Appreciating the Winter Season
Our gardens and flower beds in the doldrums of winter can look depressing and bleak. The barren sticks, the leaf-less trees, the bushes without their flowers … it certainly makes us eager for spring. But let’s not be too tough on winter. This season gives us time to think, plan and appreciate what the coming months have in store.
During the winter, you can dream of everything you’ll do in your spring flower beds and vegetable gardens. Think about what new flowers you might want to try, which vegetables you’ll grow from tiny seeds and where you might plant a new plot.
The winter helps us appreciate the fruits – often literally – of our gardening labors. When the blooms are gone, we miss them. It makes us eager to see those first shoots of green coming up through the ground.
This season gives us a break in that we don’t have to worry about early morning watering and fighting the never-ending battle against weeds, not to mention mulching and fertilizing. But it’s also a time to do some prep work for spring. Plants like roses need a good pruning in February and the carnage left after the first big freeze needs some attention as well. (Check out our video tutorials for guidance on winter gardening.)
So as we look at across our barren yards and lifeless trees, don’t see the “blah,” see the anticipation of what’s to come. Appreciate the seasons of our gardens and our plants and know that, especially here in the South, spring is just around the corner.