Beach Dreams

It's been a long winter, blah, blah, blah. You've heard it all before, right? Well, it's hard to keep up a garden blog during the winter anyway, let alone a winter like this one. Instead of focusing on snowflakes, or the dried brown twigs remaining from last year's garden, I decided to mostly just ride it out till the garden really does return. But now and then, I get the urge to dig back through my photos to remember warmer days. Today, I wanted to revisit all my favorite beaches, starting in my hometown.

 I grew up in a small town on the shores of Lake Michigan, called St. Joseph. Most locals simply call it. St. Joe. It's a charming little tourist beach town, attracting people from all over, but mostly in summer. I'm pretty sure they roll up the sidewalks in winter, even though there are things to enjoy in every season. I have to admit that I haven't been back to see it in winter for many, many years. But they recently installed a webcam that points right at the lighthouse, and through that, I have once again been able to see the raw beauty of the beach in winter. However, I'd much to prefer to visit in summer, like this.

Every year, I take at least one trip up there. These days, I'm a tourist there like any other. I do have some friends and family still in the area, but mostly I go there just to see the sights. Most importantly, I go for the beach. I'm not a big sun bather, I just like to be at the beach. I want to hear the waves roll in and feel the sand under my feet. It soothes me.

 Still, I can enjoy other beaches too. St. Joe is on the west coast of Michigan, but there are many other lovely beach towns along those same shores, including South Haven,

Manistee,

 Holland,

 Muskegon,

Ludington,

Whitehall,

 Sleeping Bear Dunes, and many others. Did you figure out by now that I have a particular fondness for lighthouses?

While Michigan beaches may be my favorites, we do sometimes visit more tropical beaches. I do love those too, just in a different way. One of our favorite spots is Marco Island, off the SW coast of Florida.

We also love Siesta Key,

and Sanibel Island.

So even though these beaches seem so very far away right now, it soothes me to look back at them while winter still lingers. Someday soon I hope my beach dreams will turn to reality.

How a Gardener Survives Winter

It's been a tough winter throughout much of the country. We've had record cold, and record snowfalls. It's enough to make a gardener crazy! I find winters difficult to tolerate anyway, but the extra, extra cold temperatures have made it all the worse.

Normally I can tolerate winter with some coping techniques I've perfected. First, I find that I do better if I go right out into the snowy weather and take pictures. Not this year, the arctic cold keeps me inside.

 I also make sure to visit Franklin Park Conservatory to see the greenery. Haven't done that yet, still too frigid and the roads are too icy. Sigh...

Another thing to make winter more tolerable is to visit the floral departments at big box stores. They have blooming plants of all kind, and bringing one home is a sure fire spirit lifter. I did purchase one tiny grocery store primrose plant, but I need more to overcome this spell of bad weather.

One of my favorite sanity savers is to go through the seed catalogs that bombard our mailboxes this time of year. This is my chance to plan my garden for the year. Not sure why I haven't started this project yet. Maybe I need to have complete cabin fever before I do.

But my favorite way to make the winter go by more quickly is to simply go through my picture files from last summer.

Just by looking at them, I know that winter will eventually end. It will be warm again, someday.

I find myself smiling the whole time I'm looking at them.

Now I know that summer comes every year. Winter always ends, followed by spring, then summer. This we all know is true. It's just a little hard to believe with a winter like this.

Looks like I'd better use all my best tricks to survive this kind of winter with my sanity intact. Guess it's time to get out those seed catalogs and start planning!

Some Survivors

The polar vortex did not stay very long, thank goodness. It got down to ten below zero here, but within a week it was in the 50's. Sixty degree rise in one week! The day before the cold arrived found blizzard conditions nearby in Indiana and Michigan. Honestly, I was hoping the snow would come here too, to protect my garden from the upcoming frigid temps. But no such luck. And I doubted that the snow dust on the ground would provide one bit of protection. I went out today to check on things. Imagine my surprise to find Miss Ladybug moving around. She's a tough one!

Now I know that many of the plants won't come up till spring, or even begin to show life for months. But many of the cold lovers obviously shrugged off the recent cold snap. Looks like I'll have plenty of foxgloves to enjoy.

I'm pretty sure these are my Starry Night violas. I think they laughed at the cold.

Heucheras are another plant that shrugs off the cold. For the most part, these remain green and vital all winter. They will occasionally droop when snow flattens them, but they just pop right back up afterwards. The first one is the original plain green, often called coral bells. It never flinches. The second is a new-to-me variety called Circus, and even though it's a bit squashed, I see new growth in the middle. I just planted it last summer, so I don't yet know its habits.

 I was surprised to see the cold weather hellebores didn't hold up as well as I had hoped. You can see in the lower left that the foliage browned a bit, but I always trim off the old leaves anyway at the end of winter. Even though there is a lot of winter brown foliage in this corner, for the most part, it's a good example of how to plan for winter interest. There are various colors and textures here, including the pine roping I used to cover my empty window boxes. I'll leave them in place till it's time to plant pansies, which should be in late March.

Funny how the arborviteas and ajuga lining the front walk look little different than they did in the fall. Again, the ajuga is flattened a bit, but still interesting to look at even in winter. The fall coloring holds till spring when everything greens.

Since the weather has softened slightly, many of the spring bulbs have decided to peek out. Slow down little guys, spring is a long way off!

I always know I'll see little rosettes at the base of the Sedum Autumn Joy. It's one of my favorite signs of the upcoming spring. To me, these little "cabbages" symbolize a gardeners hope for spring.

Moonshadow euonymus is another plant that looks good year round. It can grow a little crazy if you don't rein it in now and then, but it's easily done with a few snips. Obviously, it didn't mind the cold a bit.

Ornamental grasses are one of my favorite ways to leave something to look at in winter. Technically, the foliage is already "dead" so I knew the cold wouldn't affect them a bit. The Karly Rose pennisetum is pretty beat up from the winter winds, but I still like how it looks. The miscanthus looks lovely, even in the winds. I had flowers in my patio urns during the summer, but I thought I'd sub in these small grasses for winter. I've lost the name tag for them, but they have held up quite well.

But the main attraction for me in winter is the sedum Angelina that I have scattered about everywhere. If you live in a cold, but low snow cover area like I do, it's just the thing for winter interest. It looks nice and green in summer, and might even bloom a little. But the best part is the glow it provides once it gets cold. Even after the polar vortex, it still shines all around my patio.

Glad to see some survivors out there, but we'll see what happens when spring arrives. I hope the rest of my plants do as well as these.