The Winter Garden

It's now day 4 of the nasty cold and here I sit with a cup of chicken soup and a box of tissues for my ever running nose. Since venturing outside in the cold and wind is absolutely out of the question today, I've decided to blog about my winter garden.

Generally, about the end of October, I begin bringing in any plants I want to over winter. I'm a pretty frugal person and I try to save as much for next year as possible. In the spring, I'll take cuttings from the plants around March or April and begin getting them ready to go outside in June.

Our mechanical room downstairs is unheated with the exception of the hot water heater and it does have a small window for sunlight, but I supplement the light with a fluorescent shop light and in the coldest days of winter, I plug in an oil heater. About once a week, I'll check on things for bugs or if they need water, but other than that, they are pretty much on their own and if they don't make it over the winter, then so be it.

The only way I've been able to over winter the rosemary has been to keep it in a very cool room and keep it just on the dry side, but not dried out completely

The geraniums and ivy in the hanging baskets will look pretty ragged by late winter, but it's amazing how quickly they recuperate with a bit of fresh soil and Miracle Gro

The banana my son sent me three years ago is almost too big for the winter garden this year, but we'll see how he fares. I'll just have to make sure the temps in the room don't drop below 50 degrees.

I dug the dahlia bulbs earlier in the week and they will also overwinter in the winter garden. I usually pot them up in April as they sprout fairly quickly.


Outside this morning, I found one lone blossom on the William Baffin Rose! Talk about one last "Hurrah"

The Joe Pye Weed which was the beautiful, tall centerpiece of the garden is now toast after a few hard freezes. He will be one of the last to emerge from the long winter sleep next spring.


Every year, about this time, I take a picture of the arborvitae to measure how big it's gotten. When I first planted it 4 years ago, it only reached up to three of the clapboards of the house. This year, I counted 17 clapboards. It doesn't seem to be growing terribly fast, but that's a good thing since it's planted close to the house and is blocking the view of the trash cans .


We celebrated H's Italian heritage a few days ago with the Italian Sausage, and this week, I celebrate my German heritage with Pork Schnitzl, cole slaw and steamed veggies. Yum!

I finally finished my North Seas Shawl and am in the process of blocking it here. The pattern will show beautifully when it's all blocked. It was a lot of work, but I learned a few new patterns and had to concentrate on what I was doing. All things good for the old brain. Gotta keep those synapses firing!

The turkey is defrosting in the fridge and I need to get going on other preparations, but not today. I'm still not feeling all that perky!

Hope everyone has a wonderful, warm Thanksgiving.