Tennessee’s Little Winters

Last week we discussed gardening and some of the different options that you can use to grow some fresh vegetables for you and your family.  This week we’re going to give you 6 reasons to pay close attention to the seasons when determining when to plant your vegetables.  Whether you’ve recently moved to Tennessee or lived here all your life, if you’ve been here for more than a week then you have probably learned our weather has a mind of its own.  If this is your first spring in Tennessee then get ready to experience what we native Tennesseans call little winters and you’ll soon learn that just because the calendar says it’s Spring doesn’t mean it’s Spring in Tennessee.  If you’re new to the area or never heard of the little winters then keep on reading and hopefully, you’ll learn something in the CO-OP Corner this week!  Don’t put those jackets into storage just yet and don’t even think about planting those tomatoes and peppers until after Easter! You might ask why if you’re new to Tennessee but the locals know it’s because the cool weather didn’t blow away in the March winds.

What is a little winter?

A little winter is what we Tennesseans call the cool spells that happen usually throughout the spring season with the last one happening a few weeks before the first day of Summer.  This is what happens: Spring begins on March 20^th.  The weather may be cool or warm.  Trees are starting to bud and grass is starting to green up because we’ll have a few or several days of nice warm weather.  Then all at once it’s freezing, or at least miserably cold, for a few days.  Then we return to our regularly scheduled warm spring weather.  It’s like Mother Nature is teasing us with nice weather then stings us with the cold.  Next thing you know, it’s the first day of Summer and highs in the 90s.  How many winters do we have to endure?

The Who, Why and When

There are 6 of these little winters and here’s who they are: redbud, dogwood, locust, blackberry, whippoorwill and wool/linen britches or britches for short.  The order that these happen depends on who you ask.  There’s a little controversy around locust where some people say it’s the first little winter and some people say it’s the last.  The people who say it’s the last usually aren’t counting britches winter or don’t know about britches winter.  These cold snaps are named after trees and bushes mostly and that’s because that is the tree/bush that is blooming at the time of the cold snap.  For instance, the first two, according to my observation, is redbud and dogwood so redbud winter happens when the redbuds are blooming and dogwood winter happens when the dogwood trees are blooming.  Blackberry and locust are named the same way.  Whippoorwill winter is named for when the whippoorwill bird can be heard in the early mornings or late evenings usually mid to late May.  If you’re interested in hearing the whippoorwill’s song, check out this YouTube clip posted by the American Bird Conservancy Whip-poor-will Song – YouTube  That brings us up to britches winter.  I thought whippoorwill and britches winter was the same winter until I did a little research.  They can overlap so maybe that’s why I thought they were the same. According to The Tennessee Historical

Society’s website, britches winter is named after the cool spell that can happen late May to early June.  In the old days, people had already put up their woolen or heavy britches and started wearing their linen britches or lighter weight clothing by this time.  They’d have to get their heavy clothes out for one last winter spell before the summer heat took over.  These last 2 winters I didn’t know anything about until I was grown.   The others I had heard my grandparents talk about all my life but didn’t know which was which because I’d never asked and then common sense kicked in as I got older so I realized what they were talking about the blooms.  These little winters are usually short lived and only last a few days before our lovely spring weather comes back but the earlier ones can be fatal to those gardens and warm season vegetables that were planted too early.

Little Winter Gardening Tips

Most of us warm weather loving people and especially the gardeners are anxious to get some plants growing in the spring but some helpful hints and little sayings that I’ve heard over the years can potentially keep those plants alive through the little winters of spring.  In last week’s CO-OP Corner, I said that I like to plant my garden in May.  You don’t necessarily have to wait that late to plant and a lot of people will already have cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and greens planted by then because they are cold weather crops.  Plant those things early to mid-March along with onions and potatoes.  A good rule of a green thumb on warm season vegetables is to wait until after Easter.  I’ve heard old timers say that over the years working at CO-OP and while you may not be completely out of danger of frost, the chance of frost is much less likely after Easter.  Usually by the first of May, the ground is warming up and tomatoes, peppers, squash and other warm season vegetables will grow and do better in the warm soils.  How can you tell if the ground is warm?  Literally sit on the ground and wait about 10-15 minutes.  If your rear end is cold, so is the ground.  Wait a little longer to transplant your plants and hold on to your seeds for a bit longer if you’re planting beans, okra and squash from seed.

Standby, Loading Spring

As we learned last week when it was raining, snowing and sleeting all in the same day, Tennessee weather can be confusing at times.  Most of us warm weather people are sick of winter before it starts so we’d love for the warm days to start as soon as March 20^th gets here.  Unfortunately, sometimes getting spring weather to load in Tennessee is like using an internet connection from the 90s and it takes a while to finish loading.  For the younger readers, you wouldn’t understand what I’m talking about but trust me it was slow.  Be patient and enjoy watching the plants come back to life and when you’re in the middle of a cold snap between March 20^th and June 21^st, pay attention to which trees are blooming so you can teach your children and friends about the little winters that we experience during a Tennessee spring!