2010 Awakes

January. Winter. Cold. Makes you want to stay indoors curled up in a comfortable chair with a cup of tea, a good book and favorite afghan thrown over your legs. I haven't been in my garden since its annual clean up and winterizing ritual and haven't thought much about it until this week. Small branches and twigs had fallen and collected in an unkempt pile in my yard so I ventured out one relatively mild day to clean them up. In the process I discovered something surprising. My daffodils, well over a hundred of them, are beginning to poke through the ground. My old (over 10 years) strawberry plant is showing signs of green under the dessicated remains of last year's growth. My stalwart sedum (I swear you can't kill this plant) is coming back again as it has for over 15 years and the tender plants that I brought into the house in the fall are showing signs of renewed vigor. It appears the growing season has quietly arrived and is in full throttle.

The lengthening of the days since the winter solstice has worked its magic on Mother Nature and she is showing her appreciation with promises of springtime while thoughts of a bountiful garden fill my head.


Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Winterizing has begun

Autumn, which was unbelievably cold and unforgiving just a week ago, has once again turned mild, albeit damp and overcast. In spite of this renewed warmth, I know winter awaits around the corner and can appear at any moment. With this in mind I have begun my annual ritual of winterizing the garden.

You might think there isn't much that needs doing in a garden once the flowers are gone and the leaves are on the ground. In my garden there are at least a dozen flower pots that need to be brought into the shed or placed out of the path of a snowblower. The same goes for the benches and the pots hanging from the fence. My children's toy wagon, in which I once hauled toddlers, pre-teens and groceries alike, now acts as my makeshift wheelbarrow. Every year I wash it, polish it with ArmorAll and cover it with heavy plastic contractor grade bags to protect it from the elements during the winter. It's my hope to have that old wagon around to haul grandchildren and grand nieces and nephews so I treat it with great care and love.

Every year I go through this winterizing ritual and when I have finally completed it, I always have the same mixed feeling of accomplishment and emptiness. The yard is cleared and ready to rest again until the next growing season, giving me a sense of accomplishment, but I miss the color, the vibrance, the life of my summer garden.

It's time to bring in the tender plants, leave the annuals to die back and salivate over the offerings in my garden nursery catalogs. Winter's approach may have chased me indoors but I'm planning the strategy for my next horticultural attack. I'm thinking less flowers, more vegetables, perhaps some gourds for fall decorating. Hmmm, I'd better rest up this winter. There's much work to be done next spring.

Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Garden Abundance

(Note: Click on an image for a larger view)
I predicted abundance for this growing season and so far I have not been disappointed. My floral show has been excellent and today I picked my second "crop" of strawberries. I have never gotten more than six or seven strawberries a year out of my many plants but this year I have been able to pick several dozen so far and there are more on the way. I am hoping for similar results with the few vegetables I have planted. My clematis has made itself at home (with some help from me) in the trellis I installed last year in the memorial garden. I've planted some new flowers this year that I've never had before and they are progressing nicely. On the down side, the same conditions that are favorable for my flowers are favorable for weeds and I find myself pulling out more acacia and maple seedlings than ever before, not to mention the blanket straw, crabgrass, etc.

Regardless, I expect to enjoy my garden this year as in years past but this year there is a twist. We have adopted an adorable and energetic 1 year old beagle named Marla. She loves being outdoors and has expressed herself by running through the daffodils at breakneck speed, completely uprooting and killing one of my new bleeding heart plants and digging at every available opportunity. Needless to say Marla is no longer permitted in my back yard. It remains to be seen how Marla and my garden get along in the future. Time will tell.


Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Nature's Sucker Punch

(Note: Click on an image for a larger view)

Last fall, I posted an entry on my main blog, Gitana's Corner, that discusses that contradictory energy I encountered in my garden last year. (You can read more about it here.) Well, it would seem that Mother Nature is not yet done with her temporal shenanigans.

Here in New York, we enjoyed temperatures in the low 50's for much of last week, inspiring me to begin pulling back the mulch on a section of my front garden. I was delighted to see so much new growth poking up through the ground. What surprised me was that I saw what appeared to be nascent daffodils and tulips, flowers I did not expect to see for a few more weeks. The tiny crocuses that I normally see at this time of year were not apparent. (To be honest, I didn't remove the mulch in their part of the garden yet. Perhaps they are there waiting for me to "pull back the sheets", so to speak.) At any rate I convinced myself that winter was over and spring would be early, in spite of the inner voice that told me otherwise, so I resolved to return to the garden over the weekend to complete the mulch removal. The siren song of my garden was calling and I was anxious to respond.

How foolish of me to second guess Mother Nature. She showed us all her capricious side by dumping a snowstorm on the NY metropolitan area on Sunday night, so much so that the city's schools were closed on Monday. There was nearly a foot of snow piled on my garden. As the ice melted and refroze, it created huge icicles around my house. (Take a look at the stalagtites hanging from my air conditioner.) Fortunately I had not gotten around to removing any more of the mulch so most of my garden was still under a protective layer of leaves. This was a valuable lesson for me. It taught me once again not to ignore that little voice that speaks to me from within. It always speaks the truth and to ignore it is to risk regretting your actions. I can only hope that my nascent flowers will weather this storm well and live to bloom another day.

Ballo ergo sum,
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Roundabout

I have a lot of glass in my house...glass tables, glass shelves, large mirrors, french doors, glass entry, blah blah blah. Yesterday I decided to clean it all. There are two glass etageres in my den that are loaded down with plants which meant I had to remove the plants in order to clean the shelves they were sitting on. While deciding where to start on the shelves, I remembered that I had several plants that needed repotting so I shifted gears and began transplanting two Christmas cacti and an ivy. From transplanting I moved on to watering, trimming off dead leaves and other general plant maintenance. In a trice the cleaning of shelves was abandoned in favor of my plants.

Funny thing about repotting plants. Once you have completed the move from one pot to another, the plant seems to relax. I don't mean relax as in get droopy and sad (although that can happen at times). I mean relax as in a cessation of the tension of being crowded, similar to the feeling one has upon exiting a crowded train or elevator. I swear I can almost hear them sigh with relief.

The fact that these plants were in need of transplanting so early in the year is another indication to me that this year's spring will be abundant. Time will tell if my prediction proves to be correct.

Ballo ergo sum,
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Life Persists

For me, one of the joys of gardening is the incredible amount of information I receive from my plants. Yes, information. If you know how to "read" your plants you can learn a lot. The concept is the same as learning to "read" a person...you pick up on subtle clues that give you insight into information that may not be common knowledge.

It is winter now. Today, in fact, it is snowing, with forecasts promising 2 -3 inches of accumulation. I was out in my shed/greenhouse today, trying to get my snowblower started when I decided to clear out the dead remains of the plants that had flourished there during the warmer months. The scene was a depressing tangle of brittle vines, dessicated stems and dead leaves hanging from pots and sticking up from planters. As the snow fell outside and I cleared out the dead plants, I happened to casually glance at one pot standing in a corner, one of the few that had no dead plants needing to be cleaned out. There was nothing special about it, just a pot with dirt in it, but a little voice told me to take a closer look. There, in at least a half dozen places, were the nascent leaves of bulbs poking through the surface. Even here, in the midst of a winter storm, life persists. Spring, in all her glory, will once again fulfill her annual promise of color and beauty.

This was not the only sign of winter's eventual end. Last week I saw new greening in the sedum in my front garden. Just the fact that I had the urge to clear out the old growth at this early date (I usually do this in early to mid spring) is an indication to me that we may have if not an early spring than perhaps an abrupt spring, with the weather changing suddenly from cool to warm all at once.

My garden is a source of great pleasure. In the weeks and months ahead I will share with you the "conversations" I have with my plants and my interpretation of the information they share with me.

Ballo ergo sum,
- Gitana, the Creative Diva