Winter arrived with a blast of cold. It blanketed the garden in little crystals and frozen bird baths each morning for a week.
A final whisper from the north to the garden: “go to sleep.”
We have learned to let the garden stand instead of conducting an end-of-season clean up. The dead stalks provide cover from the cold for the future growth below.
While we have had some nice December rainfall, the total still put us at “average”; nowhere close to what we need to begin a recovery from our prolonged drought. I wish there were a way to relieve the rest of the country of the water that inundates them. Mother Nature is a fickle mistress.
They say the El Nino is now upon us. In a supreme act of faith, I completed raising the beds to protect them from the flooding they say will ensue –
and buried a shelter in Ina’s garden for our feral kitty. Shhh…don’t tell Ina. (Note to my sister, the cat rescuer, yes…our country cats have been neutered or spayed and have plenty of warm spaces to shelter with extra food and water.)
The holiday pines were recycled to mulch, and to provide the blueberries with the acid they crave.
And the birds are well fed.
In the next few weeks, we will prune the roses…all 43 of them…and the grapes.
Until then…we wait. And listen for the rain.
Gardens For Goldens 