Winter Gardening

Right now, my garden needs some attention!

Even though it is winter and cold with most everything lying dormant, there is still much to do. I still have the shells of some annuals that need to be pulled and composted. And then there are some holes that the dratted dog has dug that need to be filled in. I also like to turn everything under in the annual beds and put a little leaf litter on top just to put a “blanket” on them.

Never mind the bulbs that can be put in now and the Irises that can be broken up. Even my butterfly bushes haven’t been cut back yet. And I’d really like to move a rose bush.

But, instead of putting on jeans and gloves and my gardening belt with all my fun tools and heading out, I’m stuck inside on homework for a class I’m taking.

Sigh

When I’m dreaming of what I could be doing, I think about starting seeds and setting up my light table. It is still a bit early for that and I’m counting the days until the first of February – when I usually get started. Hopefully I’ll get to those other things that need doing by then as well.

Meloff??

Well, Meloff is short for Melissa officinalis which doesn’t translate into the “official Melissa.” Well . . . maybe it does. But it is also the botanical name for a garden favorite of mine, Lemon Balm.

My actual garden favorite is the humble Bee Balm, but being named Monarda didyma, it just doesn’t seem like as good a name for a blog.

I love both. Lemon balm smells and tastes good and bee balm is beautifully simple and attracts bumblebees and butterflies of all sorts.

Here are some of my other garden favorites:

• Coreopsis

• Marigolds (yes! I even love the smell!)

• Zinnias

• Roses

• Lantana (it will grow when almost nothing else will in the hot, dry summer!)

• Pansies – which are my favorites from childhood. There’s nothing like a sweet, little pansy face nodding at you in a gentle spring breeze.

• Vinca

• Mint

• Sweet Peas

• Snapdragons

• Butterfly bushes

• Echinacea

• Bridal Ivy

• Jasmine

Okay, I’ll have to stop here – a little one needs attention. But truly, I haven’t met a plant I didn’t like. Except vetch. Even morning glories are beautiful and honeysuckle is fun to pull the flowers off and slurp the nectar from. Well, add to my dislike list all the poisons – ivy, sumac, oak. They spread waaaayy too easily and sure can ruin some summer fun.

Life is a Garden

For a long time I’ve wanted to start a blog – I’m as egocentric as everyone else! But, from time to time I like to muse “out loud”, as it were, about life and how much it is like a garden. It constantly takes work to get rid of the weeds. I’m not talking about the pretty or useful weeds – that in other gardens are called “herbs” or “wild flowers.” I mean the real weeds – like vetch, kudzu, and honeysuckle. Which can look or even smell pretty, but choke the life out of all they grow up beside.

I also like to muse just about gardening! It is my favorite hobby that I have the least time for.

Sigh!

Right now, although it is below freezing, I have lettuce, chard, beets, carrots and peas struggling for existence in my back yard, raised beds. I haven’t had hardly anytime to even LOOK at them with the Christmas holidays. But yesterday I went out to harvest some before the freeze hit and I was able to gather late cilantro (which went right into some guacamole), chard, carrot thinnings and some of the hugest kohlrabi I’ve ever seen. I wonder if letting them grow so long will make them bitter. I’ll let you know.