Snow - how to use it for your summer garden

In mid december the garden rest under deep snow and most gardeners just daydreams about warmer wather and digging in the garden. Besides the first snow most people dont have a lot of love for snow. But it is useful. In northern Sweden we use snow as additional insulation for our houses. Shoveled up against the foundation the snow protects waterpipes and keeps the house warmer.

(picture from google)
But, it can be even more valuable. As a passive way of collecting water.

Where there are edges snow piles up, a snowbank/pile is up to 60% water by mass/volume. If you know your land, you know the elevation and where it slants you can plan your storage of the snow so that when it turns liquid it adds moisture to where its most benefitial.

(picture from VergePermaculture)

You can add snowfences to make sure snow piles up in the places you want it. Beside accumulating snow during winter it gathers dust and things during the other seasons that adds nutrition. A natural snowfence such as trees increase the amount of snow gathered and prevents the snow from sublimation - going from frozen to mist/vapor and skipping the liquid state all together (robbing your land of the water)

(picture from VergePermaculture)

If you have swales in place as a water collection system - it slows ,spreads and let the water sink in to the land where its needed - these would be good places to pile snow. Otherwise - piling it in places where you have your garden and where the water will be the most valuable would be the way to go.

Done right, snow can be a valuable asset on your land.