Hushed, as if by magic, snow drifts lazily down from a low cloud ceiling. The infinitely varied flakes riding the light breeze remind me of a saying from the Farmers’ Almanac: ‘a good winter with snow, makes all the plants grow.’ Looking back at my gardening photos and journals from the last 20 years, this wisdom has held true. But how does winter snow enhance plant growth in spring and summer?
Snow is a nutritious mulch! It is composed of over 90% air, which makes it an excellent insulator of both sound and heat. The air trapped in snow that renders a fresh snowscape nearly silent, also protects the soil below from freezing, keeping it relatively warm, moist and well-aerated. Worms, insects, and microbes thrive in these conditions and the byproducts of their lifecycles provide valuable nutrition for plant growth throughout spring and summer.
Speaking of nutrition, snow is rich in nitrogen, a nutrient needed for verdant plant growth. During the hour it takes snow to drift to the ground from the clouds, the air-filled water crystals gather nitrogen from the atmosphere more readily than rain can. The snow crystals then melt into a life-giving liquid and the nitrogen is released and stored in the soil, ready to fertilize the green growth of spring.
Here in California, mountain snow provides at least 30% of total water storage capacity, that is if we can keep it from melting before midsummer. Research suggests that the large herds of elk, deer and antelope that once roamed this region would trample the spring snow and turn it to ice, which takes longer to melt. How much impact the activity of these herds may have had is up for debate, however today Pleistocene Park (https://pleistocenepark.ru/), on the Siberian Steppe, is conducting an experiment using a diverse herd of animals to slow the snow’s melt in a seven square mile area, with measurable success.
Snow and ice also reflect the sun’s heat, so keeping the white stuff around for as long as possible maintains a cooling effect on our environment. While gardeners and farmers certainly don’t want summer to be too hot, still we look forward to the warmth of spring thawing the white mulch blanket. We can accelerate this process by practicing an ancient technique of northern peoples, who would throw soil onto snowy gardens, forming dark patches that absorb the sun’s energy and melt the snow. While this is a valuable technique in a small garden, melting too much snow too early augurs the stress of a hot, dry summer.
From those first white flakes of winter to the last mountain ice melting in the summer heat, snow is a magical ally of life. Let’s make a conscious effort to keep snow, the water of our future, piling up and sticking around for as long as possible. The future starts now.
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