and rules the entire area. 🙂
She has the will to power.
That looks like an awful lot of hard work, does the thaw happen slowly in Chicago?
Lately it’s been very variable, settling in as early as February and as late as April.
65 inches of snow?????? SERIOUSLY????? The White Witch has struck for sure!!! Oh you poor people, how hard it must be trying to walk and drive….I can’t imagine it. Having said that it does look pretty but I suspect it gets old real quick. We are having the wettest winter on record….floods everywhere and sodden ground. The world’s climate has changed and I think it will carry on changing….it’s all very worrying.xxx
Believe me, I wish I was joking. Yes climate change has me worried too, especially as the deniers seem to be successful even now in preventing anything from being done about it.
As I am just a little south and west of you, and my neighborhood looks like yours except the housing stock is different…and I just checked the forecast and there is no snow in it for the work week, although we will have bitter cold, so the snow that’s on the ground will remain immovable. Thanks for trying to make some sense out of all this. It would be okay, I suppose, if I didn’t feel like I have snow on the brain. At least some of it must have settled in after all the shoveling.
Snow on the brain, that’s about the size of it.
Oh yes she does. We haven’t had any blockbuster storms but it’s been so cold that what we do get doesn’t melt. It just keeps piling up.
Hang in there-spring is right around the corner!
I’ve heard that one before.
Pretty much this winter it does. Yesterday, I broke through the wall of snow and ice the plows so kindly deposited. I just barreled through with the Jeep. I had enough of shoveling and now just 4 wheel it out. Barely made it yesterday either. It really is a year for snow! One thing I noticed besides excess snow, is the amount f bird food I am using. Yipes, the bill on bird food this year is scary.
Wow, that sounds very dramatic, like an action movie!
You have been pounded this year. We are actually behind in snow because it has been too cold and dry. But colder than usual and definitely keeping the snow cover here. We have had just a bit more than you.
Well, cold and snow is better than cold without snow, for the plants at least.
Wow, you have simply been walloped with the white stuff this winter – ouch! This winter has been incredibly nasty in some areas.