Onward to the New Year

Well, I finally decided to update my blog. I can list all the excuses, but it boils down to this. My holiday season was ridiculously busy this year, and there's not a darn thing to see outside in my garden. December was just the drabbest month. It didn't really snow, the skies were rainy and foggy, and it was just generally dreary. Blah.

 But with the arrival of the new year came the arrival of real winter time. It's been snowing, and bitter cold, just like you'd expect from winter. Brrrrr! Sometimes I think that I'll never feel warm again.

I'm ready to finally settle into my winter cocoon. Honestly, I'm looking forward to things turning a little bit dull. You see, we just held our annual wine party last night, and I'm exhausted! Don't get me wrong, it was a blast, but now I can call my time my own. We normally hold it between Christmas and New Year's, but this year we moved it off the holiday just a bit and that turned out to be a good move. However, it means that I still haven't been able to wind down from the "holidays". I promise, today I did nothing! And it felt wonderful.

In trying to inspire myself to write about gardening, I scanned through last year's pictures for ideas. Instead, I got a little lost there in my photo files. Heavy sigh. Sometimes I can put it out my mind for awhile, but seeing all those flowers reminded me just exactly what I'm missing.

 I guess that just means that one of my first winter projects will be sorting through the seed catalogs. Oh darn.

I'm actually ahead of the game with next year's seeds. I already bought some of my favorites so that they wouldn't sell out before I got to them. After all, I couldn't do without my beloved Queen Red Lime zinnias. I wonder what other treasures I'll find.

There are a couple of other winter projects to keep me occupied, and they are actually related to gardening. That's how I keep my sanity till the garden starts blooming again. I need to gather vegetable recipes for the Master Gardener farmer's market, and I need to tweak my butterfly gardening presentation before I present it to the garden club next month. Of course there are plenty of other non-garden related craft projects too. Before I know it, the first iris reticulata will pop up, and the next garden season will begin again. I can make it.

October is Never Long Enough

How can it be November already? I feel like I barely had a chance to enjoy beautiful October.

I've seen an internet quote that sums up our love affair with October. It says "I'm glad I live in a world where there are Octobers". I'm sure we'd all agree.

Last night we had our first frost here in central Ohio. It's always a sad day for me. But I'm sure all gardeners feel that way. When that first frost threatens, I always go out on  a rescue mission. First thing to save was the beloved Queen Red Lime zinnias. I filled two vases full of my favorite blooms.

Next up was the roses. There weren't many blooms left, but I saved some of the sweetest ones. It's amazing how concentrated the fragrance is once they are inside.

I also rescued the dahlia blooms. There weren't as many flowers as usual this year. I think I just didn't pick the best varieties, because last year they were prolific.

Our first frost was a bit late this year, so that gave me a few extra weeks to enjoy the flowers. I'm sure anyone could guess how happy that made me!

But up to that darned frost last night, we were enjoying a warm and sunny spell of weather. The autumn sunlight is especially golden, and I found myself grabbing my camera at every turn. 

While the fall colors were especially bold this year, it was often rainy during those peak colors. But around my yard, I still found plenty of color, only in flower form.

Goodbye then to the most beautiful of months. Oh how I'll miss all this over the winter.

May, the Fairest of Them All

Every month has something to show in the garden. Even the winter months have interesting textures to show us. But I find May to be the fairest of them all.

Flowers bloom in earnest, the weather warms, and the garden grows.

 Excitement builds as vegetables are planted, containers are filled, and annuals go into beds.

Plants are generally green and fresh, and insect damage hasn't yet become a problem. You just have to love it! 

 The harsh, dry summer weather seems far away at this point.  It rains and rains, and everything is so green that it almost makes your eyes hurt. Maybe this will be a wet summer, it's hard to say at this point. But usually, the rains stop around June and from then on, it's a battle to keep things watered. 

 Now one of my usual favorite parts of May is when the roses begin to bloom. That first flush of blooms is always the finest. But the sad news is that our harsh winter really did a number on my rose garden, as it did in so many other areas. I'm not sure when I'll see any roses this year, if any. It's disappointing, but I'm trying to take it in stride. I've done a lot of tweaking to my rose garden, discarding the dead ones, and also those that are under performers. When my rose garden comes back to life, the theory is that it should look better than ever. In the mean time, here is what it looked like in years past.

Maybe one of the reasons that I like May so much is that it's my birthday month, and is followed quickly by Mother's Day. I can't say that I mind the attention. And it does tend to start out my favorite month with a bang.

I'm sure that others could make a strong case for their own favorites, but for me, it will be always be May, the fairest of them all.