The Winter Garden

Most gardening blogs don’t relate to me.  I don’t have deer, I have snails.  I don’t have 10 feet of snow in November, it’s sunny and the windows are open.  I can’t start spinach in April, it’s too dang hot.

(All links open a new page, so you won’t lose your spot when you look around!  Get information on gardening and cultural traditions, recipes, stories, and more!)

One of the reasons I decided to start this blog was because I was frustrated at the stunning lack of information for my climatic conditions.  Sure, there are deer in California.  Yes, it does snow.  Along the coast, morning fog will water your plants.  I don’t live where any of that happens.

So while the trees in some parts of the country are already bare, and the plants have died back to the ground, my garden is actually seeing a little bit of a rebirth.  The summer heat has finally faded, though it has been warmer than it really should be.  A recent storm gave a burst of moisture to the soil and refilled our water barrels.   I will continue to have roses all winter long unless it gets really cold.  Other plants will wait until the length of day tells them it is time to flower, but they will still be green in the meantime.

It is a little ironic that I decided to start a gardening blog at the end of the most productive season, rather than the beginning.  I am finding myself having to wait, rather impatiently, to gather enough photos of the various stages of each of the plants I have growing.  I want to be able to offer as much information as I can about how each one grows throughout the year.  So I guess you will just have to be patient, too!