Merry Christmas to all  

Heading South

Tomorrow we head off on our “southern sleigh ride.” There will be a night at Walatoola, Christmas in Chattanooga, the new home of friends in Pell City, AL and then settling in with family in Daytona Beach, FL until mid-January. Since my sister-in-law, Anne and her husband, Ronnie, run a nursery near Daytona, I suspect there will be grist for the garden blog while I am away. I am working hard to learn my palm tree varieties.

In the meantime rejoice in the winter solstice and the promise it holds.

the Christmas cactus 

Oh Tannenbaum

I love the smell of green in the house.  Just when it gets too cold to be outdoors, we bring the outdoors in.

The tree is waiting to come inside. 

The garden is resting ~Patience Brewster, Illustrator

Let it snow ...

The snow caught me by surprise this morning.  I was so glad that I had taken in the tools and pulled the last few carrots yesterday.  It was a lovely day and I got the chores done without too much fuss.  I’m still working with a cast for my foot so it was a little awkward and LOTS slower.  But the gate is closed on another season.  The snow blankets the beds like a down comforter.  Let winter begin.

Closing the gate until spring 

winterberry against a bright blue sky 

Covered spinach 

Ahhhh the aroma ! 

Experimentation

Well I was inspired by the warm weather the past few days to try some experiments. First the artichoke has been a disappointment. It didn’t even get to sending up a stalk. There were just a bunch of spiky leaves. Though they are a perennial, they are not hardy in my zone (5a) but with lots of covering and the luck of a not too cold winter, I might be able to get this one to come back next spring.

The saga of the spinach continues. I HAVE harvested a few leaves this fall, but it has not been a winning fall crop. So I covered it with a little fabric and am hoping that I might over winter them. One bed has 16 plants and the other has four plants. I weeded the beds thoroughly ( weeding felt REALLY good to do after such a long break ) and then put all my leftover spinach seed in where there weren’t any plants. Tune in next March for a full report.

The one other task that I do when the weather softens this time of year is I like to gather pine needles to put in the pathways between the raised beds. I put some down on other pathways this spring and they did a good job of holding down the weeds.