Meteorologist Dave Epstein is our go-to person for pressing weather questions on everything from winter blizzards to summer droughts. He’s also a horticulturist, meaning he’s an expert in anything that grows leaves and flowers. GBH's Morning Edition asked our audience for weather and gardening questions, and Epstein graciously answered them on the air.
Have a gardening or weather question for meteorologist Dave Epstein? Tweet him
@GrowingWisdom, email us at
thewakeup@wgbh.org, or text 617-300-2008.
I need some serious help. My wife is threatening to pave or astro-turf our yard if I don't get rid of the moss infestation. We have well water, so I try to use only organic products. By the fall, the moss came roaring back. Any suggestions short of cutting down the trees that help give us clean air? —Mike
It’s easy, Epstein said: Leave the moss and try and learn to enjoy it.
“I don't know why people hate that stuff. It's like this beautiful natural green cover, so why not leave it?” he said. “Clearly that's what wants to grow there. And, short of cutting the trees down, because I'm assuming since there's moss growing, moss tends to grow in shady environments.”
Is spring weather here?
With flowers and bloom and back-to-back days in the 60s and 70s, more people are feeling like it’s spring. But the season has already been here, Epstein said.
“Yesterday, Logan [Airport] hit 73 degrees, the warmest temperature we have seen so far this year — a full 10 degrees above average,” Epstein said. “Spring actually arrived, climatologically, back on March 1.”
So far, April in Boston is 1.6 degrees warmer than average.
“It's never going to be completely clear skies and springtime ahead. It has been springtime,” he said.
What are you planting in your garden right now?
“Peas are in, fava beans are in, a lot of lettuces in and up,” Epstein said. “I put some stuff under cover, late in the winter, not realizing quite how warm it was going to be.”
Epstein said he's already harvesting some Russian red kale, a lettuce-like variety he likes on sandwiches.
In general, when should I be thinking about putting seedlings in the ground?
It depends on what seedlings you’re looking at, he said. Cool-weather crops will thrive right now.
“If you went to a garden center and you wanted to put in broccoli, kale, cauliflower, any other of the greens, they can all go in at this point,” he said. “In terms of seeds, you want to start peas in the ground, you want to start carrots in the ground, radishes you want to start in the ground. And those can also be started at this point.”
Epstein said you can hold off on basil, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and other warmer weather crops for now.