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 on anything that grows leaves and flowers. GBH's Morning Edition asked you, our audience, for your weather and gardening questions, and Dave graciously answered them on the air. This transcript has been edited for clarity.
Have a gardening or weather question for meteorologist Dave Epstein? Tweet him
@GrowingWisdom, email us at
thewakeup@wgbh.org, or text 617-300-2008.
What is the Thanksgiving Day forecast for Boston?
To quote Morning Edition co-host Paris Alston: The weather will be dry, but hopefully the turkey won’t.
“We've really been in this amazing pattern here with dry weather,” Epstein said. “November is going to go down, most likely, as a drier-than-average month.”
As people travel to their Thanksgiving destinations Wednesday, they can expect highs in the 50s, mostly clear skies and some light winds, Epstein said.
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Temperatures will fall into the 20s overnight, meaning Thanksgiving Day turkey trots and football games may have to contend with frozen ground. Temperatures will hover around the high 30s at 10 a.m., when most games kick off.
“If they're playing on turf, obviously it's not frozen. But if you're on grass fields, the field will be frozen tomorrow morning,” he said.
By Thursday afternoon, expect highs in the 40s and sunshine.
Friday will see some showers move into the Boston area between 3 and 9 p.m., with highs in the 50s.
Epstein said Boston can again expect highs in the 50s both Saturday and Sunday, with clear skies Saturday and rain moving in Sunday morning and afternoon.
“So if folks are heading home or you're sending your kids back up to college, they will be driving in rain, but there's no snow anywhere in New England,” Epstein said. “So that's the good news.”
What's still growing, and how to protect plants as winter arrives
For the first time in years, Epstein said, he won’t be cooking Thanksgiving dinner himself. But he will be bringing applesauce made with apples he picked from a local farm, he said.
“I've just been enjoying a lot of this Russian red kale from the garden still. It's just so hearty,” he said. “Even though we have these frosty nights, I've been picking in the afternoon and made a nice little salad with some Asian pears last night.”
New England container garden, I still have some sage hanging on. Is it smart to move it to the basement for the winter, do I leave it as is outside
— grapejuice (@welchie70) November 23, 2022
Epstein said he tries to leave container gardens outside so they can be watered naturally by rain and snow. But there are some ways to provide natural insulation and protect it from critters.
“You can cover it with a ton of leaves,” he said. “If you put the pot maybe surrounded by, let's say, some sort of cage, even a little fencing, and then throw tons of leaves on it, especially good oak leaves that are light and fluffy, it'll make it through the winter pretty well.”
Should you leave pumpkins and gourds outside?
Beth from Newport, who has been baking with pumpkins, asked about saving scraps for wildlife that will eat them.
It can be tempting to draw in local critters, but feeding wildlife is never a good idea, Epstein said.
“I've actually got a couple of pumpkins from Halloween on the front steps. They've got to go in the compost pile,” he said. “You really shouldn't feed wildlife. I mean, that's the bottom line.”
