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Gardeners and their Gardens

Winter has finally made its debut here. Temperatures have plummeted, winds have picked up and sleet, snow and ice are blanketing the city. Winter weather advisories have taken over the news reports and schools are reminding parents to check for possible closings over the next few days. The weather is terrible and I love it because it’s the perfect excuse to curl up in my favorite fireplace chair and plan a trip to visit a few of the most beautiful gardens around the world. 

The first week of January always brings out an almost obsessive need to clean and organize my surroundings in preparation for the new year ahead. I usually attack the closets first and then move into the basement and garage storage in a frenzied attempt to achieve organizational nirvana. It drives my poor husband crazy because the “little help” I request from him usually turns into hours of unanticipated and unwelcome work as well as some unexpected expense.

A few close friends and I were having coffee the other morning when the conversation drifted off to holiday gift-giving and how difficult it can  be to find that exactly “right” gift for the “right” person. We started reminiscing about some of the gifts we have received through the years, usually from our husbands. Some were sweet, some were strange and some were absolutely hilarious.

It never ceases to amaze me how much work there is left to do in my gardens in November. Even though the blooms are long gone and the foliage is a squishy shade of greenish-gray, I need to motivate myself to bundle up, get outside and get to work. There are 10 chores that, if done now, will make my spring garden thrive.

As soon as I hit the send button last week, I realized that there was more to think about in our look at native plants.  We need to discuss invasive plants vs. non-native, or introduced, plants. It seems there's confusion about which plants are safe to use in the landscape and which aren’t. 

In all of the research I have been doing over the last few weeks, I keep coming back to the same conclusion: the key to a successful urban cutting garden is thoughtful planning before planting. I know that in most cases we talk about careful planning, but for this project the decisions we make before we begin, guide how we proceed. 

As much as I appreciate the precision of the classification system for research, there are only a few soil types that we really need to know and understand in order to be successful in our own yards. Those four main soil types are sand, silt and clay which, when the previous three are mixed together, form the fourth type, loam. Each has a different texture, different characteristics and often different colors.

One of my neighbors stopped by a few weeks ago to comment on our yard. “Seeing all the flowers in bloom,” she said, “made her feel like spring was right around the corner.” I have to admit that as much as I appreciated and understood her intent, her compliment made me cringe inside. You see, she was seeing my snowdrops, daffodils and crocus all in bloom at the same time. Yes, it made for a color-filled late February bed, but they should have been blooming in succession; that’s what Mother Nature intended.