I’d love to wax poetic about the many phases of our garden and how uniquely beautiful they are dusted in frost and peeking out from a blanket of snow.
But honestly, at this point in the year, I just cannot. Because it just is not true.
Everything within 5 feet of the driveway is ass deep in snowblower ejecta. The poor yuccas that once were a beacon of green now look like a snowman threw up on them. I took the one nice day (read: over 30 degrees and not windy) in a three week span to prune the apples and birch and take down Christmas lights. This has been and will be the extent of the gardening taking place here for at least another month- hopefully not longer.
I can’t even lounge in the greenhouse on a sunny day because I used it as a shed for the garden furniture in lieu of an actual shed.
Boo hoo.
The mid-winter lamentations have gotten exponentially worse with the advent of Instagram. You see, all the lovely British gardeners out there who have spring-like weather, crocuses, reticulated irises, and witch-hazel blooming, and are starting seeds/working at their allotments, well, they are driving me mad with envy. Worse yet are the Aussie gardeners that are deep in the throes of summer. Please stop posting lush green photos and glamour shots of seedlings & veg post haste!!!
But alas, all is not lost on this snow-covered and sunlight-deprived gardener. My veg seeds have all arrived from the lovely folks at High Mowing Organics, Seed Savers Exchange, and Baker Creek. I’ve got the veg garden plotted out and the new herb potager figured out too. We are planning the shed and pergola and I’ve got my order in for the Seed Trials. There IS forward progress, even if the garden doesn’t show it.
I’ve decided that when Monty returns to my television it is the unofficial start of spring and by my clock, we are just under a month away. That I can handle. My new seed starting trays from the UK arrived a few days ago and in about a month they will be full of dirt and seeds. The hum and early morning glow of the grow lights will literally brighten the house (and my mood). I will, once again, have dirt under my fingernails more often than not.
In about a month the snow should at least be melting.
Maybe even my witch-hazel and reticulated irises will be peeking out too.
Box & Bay 