Winter Doesn't Want To Leave

This has been one of the most depressing early springs so far, at least since we moved back to WI. We had a nice little stretch of milder temps about 2 weeks ago that melted most of the snow that had accumulated over winter. Then, last week, we got a nice 9" snowfall to nullify all the snowmelt. Now, we've slowly been getting a couple of degrees warmer each day for the past week or so. I think 45F is the forecast for today. A good chunk of that 9" is about gone, but they're saying maybe an inch or two tonight of slushy snow, which should melt during the day tomorrow, but the major depressing point is a big low-pressure system forecasted to come through early next week. The different forecast models are not in agreement of the path this cyclone will take, but the further south it is, the more of a chance of us seeing snow. If it takes the most southerly route, they're saying we could see a signifcant snowfall. This is really depressing. Another big snow means it'll be that much longer until I can move my plants outside - as snow melts, and in turn evaporates, it sucks up a lot of heat energy from the air, which means temps will stay low, this also keeps the ground a lot colder, and so on. It doesn't start warming up too much here until the snow melts and the ground dries up. Due to the angle of the sun, my garage is getting fairly mild now, despite low temps at night still in the upper teens/low 20's, my minibogs have remained thawed, and it warms up probably into the 50's during the day. So I've actually been seeing a few flower buds getting ready to emerge. I'm also seeing some saprophytic fungi develop, which is always an issue this time of year. Conditions are perfect for it in the garage now - low light and milder temps. This is usually when I move them outside, which pretty much eliminates the fungi, but it is still too cold at night. So, I just hope this turns out to be a rain, or mostly rain event next week. If so, it should melt any remaining snow, and allow temps to finally start moderating.

I visited the greenhouse, briefly, earlier this week, to check on the aphid situation, and was happy to see that there are very few remaining. That insecticide I used was awesome! I will try and get in this weekend and take some pics, some of the plants are looking pretty good. I noticed a couple of huge 'Doreen's Colossus' pitchers, that, unfortunately, are a bit malformed from the aphids, I presume. I can see why the plant got that name though. Wow! I also need to start repotting this years new seedlings, some are getting pretty crowded.