Or at least a bunny hater, that is. I do not love mosquitoes either, but that's another story.

A year ago, the ground was covered with thick snow, and the hare went and ate the tips of even the tallest of bushes, but left the bases of tree trunks intact, simply because the plants were protected by the snow. This year, there has not been any snow. The ground is bare, and even though it's not even mid March, plants are emerging from the ground.

One would imagine, that the forest is full of green stuff for the hare to eat, but apparently those little beasts think that my yard is some sort of a gourmet buffet for bunnies. One night I even caught the brown european hare "red-handed" eating my cherry tree. I just happened to wake up in the middle of the night, looked out through the window, and there it was. Eating my tree at my front yard.

I tried knocking the window with my fist to call its attention, and yes, the hare noticed me. It raised its face a little and paused munching. Then it realised I was indoors and went back to eating. So I went out on the porch and yelled at it. First it didn't even move. I yelled some more, and it hopped next to the lilac bushes growing by my yard and stayed there. I got really frustrated looking for something to throw at the hare, but couldn't think of anything suitable. I closed the porch door, opened it again, and shouted at the animal: " Go on, go away, I DO see you there!" Well, the hare heard me and decided to move to a quieter location at my neighbour's yard. I guess it finally understood that I would not let it eat in peace.

But what makes me sad, is that the hare has eaten almost all of the trees and bushes I have, except of those few I protected with fencing in the autumn before winter. I thought there would be snow in the winter  - as there usually is -  to protect the smaller plants. Not quite correct. As a result, the hare has eaten my rose seedlings, my crabapple saplings, my azaleas, Clematis, blueberry plants, magnolias, cherry trees, plum trees, Vitis vine, honey berry bushes, you name it.

This is a crabapple sapling that has been completely eaten. The branches have been cut by sharp teeth and the bark has been eaten too. The latter might have happened with some help from a small rodent. 

The hare has eaten even the smaller saplings I still had growing in a pot on my porch. It seems to love all kinds of plant containers as there is bunny poo in every planting box and pot on my porch. 

So today I decided to protect the rest of the saplings that still had something to save, which mostly means short stubs located here and there on my yard. 

Since the plants are pretty small, I bought some narrow fencing material. And as I expect the hare to try and eat the rest of the plants entering the fencing from the top, I tried to make it more difficult by adding some netting I made of a sturdy string. I'm not even sure if that will discourage the hare at all, but I surely hope it will.

Sadly, I think this won't be enough. As the spring plants have started emerging, it will simply shift to eating up all my tulips. That's what happened last year, and I can't think of a way to prevent that from happening again. 

I should be ashamed of myself. And I am. I haven't been writing a thing for such a long time. Well, there are changes in life and adjusting to them apparently takes some time. Nothing bad has happened though, it has all been positive.

One of the new things is that I actually went back to school. No, I'm not a drop out, but I have been unemployed and a stay at home mother for quite a long time now, and where I live doesn't really offer too many job opportunities on my own field. So I started studying something else instead. I'm quite busy nowadays.

But WINTER. First it looked like there's not going to be any of that. It kept raining through Christmas and the temperatures were above zero°. And then came January. First it got only mildly colder, threw  some snow (very little though) and then suddenly the temperature dropped to -20 C°.

Today it's -25 C° (apparently that's -13 F°) and there's barely any snow at all! What this mess is that there's no snow to protect all the sensitive plants. :-(

This is a very depressing image of the Rhododendrons I

planted in summer. If this was a "normal" winter, they would be

totally covered in snow and not a leaf would be visible. But as

you can see, there's barely enough snow to cover the ground.

Many of my more "exotic" (anything that grows well in Southern Sweden is considered exotic to me) survived surprisingly well last winter - thanks to the thick snow cover! I was happy to find out in spring that my magnolias were actually alive! And even the one that had dead branches, started to grow new shoots from the ground as the summer went on.

This winter gives me headache! I'm so afraid to see what will be left after winter. Anyone else having the same experience?

Living up north means there's not much time for gardening. Not because one is too busy but because the summer is too short. The growing season 2012 here started on the 8th of May and ended on the 15th of October. Growing seasons are expected to become longer during this century due to climatic change, but I'm not sure if that's something worth celebrating. I'm actually surprised to know that the growing season has been a good 5 months, because it really feels more like 3 months to me.

The place where I live is just as north as southern Greenland or Alaska. Let's face it, this is far too north for gardening in most parts of the World. But thanks to the North Atlantic Golf current, the weather here is not as cold as in Siberia. I actually live in the European hardiness zone 4 or the Finnish growing zone 5.

You can find this map and learn more about hardiness zones at the Free Independent Sun.

Apparently this means that the average annual minimum temperatures here are between -28,9 / -34,4 °C or -20 / -30 °F degrees. February usually is the coldest month of the year, and even though this year has been mild, last winter was not. I can grow various plants up here, that manage to survive the winter, but don't bloom. I can also grow plants, that don't only survive the winter, but bloom as well. However the growing season is too short for them to form seeds. 

But the survival of the plant does not depend only on the length of the growing season or the average minimum temperatures alone. You can look for a spot where the microclimate is suitable for a certain plant, like a warm spot close to the southern wall of your house with plenty of sunshine and with protection of winds. But the protected spot can be hazardous in winter, when snow falls from the roof and breaks the branches of the tree. This place might be perfect for some perennials though. But there's not much snow close to the wall either, so there no snow cover to protect the ground and the roots.

Some plants that usually are afraid of cold, may do well under the protective cover of snow. The parts on top of the snow may get frozen each winter, but the parts below the snow stay alive and continue growing the following summer. Of course this means that the plant will never grow too large or maybe not even to the height you were hoping for. There's no point planting a tree and expecting it to do well under these conditions though. It may stay alive for a few years, then get tired and eventually die. Usually they don't survive the first winter. Another problem occurs every now and then; this winter the freezing temperatures of -20 °C degrees arrived before the snow. So there was no protection for the plants before the cold cast its spell over them.

Frost heaving is one problem more. Plants can't start growing before their roots are free of frost, not even if the temperature of the air is nice and warm. This is why evergreens may die during their first winters especially if they have a shallow root system. When the sun starts heating the air early in the spring and their leaves start evaporating, the plant dries out because the roots can't get any water from the frozen ground. That is why it's advised to protect these plants from the spring sun or maybe moderately water the ground with warm water to make it melt faster. I have some Rhododendrons growing beside my front door, so I have been shovelling snow on top of them to keep them protected as long as possible.

I have planted some less hardy plants in my garden, and I'm not sure if I can expect to find any of them alive when the spring arrives. But I thought I'd never find out if I didn't plant any of them. Who knows what kind of a surprise they will offer! I have been told that magnolias can't be grown this north, but I have read that there's a specimen of Magnolia x soulangeana growing in the botanic garden of the Oulu University, and that it has survived. I have been informed, that Malus purpurea 'Kadetti' can not be grown here, but I have seen one growing in front of an apartment building, and surviving several winters already. I have also been told that Taxus can not been grown here unlike the one I just saw the other day.

Of foreign plants we tend to favour Canadian cultivars here because they are usually good and proven and survive the winters well. We grow Canadian crabapples, blueberries, roses and what not. Also Russian cultivars do well over here; plums (Prunus domestica) and honeyberries (Lonicera caerulea var. edulis) for example. Of course we have our own local cultivars as well. I have a damson plum (Prunus domestica subsp. insititia) 'Silvast' in my garden, several Finnish roses like Rosa pimpinellifolia 'Ruskela', Rosa majalis 'Tornedal' and Rosa pimpinellifolia 'Juhannusmorsian' and a sour cherry (Prunus cerasus) 'Arttula' as well as Finnish Rhododendron cultivars. But surprisingly many garden plants originating from milder climatic conditions can be grown over here as well. Peonies are a good and bold example among them.

Rhododendron 'Helsinki University'

I'm a hardiness zone stretcher myself, so I plant anything that could be even remotely hardy in the local conditions and just see if it survives or not. Oh, don't tell me they're all going to be dead when the spring arrives! I won't even listen to you. If they show no sign of life before the autumn arrives, then maybe I will consider them dead. Or just well dormant.