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Winter Garden Delights
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NOTES FROM FRAN

After the holidays, winter seems to last a very long time.  Once decorations are put away and the rush is over, we still lead busy lives but are wanting to see something GREEN.  This page is designed to be your escape from winter, so let's get started on some ideas and projects that we can do to chase away the chill.

BUT FIRST.....
tulips.jpg (42855 bytes) THINK SPRING!!

PLAN YOUR GARDEN IN WINTER 

By early January, you should have a fresh stack of seed catalogs.  That is a good start to planning your spring garden.  While that snow is falling, sit down with some hot chocolate, and decide what flowers and vegetables you want to try, or perhaps write a shopping list for some trays and potting mix to start your seeds when they arrive.  


GROW SOMETHING GREEN INDOORS
Try growing sprouts in a bright window for the most instant gratification....in four days you will have edible greens that are great for salads, and healthy snacks.  My favorite sprouts recipe:  Spread some cream cheese on your favorite cracker, then add some sprouts on top of the cream cheese.  That's it.  Easy, delicious, and healthy too!  You could also sprout lettuce in clean potting soil on a bright window sill.   

FILL YOUR HOME WITH SCENTS OF SPRING  
If you're wanting the smells of spring to delight your senses, purchase hyacinth or paperwhite bulbs, and plant them in pots around Thanksgiving.  Then you can celebrate the New Year with blossoms and fragrance. 

A vase of store-bought flowers will bring spring to your table.  Save petals and dried buds for a beautiful potpourri.   My good friend T'Mara, writes her recipe for a lovely assortment of color and fragrance:

Simple Potpourri for Dummies*
*Or for the lazy, or for the winter-weary....

STEP I:   Buy some roses at the grocery store. You deserve them.

STEP II:  Take them home, arrange them, and enjoy them.

STEP III:  They will usually begin to dry up while still on the stem.    Remind yourself that there IS something good about dry indoor air in winter!    Put them somewhere out of the way if they look too ugly.  Pick off whole flowers (or buds, which should stay intact) along with some leaves for color, and store them with good ventilation until completely dry.

STEP IV:  Repeat above as often as desired.

NOTES:   Fragrance oil can be added when potpourri is completely dry.  Don’t let oil prices mislead you.   Many of the cheaper oils are so diluted that they are not a good value. “Greenleaf” is my overwhelming favorite, and “Seasons, Inc.” is also a good brand.
My sister puts the above potpourri in large kitchen storage bags and uses it as packing material in gift boxes.   It’s attractive, useful, biodegradable, and acts as an extra gift.

-
-T'Mara Freise--T'Mara Freise

FEELING CREATIVE?
Press flowers or leaves between book pages or use a    flower press.  The dried flowers and leaves can be used for notecards and many other projects.

ENJOY A TASTE OF SUMMERTIME
When I really miss summertime, I whip up something to remind me of summer.  I happen to like peaches, and just the smell takes me to summer.  I like peach tea, brewed from loose peach tea, and poured over a glass with ice.   Lemonade works too.
Another thing that we enjoy is a pound cake or angel food cake topped with fresh, previously frozen, or preserved spring and summer fruits, like strawberries, blueberries, peaches, and blackberries. 
    

Dehydrated or frozen vegetables can also add a burst of summertime to any meal.   I dehydrate cherry tomatoes and vacuum packed them away to enjoy in the winter, with my favorite pasta.  Dehydrating tomatoes really concentrates their sweetness!  Also those peppers stored in the freezer, especially the jalapenos, make spicy poppers for winter snacking.  I enjoy homemade jalapeno jelly over biscuits to warm up the coldest of days!  Visit the Recipes section of this website to find out how to make them. 

GOOD READS
When you get burned out on seed catalogs and are looking for inspiration, enjoy a good garden book or magazine.

For days when you have only time for a few paragraphs a day, 365 Days of Gardening, by Christine Allison, will inspire you with more than 1,000 terrific facts, tips, and reminders," something for every day of the year.

Passalong Plants, by Bender and Rushing, is another treat.  This book is dedicated to plants that have been around a long time, and are easy to grow and pass along either by seed or cuttings, from generation to generation, friend to friend, garden to garden.

The Good Herb, by Judith Benn Hurley, is a favorite that makes the best use of precious reading time.  Here, you have the best of all worlds, as the author describes 45 popular herbs, each with lore, cosmetic and healing uses, growing information, and cooking...along with a few recipes.

It is always nice to get a favorite magazine in the mail, especially in winter!  How about Garden Gate, Fine Gardening, or Organic Garden, to name three of my own favorites!

JOIN A GARDEN CLUB
To foster your garden interests and share ideas and information, a garden club is very fulfilling.  You will meet other gardeners that have different levels of expertise and knowledge to share.  And you can do the same.  Informative programs, flower shows, and various activities which you can be a part of, all year long.  

Five Good Things About Winter
       
by T'mara Goodsell Friese


Like many Northerners, I used to spend winter days looking through catalogs and longing for plants too warm for my zone.  Broad-leafed evergreens sounded wonderful.   And shrubs that actually bloomed in winter?  Unbelievable.

Now I live in Zone 8, and I'm ashamed to say that the grass on the ol' southern side of the fence doesn't look quite so green anymore.  I'm not saying it isn't perfectly wonderful, mind you, but just that I miss the northern side of the fence from time to time.  As someone who has shoveled frozen snow until my hands seemed to grow into bonsai-shovel-holding-claws, that's a shock.  Here are a few things I miss:

1.  Real seasons give you more variety.   You may be saying, "Duh" right now, but I hadn't really thought of it that way.  I used to love the view off my deck in every season up North.  Like an ever-changing painting, it was stark, contemporary neutrals in winter; impressionistic pastels in spring; lush, neo-classic jewel tones in summer, and warm, mosaic brights in fall.  Here, my back yard is green, then less green, then green again.

2.  Snow is cozy, as long as you're not shivering in it.  There's that magical moment after a "snow day" is announced--after the children stop cheering and before they slop slush all over the floor for the tenth time--which feels as though being stranded at home with nothing pressing to do is a gift.  And what's more, winter means what a friend from Wisconsin calls "Indoor Time."  Time to redecorate, read, snuggle.  Time to plan next year's garden.

3.  Not all plants grow in warm climates.  I used to think a warmer zone meant a much bigger variety of plants.   Although the winters are less brutal in a more southerly zone, summers can be more brutal.  So there aren't necessarily more plants, just different ones.  Some beloved favorites--like lilacs, lilies of the valley, peonies and delphiniums--need either some winter chill or cooler temperatures in order to do well.  Tropical gardens are lovely.  But so are cottage gardens.  Which one is most exotic really does depend on which one you see the least.

4.  Seasons aren't better down South, just different.  "Seasons are sort of switched here,"a friend from Louisiana explained.  Some things might bloom in winter, but other things may go dormant in the summer heat.  It's tempting to garden in the winter, when the temperatures are bearable, and spend the long days of summer shut up in the air conditioning, away from the bugs.

5.  The harder the winter, the more wonderful the spring.  It's true.  I used to want to do a May dance of sorts when the crocus came up and the air carried that green smell for the first time.  In the South, it's a little hard to say exactly when spring arrives.   It doesn't give the feeling of rebirth and renewal that it does in the North.   There can't be an awakening if nothing has slept in the first place. 

So is the grass really greener up north?  In a literal sense?  No.  And yes.  It really depends on the season.  True, it's possible to overseed with winter rye to have a green lawn all winter where I live, but summer is a different story.  Warm season grasses don't have the soft, dark green lushness of cool season grasses.  And Southern lawns have to battle more pests and diseases that don't get killed off by the coldest temperatures.  Is the grass greener in a figurative sense?  Same thing.

Funny how I always learn something from my garden, even if the lesson is a tough one.  Hope y'all are enjoying the season, no matter which one it is.  :o)

 

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Any suggestions or questions?
Send them to Fran at homegardener@yahoo.com