Josie Lemay is the owner of Wildflour Cakes (wildflourcake.com, and on Facebook and Instagram @wildflour_cake), specializing in custom wedding cakes made from scratch in addition to morning pastries and other baked goods. A native of Deerfield, Lemay studied at the Culinary Institute of America in New York before going on to work in restaurants and bakeries in Boston and on Nantucket Island in Massachusetts. She returned to New Hampshire about two years ago and now works out of a rented commercial kitchen, offering wedding cakes to clients all over New England. You can also find her freshly baked pastries regularly stocked at Revelstoke Coffee (100 N. Main St., Concord), which include an often rotating selection of scones, muffins and seasonal galettes.
What is your must-have kitchen item?
I think it would be a bench knife, which I use for cutting, for chopping and for shaping pastries. I probably have about 10 different bench knives and they are always within arm’s reach.
What would you have for your last meal?
Some kind of homemade ravioli or heavy pasta dish, and a glass of red wine.
What is your favorite local restaurant?
The Franklin in Portsmouth. They have this awesome Brussels sprout side dish with fresh mint and honey that is delicious. … I tried to recreate it at home but it wasn’t the same.
What is your personal favorite thing that you’ve ever baked for a client?
When I was living on Nantucket, I had one couple I worked with who were really good friends with a farmer there, and so we [incorporated] a bunch of his vegetables and herbs into the dessert menu for their wedding. It was a lot of fun designing it with them.
What celebrity would you like to bake a cake for?
David Chang. I’ve been listening to his podcast. I think he’s just so brutally honest that it would just be hilarious to bake a cake and then eat it with him.
What is the biggest food trend in New Hampshire right now?
I feel like doughnuts are definitely big right now. There was kind of a wave, and I think the wave is coming back around again, which is cool to see.
What is your favorite thing to make at home?
I love baking pies. I grew up baking pies with my mom for every holiday. It’s just such a very comforting, nostalgic thing to bake.
Vanilla bean shortbread cookies From the kitchen of Josie Lemay of Wildflour Cakes
12 ounces butter 1 cup sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste 3½ cups flour ½ teaspoon salt
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream together softened butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in vanilla bean paste. Add in flour and salt and mix until it comes together. Roll out dough between two sheets of parchment paper, using a cookie cutter of your choice. Chill the dough for 15 minutes in the refrigerator if it’s too soft. Bake for 15 minutes.
A look back at the local food scene in 2021, plus trends and predictions for 2022
Local restaurateurs continued to feel the lingering effects of the pandemic throughout what was a very up-and-down year for the hospitality industry in 2021.
“This year certainly wasn’t quite as bad as 2020, but I think it was challenging in somewhat different ways,” said Mike Somers, president of the New Hampshire Lodging & Restaurant Association. “At the start of the year, consumer confidence was at an all-time low, and businesses were really struggling to keep their numbers up. … Over the course of the summer months, it was extremely busy. Then obviously it tapered off very quickly once we got past Columbus Day, or thereabouts. … Clearly, we’re going to be having these ups and downs as we go forward.”
New Hampshire-specific results from an operator survey conducted by the National Restaurant Association in mid-September showed that 44 percent of local business owners believe it will take at least another year before the industry normalizes. Profitability is down and food costs are up, with 93 percent of those surveyed saying they’re paying more than ever for product and 85 percent reporting their labor costs have increased. The lack of adequate staffing also remains a major problem — 91 percent of business owners reported being understaffed.
“Back in the spring, we really thought we’d be in a whole different place by now. That hasn’t come to pass,” Somers said. “It really remains to be seen what the next three, four, five months looks like, and I think we’re going to start to see business owners make some key decisions.”
With 2022 on our doorstep and amid concerns about the omicron Covid-19 variant, here’s a look back on how the previous year unfolded and the current obstacles the industry is facing.
Highs and lows
New Hampshire began the year still under a statewide mask mandate for all indoor and outdoor public spaces, including restaurants. That emergency order would expire in mid-April following a sharp decline in Covid-19 cases, thanks to the rollout of vaccines throughout the early spring.
By early May, individual guidelines and restrictions at restaurants, in place since the start of the pandemic, transitioned into what Gov. Chris Sununu called “universal best practices,” consolidating guidelines for all business sectors across the Granite State. The state of emergency came to an end on June 11 as cases continued to drop.
“When you talk about 2021, I mean, there were just amazing highs and lows throughout the year,” said Tom Boucher, CEO of Great New Hampshire Restaurants, the Bedford-based group that includes each T-Bones, Cactus Jack’s and Copper Door location in the Granite State. “Most of our stores were up through the summer, over 2019 sales. … As soon as the fall hit, though, we did see revenues drop a little bit. Not a lot, but it was noticeable.”
As was the case in 2020, rented tents were set up in the parking lot of each restaurant to accommodate more outdoor dining opportunities. For a brief period from about mid-July to mid-September each location was also closed on Mondays as a way to give its staff a break.
Takeout is still not available from 5 to 8 p.m. on Friday or Saturday evenings, a move that has been in place since late March to allow each eatery to prioritize in-house dining. But Boucher said that there have been talks to end this temporary suspension at T-Bones and Cactus Jack’s.
Firefly American Bistro & Bar has similarly continued to experience a greater interest in outdoor dining, according to manager Rachael Jones. In addition to putting up tents, the restaurant now keeps its outdoor patio open year-round with propane heaters in the winter months.
“We’ve had the patio maybe eight years or so, but it was always something that was strictly seasonal,” Jones said. “There just wasn’t a call for it once it got cold, but now people are happy to bundle up and have a cocktail outside. It’s just become something that we do.”
At KC’s Rib Shack, owner and co-founder Kevin Cornish made several operational changes, the most significant of them being that he’s now permanently closed for lunch on weekdays. As of about a month ago, he’s also now open an hour later each evening.
“For 20 years I kind of considered whether or not lunch was worth it for us,” he said. “We would do a good lunch, no question about that. But I think closing for lunch has helped us immensely in a lot of different areas as far as keeping the quality of our food up.”
Cornish introduced KC’s Boneyard late in the spring, a new private function and event room housed in the former Souper Melt building directly in front of the Rib Shack.
In mid-March, Tim Baines of Mint Bistro and Bob Scribner of The Wild Rover Pub joined forces to open Elm House of Pizza, a neighborhood pizzeria in the former Theo’s space on Elm Street. It was also a big year for LaBelle Winery, which introduced a new restaurant concept, a retail market, performances and event spaces and a nine-hole golf course across a 45-acre property in Derry. Each of those properties opened in phases over the course of the spring and summer.
The struggle to staff
As restaurants have continued to recover, finding and retaining qualified employees to meet the growing demand became a defining issue in 2021, and it will carry over into 2022 for many.
The Flight Center opened a second location in Manchester in late June and has only recently become able to operate for lunch during the week. Its sister restaurant, the 1750 Taphouse in Bedford, as well as The Flight Center’s downtown Nashua spot, have also been only open for limited hours, managing partner Seth Simonian said.
The Flight Center opened a second location in south Manchester in late June 2021. Courtesy photo.
“As 2020 came to an end and then going into 2021, we saw a pretty significant decline in applicant flow, while business didn’t really change,” Simonian said. “You have people who expect you to be open for lunch and dinner, and to be open seven days a week … Downtown Nashua has been our hardest to staff by far.”
None of LaBelle Winery’s three properties in Amherst, Derry and Portsmouth is operating full-time for similar reasons. Americus Restaurant, which opened in mid-May, currently offers dinner five nights a week and brunch and lunch on the weekends, but owner Amy LaBelle said the goal was to also have it be open during the week.
“Given the fact that there’s a golf course and many other daytime activities here on the property, it’s just staggering that we haven’t been able to get that accomplished. We just don’t have the staff,” LaBelle said. “The kitchen is definitely the hardest-hit, but even if I had a fully staffed kitchen I still couldn’t open full-time because I don’t have enough servers.”
Great New Hampshire Restaurants, Boucher said, remains slightly below its normal number of about 800 employees across the company’s 10 locations.
“Staffing has definitely improved for us, but I think the labor shortage is going to continue to be an issue in 2022,” he said. “It’s not exclusive to the restaurant industry either, that’s for sure.”
Beginning in 2022, in addition to Thanksgiving and Christmas, the company will be closing its restaurants on five additional holidays — President’s Day, Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, Labor Day and Columbus Day — and offering paid time off to its managers for those days.
“I think it’s going to be a really disruptive decision that we’re making to put us in a competitive place to attract employees and managers,” Boucher said. “It’s also a big win for our staff because they’ll be able to make plans to do something with their families or friends.”
Paying the price
Increasing food costs and ongoing supply chain issues have forced local restaurateurs to make critical choices about what to buy, problems they say aren’t likely to go away anytime soon.
“Inflation has really been the challenge,” Somers said. “It’s not about being able to get product. You could get it. It’s just whether or not you could afford to actually put it on the menu.”
LaBelle said she has especially felt these impacts since right around when Americus opened.
“When we are writing a menu now, we look at the prices first and we might say, OK, we can’t put this rib-eye on the menu right now. I’m not going to charge $70 for it,” she said. “So we’ve definitely tailored our menu to be able to reflect really good-quality food, but also things that we can get to people at a reasonable price without compromising our quality.”
Not being able to get the products right away, she added, only makes it more difficult.
“I used to be able to place a food order and get it the next day from our major food suppliers,” she said. “Now there’s a twice-a-week delivery schedule, because they don’t have people to deliver. So if I need something or if we run out of something, I can’t get that quick delivery that I used to be able to get. I have to wait until my designated delivery day. … So we’re not used to that, and it makes the chefs have to be super careful about what they’re ordering.”
At Firefly, Jones said she has already heard from purveyors warning that certain items may be hard to come by for anywhere from the next three to 12 months.
“You’re just so used to having everything at your fingertips,” she said, “but this year, it was just like all the rules go out the window. People have been very understanding, so that’s been great.”
Baines said he has experienced higher costs as well, particularly within the last six months or so.
“We did have to shrink the Mint [Bistro] menu a little bit and were reluctant to do so. Some of it is due to availability and some of it was just that the cost to put it on a plate just didn’t feel right to charge what we would have to to make it work,” he said. “I think you’ve seen that industry-wide. You’ve seen hours shrink and you’ve seen menu selections shrink.”
A taste of events to come
Here are a few foodie happenings to look forward to as we begin 2022. Be sure to visit the event’s website or contact the venue directly for the most up-to-date information.
• The Taste of Bedford is due to return on Tuesday, Jan. 11, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Bedford High School (47B Nashua Road), according to the event’s website. Bedford-area eateries will congregate for a night of food sampling, with proceeds benefiting the school’s Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA) chapter, one of the largest in the state. Tickets are $10 per person, or $30 per family of four and $40 per family of five. Visit tasteofbedford.org.
• LaBelle Lights at LaBelle Winery Derry (14 Route 111) continues with a special Fire and Ice Weekend on Friday, Jan. 14, and Saturday, Jan. 15, featuring live performances like fire dancers and ice stilt walkers, in addition to bonfires, themed food and cocktail specials and more. Tickets are $15 to LaBelle Lights, which is being held from 4:30 to 9 p.m. on select days now through Feb. 26. Valentine’s Day and Mardi Gras celebrations are also planned before LaBelle Lights closes for the season. Visit labellewinery.com/lights to view the full calendar schedule.
• New Hampshire Wine Week is right around the corner, and tickets are available now to the 18th annual Easterseals Winter Wine Spectacular on Thursday, Jan. 27, from 6 to 9 p.m. at the DoubleTree by Hilton Manchester Downtown (700 Elm St.). This will be the first in-person Winter Wine Spectacular since January 2020 — the pandemic forced its transition into a series of virtual tastings last year. Tickets are $65 for access to the grand tasting, or $135 for access to the Bellman Cellar VIP tasting room (limited availability), with proceeds benefiting Easterseals New Hampshire. For the most up-to-date details on New Hampshire Wine Week, which also includes bottle signings and wine tastings across the state, visit nhwineweek.com.
A cautious optimism
Despite a looming uncertainty about the future, most of the local restaurateurs we spoke with say they’re optimistic overall heading into 2022 — just as long as there isn’t another shutdown.
“We’re seeing the dining public out and about, and almost every restaurant I see is filling seats,” Baines said. “However people are feeling about it, they’re going out again.”
Nearly a year after opening Elm House of Pizza, Baines and Scribner are introducing another new concept in the Queen City. City Hall Pub, he said, is due to open in the former Cheddar & Rye space on the corner of Hanover and Elm streets by the third week of January.
“We have The Wild Rover, Mint Bistro, Elm House of Pizza and then City Hall Pub all under Southern New Hampshire Hospitality Group,” he said. “We’re going to offer a loyalty program within those four, so you can generate points and use them throughout each of the locations.”
LaBelle Winery, meanwhile, is due to finish construction on a new sparkling wine production facility and tasting room in Derry by late May 2022. LaBelle said plans are already underway to also bring back the highly successful LaBelle Lights holiday celebration next winter.
“We thought we would have 20,000 visitors throughout the three months of LaBelle Lights, but as it turns out, we’ve already had that many in the first month,” she said.
Boucher also said he’s noticed customers are coming back, making him hopeful for the future.
“Restaurants are obviously in the business to serve food, but they’re much more than that. They’re a gathering place,” he said. “It’s not just the food; it’s the warm hospitality that defines restaurants, and I think people really figured that out [by] staying at home through the pandemic. … I think restaurants will always thrive because eating at home just isn’t the same.”
A Year in the Kitchen: 2021 edition
The Hippo’s In the Kitchen Q&A series continued throughout 2021, with a different New Hampshire restaurant chef, baker or homestead business owner profiled each week.
Regular readers know that we like to turn to the experts for their thoughts on the biggest food trends currently sweeping the Granite State, and as the industry continues to experience the effects of the pandemic, the answers we received seemed to be all over the map. Farm-to-table dining, comfort items and vegan menus, and the ways we get our food beyond visiting a traditional brick-and-mortar restaurant — think ghost kitchens, food trucks or third-party delivery apps — were some of the most common threads.
“I think restaurateurs in New Hampshire have done such an amazing job pivoting their operations over the last year and a half, regardless of what their business model is,” Lisa Kingsbury of Lush Confections in Derry told the Hippo in July. “I think they are more open to different possibilities than they would have otherwise been.”
It’s always fun to see what people come up with as an answer to another question we ask, “What celebrity would you like to see eating at your restaurant?” or “What celebrity would you like to have a meal with?” For the second consecutive year, the No. 1 answer was chef Gordon Ramsay of, among many other shows, Hell’s Kitchen. Actor and New Hampshire native Adam Sandler once again received a fair number of mentions — and, even though he’s no longer with us, the late chef and author Anthony Bourdain also continued to be a common answer.
“In culinary school, [Bourdain] was who we looked up to and somebody we aspired to be,” Jenn Martins of Brickoven Catering in Hudson told the Hippo in August.
We also like to give our interviewees the opportunity to give a shout out to their favorite local eateries. The answers to this question could not have been more diverse — almost everyone called a different restaurant their favorite. But there were a few recurring names, including MT’s Local Kitchen & Wine Bar in Nashua, The Black Trumpet Bistro in Portsmouth, the East Derry Tavern, and several of the La Carreta Mexican Restaurant locations.
Featured photo: Americus Restaurant opened in mid-May 2021 in Derry. Photo courtesy of LaBelle Winery.
• New Year’s eats: Join the Copper Door Restaurant (15 Leavy Drive, Bedford, 488-2677; 41 S. Broadway, Salem, 458-2033; copperdoor.com) for a special New Year’s Eve prix fixe dinner menu, which will be served on Friday, Dec. 31, from 4 to 8 p.m. at both locations, featuring meals of two, three or four courses. Options include sesame tuna risotto, crispy pork and beef meatballs, fish chowder, sausage and kale soup, shaved Brussels sprout and arugula, grilled filet oscar, braised short rib, soy honey-glazed salmon, seafood-stuffed haddock, truffled mushroom ravioli, duck confit risotto, sugar cookie cupcakes, German chocolate cake, and vanilla Funfetti cheesecake. The cost is $69 for a two-course meal, $79 for a three-course meal and $89 for a four-course meal. Reservations are highly recommended. The Copper Door’s regular menus will also be available from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at both locations, and live music will be featured from 6 to 9 p.m. For more ideas on how to spend New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day (there may still be time to plan depending on where you go), visit issuu.com/hippopress.com and click on the Dec. 16 issue to read the e-edition for free. Our New Year’s Eve listings begin on page 30.
• Eat organic: Now through Jan. 2, early bird registration rates are available for the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Hampshire’s 20th annual Winter Conference, to be held virtually over the course of a week from Sunday, Feb. 6, through Saturday, Feb. 12. According to a press release, the conference will feature more than 20 workshops and panel discussions, addressing a wide range of topics for farmers, gardeners, eaters and educators, from growing practices to food preservation and more. The theme of this year’s conference is “Collaboration & Self-Reliance: Building a Stronger NH Food System.” Registration ranges from $35 to $65 ($50 to $80 after Jan. 2). Visit nofanh.org/winterconference.
• Wine and dine: Get your tickets now before they’re gone to a winter wonderland wine pairing dinner at Zorvino Vineyards (226 Main St., Sandown) on Saturday, Jan. 22. Tickets are $70 per person and include a cocktail hour at 6:30 p.m., followed by a four-course meal at 7:30 p.m. — servings will include winter vegetable and feta galette, pancetta and parsnip salad, Maine lobster croquette, cola braised short rib and lemon cranberry bliss featuring cranberry white chocolate shortcake and mascarpone-limoncello cream. Visit zorvino.com.
• Food truck fest to return: A new date has been set for the Great Bay Food Truck Festival — the second annual event will return for the first time since 2019 on Saturday, May 7, from noon to 5 p.m. at Stratham Hill Park (270 Portsmouth Ave., Stratham). The rain-or-shine festival is being organized by the Stratham Parks and Recreation department in conjunction with the Exeter Area Chamber of Commerce, and will feature dozens of food trucks and vendors, as well as lawn games, live music and more. Visit greatbayfoodtruckfestival.com.
Keith McDonald is the owner and founder of NH Tap, a Milford-based company that builds custom water filtration systems for homes in New Hampshire.
Explain your job.
I schedule and run free water tests for people who [request them]. Then, when people decide they want to move forward with cleaning their water, I engineer and design a custom system for them and have it built. Then I send it over to our installation team to have it installed.
How long have you had this job?
I’ve been in the water treatment industry since I was 22, and I’m 38 now. We started NH Tap in 2017.
What led you to this career field and your current job?
I’m from Jaffrey, originally. I moved to Florida to pursue a professional breakdancing career, and I was actually very successful. I got hired … to dance professionally everywhere from Disney to Universal Studios. At the same time, I got introduced to the water treatment industry. I learned so much, in Florida, about public water. … When I moved back home to New Hampshire, I saw a real need here. There were no companies really focusing on public water … so I saw an opportunity and started NH Tap.
What kind of education or training did you need?
All the chemistry I needed to understand and the engineering skills I needed in order to design systems were self-taught; I read a lot of college publications. … I also had a fantastic mentor in Florida who [taught] me about water and how to present and communicate things about water and design systems … and taught me a lot about the business side of things.
What is your typical at-work uniform or attire?
We have slate blue or battleship gray polos that say ‘NH Tap’ across the upper chest area.
How has your job changed over the course of the pandemic?
The pandemic was actually really good for us. More and more people from the cities outside of New Hampshire, like Boston, were moving to New Hampshire, and many of them were going from having public water to having a private well for the first time. They had no idea what it meant to have clean water because they were used to just turning the faucet on and having the city provide what was considered to be clean water.
What do you wish you’d known at the beginning of your career?
To not be in any rush, and to enjoy every step of the process. … I’m not in a rush to grow anymore. I wake up every morning, motivated, and focus on being diligent and patient and persistent so that I can just enjoy everything as it grows organically.
What do you wish other people knew about your job?
The importance of building a fantastic team. You have to get all the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and all the right people in the right seats before you can figure out where to drive it. I have those seats filled now, and I can honestly say that I have no stress or anxiety, because everything is so streamlined, thanks to my team.
What was the first job you ever had?
I worked at Athens Pizza in Jaffrey.
What’s the best piece of work-related advice you’ve ever received?
Do nothing out of selfish ambition. I’ve learned to actually put others before myself, and the more I continue to do that, the more joy I have in building NH Tap.
Five favorites Favorite book: The 4-Hour Workweek Favorite movie:Fantastic Mr. Fox Favorite music: Breakdance beats Favorite food: Arepas Favorite thing about NH: Nothing beats a New Hampshire summer.
Get the family out of the house by sending them to a museum.
• The Currier Museum of Art (150 Ash St. in Manchester; currier.org, 669-6144) is closed on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. Otherwise, the museum is open Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Fridays through Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission costs $15, $13 for 65+, $10 for students and $5 for ages 13 to 17 (children under 13 get in free) and can be purchased on site (masks for all are required), according to the website. This Thursday, Dec. 30, Kevin Horan will perform from 5 to 8 p.m. as part of the museum’s weekly Art After Work programming (admission to the museum is free after 5 p.m.). On Sundays the Winter Garden Cafe offers a special brunch menu starting at 10 a.m. featuring mimosa flights, according to the website. Current exhibits include “As Precious As Gold: Carpets from the Islamic World,” “WPA in NH: Philip Guston and Musa McKim” and “Tomie dePaola at the Currier,” featuring the works of dePaola, writer and illustrator 270 children’s books.
• SEE Science Center (200 Bedford St. in Manchester; see-sciencecenter.org, 669-0400) is open Tuesdays through Fridays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturdays (it will be closed New Year’s Day) and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Current displays and exhibits with hands-on examinations of science include BiologYou. Purchase reservations in advance via the website (masks are required for all visitors age 2 and up); admission costs $10 per person ages 3 and up.
• The Millyard Museum (200 Bedford St. in Manchester; 622-7531, manchesterhistoric.org/millyard-museum) is closed New Year’s Day but otherwise open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission to the Millyard Museum costs $8 for adults, $6 for 62+ and college students, $4 for children 12 to 18 and free for children under 12. In addition to the permanent exhibits about Manchester’s history, the museum currently features the “New Hampshire Now” photography exhibit.
• The Aviation Museum of New Hampshire (27 Navigator Road in Londonderry; nhahs.org, 669-4820), featuring exhibits about the people and events of New Hampshire’s aviation history, will be closed for New Year’s Day but open Wednesday, Dec. 29, through Friday, Dec. 31, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Sunday, Jan. 2, from 1 to 4 p.m., and thereafter Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m. Exhibits include the annual “Festival of Holiday Toy Planes and Model Aircraft.” Admission costs $10, $5 for 65+ and children (6 to 12) and a family max of $30; children 5 and under get in free (masks are required), according to the website.
• The McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center (2 Institute Drive in Concord; starhop.com, 271-7827) is closed New Year’s Day but will be open daily through Friday, Dec. 31, and Sunday, Jan. 2, and Monday, Jan. 3, with sessions from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. The center recommends purchasing timed tickets in advance; admission costs $11.50 for adults, $10.50 for students and seniors and $8.50 for kids ages 3 to 12 (admission is free for children 2 and under; masks required for visitors over the age of 2). Planetarium show tickets are also available and cost $5 per person (free for children 2 and under); see the website for the schedule of planetarium shows.
• The Children’s Museum of New Hampshire (2 Washington St. in Dover; childrens-museum.org, 742-2002) requires pre-purchased admission (which costs $11 per person, $9 for 65+ and no charge for children under 1). The museum will be open Tuesday, Dec. 28, through Thursday, Dec. 30 (from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m.) and Sunday, Jan. 2 (from 9 a.m. to noon). Masks are required for all guests over 24 months, the website said.
The museum will hold its annual family New Year’s Eve celebration on Friday, Dec. 31. Two time slots are available to reserve, from 9 a.m. to noon or from noon to 3:30 p.m. Museum staff will stage four “countdowns to midnight,” at 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. during the morning session, and at 1:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. during the afternoon session. Everyone will receive a noisemaker and will get to create their own sparkly party hat.
Although we had a little snow on the ground for much of November and December, snow has been scarce as we move toward the new year. If this continues, does this have any consequences for our gardens? Yes, it can.
If we have bare ground and a very cold winter, roots will see colder temperatures than they might prefer. Like that pink fluffy fiberglass in the walls of our homes, snow is a great insulator. Snow holds tiny pockets of air, holding in warmth from the soil and preventing icy north winds from stealing warmth from the soil.
Lacking snow, what can one do? Fall leaves are great. If you have a leaf pile somewhere, think about moving some to spread around your most tender plants, especially things planted this year. Perennials and woody plants are most vulnerable to the cold their first winter.
I have a tree peony that I planted this year, quite a pricey plant. Unlike the common perennial peony, the stems of the plant are woody and do not die back to the ground each winter. And the blossoms are much more dramatic, up to a foot across.
I have done two things for it: I mulched around the base with chopped leaves, and I wrapped some burlap around it to protect the stem itself and the flower buds that are already in place for next summer. This will help to keep January’s cold winds from affecting it. We have done the same for tender heirloom roses, with good success. Shrub jackets made of synthetic breathable material are also available instead of making your own from burlap.
I worry about voles chewing through the burlap, nesting inside, and then eating the tender bark of my young tree peony. I had some Bobex brand deer repellent and decided to spray the burlap. It is made with rotten eggs and other nasty stuff and might deter voles.
My wife, Cindy, and I recently used burlap to prevent hungry deer from eating the leaves and branches of a pair of large yews. First I drove four 1-inch-diameter hardwood stakes into the ground around each 6-foot-tall shrub. I stood on a step ladder and used a 3-pound short-handled sledge hammer to drive the stakes in about a foot. Then we draped the burlap over the top of the stakes and stapled the burlap to hold it in place on windy days. We used a heavy-duty carpenter’s stapler, as a desk stapler would not work. We have done this before, and the deer cannot get to one of their favorite winter meals. The wrapping we did was open to the top as deer can’t reach that high, but smaller plants should be completely wrapped.
Another hazard for plants is heavy snow and ice that fall off roofs or are pushed up by snow plows. Last winter I made three A-frame plywood protectors for small shrubs to protect them. Each used four stakes and two pieces of plywood. At the top of each stake I drilled a hole and slid through both a piece of wire that connected the two stakes. This is a cheapskate’s way of avoiding the cost of hinges. And it works just fine! If the ground is not frozen, push the stakes into the soil, but if it is frozen, it should stand up fine anyway.
Later, after the holidays, recycle your evergreen tree in the garden. After I take off decorations, I use my pruners to cut off all the branches. This helps me find every last little ornament, and then I have a nice stack of evergreen branches to use around or over tender plants. The branches are good windbreaks for small shrubs, and hold snow through winter thaws as they sit over tender perennials. If you use a fake tree, watch for discarded trees waiting curbside, and snag one (or more) for use in the garden.
Composting in winter is a chore that some gardeners don’t bother doing. But you should, as it is a waste to put your moldy broccoli in the landfill. For many gardeners the compost pile is a considerable distance from the house, requiring warm coats, gloves — and perhaps snowshoes. But there is an easy solution.
Invest in an extra garbage can, a large one that will hold 30 gallons or more. Place it inconspicuously but conveniently near the house. Ideally, you have a kitchen door behind the house, and can bring food scraps to it without bundling up for the cold.
Your winter compost will freeze, and will not break down during the cold months. So chop any big things to smaller pieces to allow it to pack down well. Then, come spring, you will have to shovel the material into a wheelbarrow and bring it down to your regular compost pile after it has thawed.
Of course, commercial compost bins are available to buy instead of the Mr. Thrifty 30-gallon plastic can. But since compost does not break down outside in winter, a plastic bin may not hold all the material you produce. If you fill the first garbage can, an extra can is a smaller investment than a bin made just for compost. And those rotating bins? I’ve rarely met anyone who keeps turning them every week anyhow.
So get creative and protect your plants however you can. And if you have a great idea, write me so I can share it with others.
Featured photo:This tree peony had 10-inch-wide blossoms. Photo by Henry Homeyer.